NIDZUMI+

I am not sure what I was thinking to begin with. It’s been a while since I ventured onto the Xbox Live Marketplace with a view to buying anything other than the odd horse armour pack.

Most XBL Arcade games are bright affairs that either throw you into a copy of some previous arcade classic or port over a true arcade classic with mixed effects. This is a different story altogether.

This is a different story altogether. Even the name is a bit unorthodox. The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is about a dead samurai/dishwasher who comes back from the dead to wreak revenge on the evil cyborgs who killed him on their way to try and take over the world. The story is explained by way of Max Payne style comic strips in between the levels but it is the levels themselves that really draw the attention.

There is something haunting about the visuals which really look like a smudged pencil sketch that accidentally wandered through George Romero’s special effects cupboard and had a seizure on the way. The look is also very reminiscent of Kurosawa’s classic samurai movies. The visuals are coupled with a very responsive control scheme which falls into the easy to learn, hard to master bracket, placing the game right up there amongst the likes of Ninja Gaiden in terms of execution.

The Dishwasher is, at its heart, a platform, hack ‘n’ slash game but it is done with style and elegance that comes around very rarely, especially in the world of DLC. In fact there, are a few excellent features crammed into this little gem. As well as the story mode which is available in four difficulty levels, there is an arcade mode where you have to kill a certain number of opponents in a certain amount of time. As you progress through the levels the opponents get successively harder and more inventive. The more challenging opponents have a hint of inspiration from the classic shooters of the late 80’s and early 90’s plus the odd nod to the Terminator series for good measure. This also goes for the story mode as well.

To be quite honest, a lot of imagination has gone into The Dishwasher. The levels are all carefully crafted, with the story mode levels often having alternate routes to complete. The game is also exceedingly tough, even on easy but instead of feeling too hard the game goads you into trying again. Then there is always a sense of satisfaction especially when you earn the achievements – usually because the game has made you earn them. There is even a choice of 5 different weapons which you find during the course of the story mode. These range from twin cleavers, which you begin with, to the shift sword, which allows you to teleport short distances, to the ever-satisfying chainsaw. In arcade mode each level sees you given the choice of a two weapons which differs for each level adding a small amount of strategy to your gore-fest.

There is also a mode called Dish Challenge. This mode allows you to set high scores for your friends to beat. Simple select your combination of weapons and hack and slash your way to the top of the Xbox Live scoreboards.

The multiplayer is based on the arcade mode and introduces a second player to help with the utter carnage that ensues during these levels. It is immense fun to take on endless waves of opponents with a friend by your side and you can do it with an extra pad, through system link and over Live – a variety which many Arcade games don’t always offer.

There is a lot of talk about games as art these days and most of it is pretentious nonsense. However, it is also true that games are becoming an art-form of their own. The Dishwasher is far from devoid of artistry with its exquisite visuals and its referencing everything from comics to Kurosawa. The real art is in the gameplay though, because, at the end of the day the primary function of games is to let you have fun. This game is fun. It oozes it from every bloodsoaked pixel.

If you want a entertaining night in with as many bucketloads of fun as there is of blood you could do far worse than download The Dishwasher. Besides, it’s a great excuse not to do the dishes. Score 5/5