Dishwasher's over the top violence and superb combat make it worth playing despite some minor problems
Created by a single man (and his beloved cat), Dishwasher is the winner of the first Dream Build Play contest held by Microsoft for its XNA platform. Notable for its punishing difficulty, mature content, and utter craziness, Dishwasher is the Ninja Gaiden of 2D and while it has some minor issues it is overall a brilliant game that any lover of challenging action games will enjoy.
Dishwasher begins in the kitchen of a restaurant. The titular Dishwasher has had his heart ripped out but has come back to life and wants revenge. That's the actual setup. What happens from there is perfectly indescribable, but suffice to say it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. The Dishwasher may just be hallucinating, or maybe this is some sort of cyberpunk dystopia. Regardless, the story never really matters in a game like this, and what is important is that the comic book style cutscenes can be safely skipped or enjoyed for their pure insanity.
Dishwasher is a 2D beat em up with modern 3D action game sensibilities. Though it takes place on a 2D plane, Dishwasher has much more in common with something like Ninja Gaiden than classics like Final Fight. The Dishwasher starts the game with a pair of meat cleavers, but quickly steals a katana, and later, a chainsaw and an uzi, among other weapons. The simple combat is incredibly over the top and gruesome. You'll tear through enemies, chopping off the heads of commandos, impaling cyborg ninjas with their own blades, force feeding secret service agents a shotgun shell, and much more. The lo-fi graphics make it hard to tell exactly what is going on, but suffice to say, this is an incredibly violent game.
Other than pummeling enemies, the only other activity you'll engage in is the occasional rhythm game. It's good then, that the combat is so rewarding, because 95% of the game is spent fighting. You can upgrade your arsenal and abilities. Scratch that. You must upgrade your arsenal and abilities. With your puny starting cleavers you'll be butchered in later levels. Dishwasher is a hard game if you don't prepare yourself. Playing the game on a low difficulty level to familiarize yourself with the levels, enemies, and weapons can sooth the difficulty and upgrades carry over from one playthrough to the next. Regardless, players will have to play Dishwasher with skill. Mashing buttons won't get you through this game. You'll have to weaken enemies before applying a brutal finisher if you want to regain health and magic. It's almost always a fair challenge, though. Like the best games, failure was always the result of my error over an unfair scenario. If you play well, Dishwasher will reward you, if you play sloppily you won't make it very far, especially on the harder difficulties.
In addition to multiple difficulties, Dishwasher also includes an arcade mode where you must battle a certain number of enemies in an enclosed arena using the weapons and magic that the game gives you. While earlier arcade arenas are none too difficult, around the time you have to start air juggling just to do damage, you'll realize this is as great a challenge as the similar modes in Ninja Gaiden, God of War, or Devil May Cry. Dishwasher also features a survival mode where players attempt to last as long as possible against an endless wave of enemies. (At least I think they are endless. I never saw an end of them before I died…) Finally, every level of every mode has a leaderboard associated with it so players can compare their scores to their friends.
While Dishwasher is filled with stellar gameplay it is not without faults. There is very little variety in the game, be it level variety, enemy variety, or gameplay variety. For action junkies the limited number of things to do won't matter. But players who are used to games that travel the world and feature unique enemies every level may be somewhat disappointed. The art itself is decent but is incredibly lo-fi. Everything is incredibly blurry, especially the comic-book style cutscenes which more closely resemble scribbles than an actual comic panel. The audio is also limited. There is no voice acting, and a very limited music selection. One key story sequence which actually features a licensed music track is all the more memorable because the same couple tunes play over the entire rest of the game.
Dishwasher: The Dead Samurai features stellar core gameplay and lot of content for its $10 asking price. It doesn't feature any form of co-op or multiplayer, and the audiovisual presentation is very obviously the work of a very limited team. But the combat is so enjoyable that it really doesn't matter how ugly everything is, or how little the story makes sense. If you are an action game junkie then this is the game for you. If you enjoy casual action games that focus on mashing buttons amidst beautiful backdrops, then I wouldn't recommend Dishwasher. Essentially, this is a game for hardcore action game fans. If, like me, you fall under that category then get Dishwasher, if not, then at least try the demo before making a purchase.