The Samurai Shodown/Spirits series is a classic fighting game franchise. Introducing weapon based gameplay into the 2D fighting genre during its earliest days, the revered series surprisingly has few bad apples attributed to it. Samurai Shodown V (Samurai Spirits Zero in Japan) is definitely one of the better entries. Interestingly, its also the first major fighting game made by Examu, who would later go on to develop Arcana Heart and Aquapazza. The game has some problems, such as a few overpowered characters. However, most of the critics cited didnt even deal with that. Instead, the main complaint was that it was too hard for beginners. It was also criticised for being a dated looking game released in the later part of the Xboxs life-cycle. Both are rather unfair. It was released as a budget title with online support added in (the version released as part of the Samurai Shodown Anthology on PS2 didnt include online play). Likewise, its a 2D fighter. They can tend to be complex, but not that hard! Regardless, SSV isnt the greatest of the series, but its not at all such a bad game that it deserves a 58.