In 2007, James Silva and his independent game company Ska Studios won Microsoft’s Dream-Build-Play game development competition with their entry, The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. Two years later, their side-scrolling, hack-and-slash title is available for purchase through Xbox Live Arcade. This interesting but extremely difficult game goes to show what is possible with Microsoft XNA.

Gameplay

The Dishwasher story is played out similar to classic Martial Arts films of the past. You play as an unnamed Dishwasher, who also happens to be a well trained Samurai. It seems as though his sister has been ‘kidnapped’ by an unknown group and he is out to find her and destroy those he feels are at fault. The game’s story is told out through short comic strips at key points. As you progress, you will learn more about our hero, his family and his ultimate goal. To be honest, the story isn’t that great, nor does it make a lot of sense, but it does try to give you a reason to play.

 

Your journey will see you battle it out in various locations such as a cemetery, a train yard and numerous abandoned buildings. As you trek through the story, you will also encounter a variety of different enemies including suited henchmen, commandos and even some un-dead characters.

Combat is the name of the game and you will do a lot of it. Thankfully there is a lot of variety in your attacks and the controls work really well. As with most hack-and-slash games, you will have your basic and strong attacks which do varying damage and can be used both on the ground and in the air. Also available is a grab attack which is necessary to defeat certain enemies. When an enemy becomes weak, you’ll sometimes be able to deal a finishing blow. If you hit the right button that hovers over the character, you will be given a small execution clip and rewarded with extra health and other pickups.

As you progress through the game, you will unlock other abilities including stronger weapons and magic that can easily destroy surrounding enemies. Your arsenal, magic and health can be increased as you play the game, something that you will want to do as you progress through the game’s story.

While the story mode contains 15 chapters, each of varying lengths, there are some problems that you will encounter as you progress. First off, The Dishwasher is not an easy game. Regardless of the difficulty you select when you first start playing, you will be challenged every step of the way. The screen can fill up quickly with the various foes and each one of them requires a different strategy in order to dispose of them. You will have enemies in jet-packs that can only be killed one way and then there will be bad guys that can drop bombs that deal vicious amounts of damage. It will take time to learn the different strategies to handle each enemy and the frustration may turn off most short-tempered people.

The other gripe with the story, especially early on, is that there are often sections where no action occurs. Within each chapter, each section contains small areas and in some of them, you do absolutely nothing other than walk to the end of the screen to load up the next part. It is kind of odd that these sections exist. Yes, it’s nice to have a little breather after going to your limit in the previous room, but in some situations, you want the battles to continue from the beginning of the level until the end.

Graphics and Sound

The art design for the levels is really cool with some really nice use of colors. It is far from a colourful game but the strong use of various shades of red and gray really stand out. Some might fault that environments lack the flare that grabs your attention, but the minimalist nature of certain parts really helps the game’s atmosphere. I really enjoyed the blood splatters that occur during your execution moments which can fill up your TV screen. There are a few moments of graphical hiccups, especially when the screen is filled with enemies, but nothing too serious.

The game does have a cool soundtrack, which unfortunately is very limited. The game’s main music, which sounds fitting and similar to martial arts films of the 70s and 80s. only deviates from its tune during boss battles. There are plenty of different sounds from the enemies and your weapons, but over time, they too can become quite repetitive.

Value

On top of the game’s main story, there are two additional modes available in The Dishwasher. The Arcade mode encompasses 50 different stages where you have to defeat a specific amount of enemies as quickly as you can. Upon completion of each level, your score is uploaded to a leaderboard. You can take on these stages either alone or with a friend locally through system link or via Xbox Live

If you don’t feel like playing through the Story or Arcade sections, you can give yourself a challenge and experience Dishwasher mode. Unlike the other two modes where you progress through various sections, here you will play in one level and try to earn the highest possible score. It works in the same way as Arcade, where you need to kill off a specific amount of enemies, but here you want to last as long as possible and rack up your score.

 

Conclusion

For those who love a real challenge and enjoy a good bloodbath will go head-over-heels for what The Dishwasher has to offer. The tight controls and long length make this a valid purchase for those who want to experience a test even if the story is fairly weak. If you have a soft stomach or get too frustrated with difficult games, you might be better suited with something else. Even with the difficulty, this is a game that should be sampled.