The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai Reviews

The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is a 2-d side-scrolling platformer hack and slash game that is centered around a cleaver wielding Dishwasher. It is the brainchild of James Silva, an independent game developer who entered (and won) the Dream-Build-Play game development contest using the XNA Game Studio software.


*Gameplay: 9 out of 10

This is really where the game shines. The gameplay can take a while to get used to but once you do, this game becomes quite addicting. You come equipped with a weak attack, a strong attack, a throw, a magic attack and a couple handfuls of combos that are executed with a sequence of button presses.

In the story mode you start with cleavers to cut up the cyborgs and later will unlock the shift blade (used to teleport), kama (quick but weak), chainsaw (slow but strong), and the arsenal (an uzi/shotgun combo). You have the ability to upgrade each weapon through items that baddies drop to make them even more dangerous. The game is really designed with defense in mind and you need to pick your spots and quickly learn a few effective combos to stay alive. Spam an attack long enough and your enemy will block it. The game scores you based on how much damage you can deal out and how long you can keep your multiplier (successive kills).

The game includes 3 modes you can play in 1 or 2 player:

Story Mode includes side-scrolling waves of baddies with a boss to defeat at the end of each level. Some levels are broken up with a guitar minigame in which you button press in rhythm with a song, kind of like Guitar Hero. After collecting an amulet in one of the early levels you can play it with a friend.

Arcade mode includes a long list of short, one room levels with a set amount of enemies. Many levels have set themes such as "Enemies move at half speed" and "You deal 4 times as much damage".

Dish Challenge: A survival mode. Enemies continue to spawn and progressively get tougher. The challenge ends when your life bar depletes.


*Story: 5 out of 10

You play an unnamed Dishwasher who was killed by a cyborg army and brought back to life by his boss, the Chef. His goal is to save the world by destroying the army and its leader, the AI Synthesis. The story really isn't very compelling at all and is similar to many other action games. Hero meets bad guy, bad guy pisses off hero, Hero seeks revenge, etc. The story is told through short comic strips at the conclusion of every level and feels generic. But to be honest, I don't really think the lack of a good story is damaging at all.


*Visuals and Graphics: 9 out of 10

The game looks drab and dark as it should. The graphics are generally black and white with many shades of gray. I'm left to believe it was designed this way to emphasize how much blood is pouring from your victims. When I say blood, I mean it! In no particular order you will; decapitate, impale Freaks with their own weapons, beat Robots with their own legs, shove explosives into enemies, and cut baddies right in half. The backgrounds and scenery is quite repetitive and is the only reason I didn't give it a 10.


*Sound: 6 out of 10

Its not really that the sound is bad in the game, it just could have included so much more. I really wish that some metal or rock music was put into the levels but music will only be found in the bizarre guitar moments and with some boss battles. The sound effects are well executed and sound exactly how they should.


*Achievements: 10 out of 10
(This is an achievement site after all)

The achievements are well thought out and very creative and are well balanced with some being laughably easy and some being much harder. There are several unusual gamer point achievements (an 8, 11, 2 worth 13, a 14, and a 21 pointer) which are a unique touch and made them fun to unlock.


Conclusion:

All in all a fun game that's well worth the 800 MS points. If you're into bloody beat-em ups then this one is for you! The average gamer will play it for 10 hours or so between all 3 modes. If you're setting out to get all 12 achievements it's in the neighborhood of 15-20 hours.

The story begins with the Dishwasher, a mysterious busboy who remembers being killed, but comes out to the question, why am I alive. You find out, to a surprise, that the resurrection to your death was by your mentor and now savior, Chef, with some added "Alien Blood". You escape from the clutches of a communist group called Cyborg, who are reigned by the AI Sinthesis- Master computer. Your notified that your sister, Yuki, has willingly given herself to the Cyborg. Your mission is to save her and take down the mysterious organization. It's a simple and quick to the point story.

You start off with your trademark: a dual wieldable butcher's blades. Your arsenal progresses through the game, with the magical green blasts that is recharged by killing your opponents and the occasional samurai sword. Your health is replenished with hearts that come from your victims and also money to upgrade your items. You have the options of difficulty from Easy to Samurai, so the game is set for the wimps and hardcore. There is the off story playing options that you'll find on the main menu. The first is the Arcade, with it's 50 annoying challenges. Each challenge gives you an assigned weapon(s), and upgrade(s), to send you off to fight with a limited amount of Cyborgs, and an achievement to satisfy for your gaming needs. The Dish Challenge 'challenges' you with endurance and a test to see how many combos you can rack up, while every round spawns tougher and tougher Cyborgs.

The Dishwasher is the utmost violent side-scroller beat'em up. From smashing TVs to juggling your enemies. The game's story progresses with 14 levels of intense fighting, as you brutally slaughter and butcher every enemy that has been summoned, to stop you in your tracks. The story telling is displayed with deep comic panels, as each level, or certain scenario, will be activated to a 'quick-draw like' cut scene. Giving you that feel as dead samurais do. But the game also gives out the comic relief moments, when you see zombies slowly try to approach you, to the awesome quick time guitar solos, that come then and there.

The enemies are unique in their own way, with each cyborg has different fighting styles and each has a way of dying, depending what weapon your equipped with. This keeps the gamepaly fresh with it's combination of enemies going after you at once. With the classic gruesome chainsaw to the every so fast samurai blade. It can also be a problem at times, when you find yourself juggling between boss fights and common baddies. Bosses appear quite often than needed, each with a characteristic of a rock star bad ass and a wicked button pushing death scene.

The details of the game is dark and heavy, not met for the younger audience, with the no mercy executions and with occasional bloody body slams. The far off distant background surrenders you that right left control feel more opened up. The soundtrack gives the game a great forceful metal atmosphere, with it's awesome sync in boss fights, to casually walking room to room. And you might as well pause for a bit, to pay homage to one of our generation's greatest rock performances ever, Peter Moore [Guitar solo].

The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is a decent game, but made for only a certain gallery. It holds true with no copy-cat mimics that I see to date. But I highly recommended to download the demo first and watch then out for the 'Got the Hat' 40g. Or if your that casual gamer, then pick up that controller and unleash some hell!

I give The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai an 8.3/10

Story:You play as the dishwasher. No name or anything who is killed and brought back to life. Then it plays out like a movie. Bad guys get hero mad, hero kills bad guys. The story is played out through comic strips at the end of each level which isnt really the games strong suit but more than likely if your playing this game you didnt start playing for the story.

Graphics: Have a dark gloomy feel to them that really work.They look really good and the blood splatters and everything really work well.

Sound:This game has the dark background music and at the guitar parts its just your normal rifts. Nothing too bad but I like to play some metal in the background as it sounds quite nice with the game.

Controls: Your regular hack and slash controls.They work quite nice in this game and you wont have any problem figuring out what button to press. And for those that will go insane for this game there are alot of combos to be done so start learning the controls.

Gameplay:The thing that really shines. You have standard strong/weak attacks, magic, and throws but learning the combos and everything really makes its better. There are several different weapons/magic attacks. Your weapons are able to be upgraded. The different game modes also help. Story Mode with its 5 different difficulties, arcade mode, and the dish challenge.

Achievement List: A pretty good achievement list. Make you work and should be able to get all but two quite easily.

A Good Buy

9/10

Copyrighted by dudecrazy108, written for gamerc.net, posted on trueachievements.com