The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is kind of an odd game to review. Not necessarily because of its content (although the thought of a lowly dishwasher turning into an zombie samurai who shreds some totally awesome guitar solos is slightly head-scratching), but because its origins make it a little difficult to adjust my criticisms.

On the one hand, it’s a pretty remarkable effort when one considers the game was crafted by a development team of one guy (Mr. James Silva) as part of Microsoft’s XNA game-building community via Xbox Live. In spirit, The Dishwasher is like ye olde arcade brawlers of yore, moving from one end of the screen to the other and beating the snot out of everything in between said points with a decent selection of weapons. The game’s look is fairly unique, employing character designs and an overall world aesthetic that looks like something Jhonen Vasquez cooked up.

On the other hand, however, judged alongside other XBLA titles (which is only fair given you still have to spend 800 MS points to play it), it falls short, especially against the other, better brawlers that are out there (Castle Crashers specifically comes to mind).

So where does it fall short? Well, for one, it’s very repetitive. Yes, brawlers by nature are repetitive, but this one more so than most. You’ve only got about six main enemy types that you most often encounter and the stages themselves never feel all that different despite players traveling through about a half dozen different locations. The game’s art style is largely to blame for this, in that it retains the same color palette splashed upon levels that while undoubtedly different in terms of design, feel mostly the same due to the overall aesthetic. It also doesn’t help that two of the four weapons you’re given to use feel remarkably similar. This might not be problem if two of the remaining three weren’t almost useless in battle. So then you’re stuck plodding through wave after wave of the same enemies using the same weapons (when you by all rights should be using five) watching the same death animations over and over.

Still, I must admit I was quite enjoying myself for about half the game. The action has a Ninja Gaiden/Devil May Cry feel to it that has you mixing up weak, strong and throw attacks with heavy emphasis on combos, air juggling, screen-filling magic and utterly gratutious death animations (if there’s a more ridiculous finishing move in video games today than bludgeoning a commando with his own decapitated head I’d like see it). But then after the halfway mark hits, the number of enemies one must slice, dice and otherwise eviscerate to proceed to the next room gets downright ridiculous. Again, it’s akin to Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry, but in those games there’s plenty of room to maneuver thanks in no small part to the playing field being 3D. As The Dishwasher is purely a 2D affair, there’s often little room to maneuver, both in terms of the loss of a plane and also because the rooms get smaller and the enemies more numerous. The game becomes more an exercise in frustration and dilligence and less an enjoyable piece of entertainment.

I realize that I’ve also not touched on a few other elements of the game, mostly the story and that our hero will periodically (and seemingly randomly) come across a guitar and amp to shred a guitar solo, but I figure since the developer seemingly spent such little time on either of these things (seriously, the story makes no sense and the comic panels its displayed on are blurry and contain typos and extra words), it’s almost not really worth my time to speak of them since they are completely disposable and a novelty at best, respectively.

All in all, your mileage with The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai may vary. Thankfully, XBLA at least gives you the courtesy of trying the demo first. It’s highly recommended. Just imagine playing that same level but with slight variations for a few hours and that’s essentially what you’ll be paying for. If it’s enjoyable, then hey the game will be well worth your 800 MS Points. If not, there’s always castles to crash.

By Stewart Smith

(images via Joystiq)