Ska Studios » The Dishwasher Lives!

The Dishwasher Lives!

dishwashercake

Fitting heading for a game about a dead samurai, eh?

I just put the flash site up at thedishwasherdeadsamurai.com. Try to find the secret Neko video (no, not the age gate fail Neko video. Hint: Sandra Bullock in The Net).

I think there was a bit of a marketing mishap leading into this: several months ago, gamerscoreblog wanted some previously unheard of Dishwasher facts for a post, so I told them about the killer solo minigames and hidden phantom guitar and shadow co-op features. They posted on this, and somewhere in the shuffle, the secret features became selling points.

So, if you bought The Dishwasher just for killer solos or phantom guitar co-op, you may be disappointed because:

there are only 3 killer solo tracks and
phantom guitar is not a selling point. It’s alright, but, well, there’s really only so much you can do with a guitar controller in an action game.

However, the rest of the game’s not that bad, right? Well…

TeamXbox liked it: “The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is an amazing game, even if you don’t have any idea of how it came about or about the size of the studio that made it.”
OXM liked it: “From how Dishwasher bleeds details with its goth-y antihero cleaving chumps in two to how its meaty, crunchy jabs and slashes feel, it’s all incredibly well done.”
IGN thought it was ok: “The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is an enjoyable button masher and a commendable effort considering it’s the work of one person.”
Teletext Game Central (???) hated it: “It may be a matter of taste but we didn’t like the murky, indistinct graphics, whose endless spurts of blood fail to really titillate.”

What the heck is Teletext Game Central?

Anyway, love it or hate it, it’s here! Deal with it!

Now, if you are wondering about those special modes:

The phantom guitar is enabled by finding the Amulet of Phantom Rock. This is hidden near the start of Ivy Trail.
The Dishwasher’s shadow is enabled by finding the Amulet of Shadow Skull. This is near the Killer Solo Amp in St. Crux Cemetery.
There are 3 Killer Solo Amps spread out in the main game. There are an additional 3 Amps in Samurai difficulty. If an Amp has a spotlight glowing on it, that means winning the solo will earn you a Psycho Pick.

Really though, they’re not selling points. They’re fun features, but they’re ancillary. Awesomely ancillary.

Now for the ugly:

There’s a bit of an achievement snafu. To earn the Master of Arcade Dishwashing achievement, you have to beat level 50 in single player or local co-op. This came up right at the end of testing; the logic for okaying it was that when you play over Live, you’re playing individual levels, not a continuous track of levels (hence no end credits); however, we should probably address this in a title update. If we did try to smooth this over at the end of testing, the game could’ve been delayed another month. Decisions…

Also, Dishwasher is getting a lot of weird comparisons. Alien Hominid? It just seems lazy–as if the market is only big enough for one side scroller with stylized art, regardless of the game play. (I admit both games featuring CIA-style goons is a little suspect, but I had goons in Zombie Smashers X2 years before, and I put them in there as a nod to The Matrix/Reservoir Dogs/Anything Else Involving Guys With Suits and Guns)

Silly reviewers…

But then again, don’t we all know how I feel about game reviews?

April 3, 2009 posted by James

Filed under: Awesome,Dead Samurais,The Dishwasher,XBLA

20 Comments Comment away!

1. darknesset3rnal | April 4, 2009 at 12:12 AM

Well, to hell with teletext. You did a hell of a job.
2. shadowedhogosha | April 4, 2009 at 1:49 AM

Yeah who the hell is teletext anyways?
How about this

>>Shadowedhogosha approves of it: “ITS AWESOME!”
3. anautisticdog | April 4, 2009 at 2:59 AM

My name is Travis….and I’m addicted to The Dishwasher.

I think it is a great game.I just passed the first level on the Samurai difficulty. Wish me Luck.lol

BTW: I think I found you r secret video.
Do I win a piece of that cake or do I win a piece of “Pi”?
4. prolifickstudios | April 4, 2009 at 3:20 AM

heh intresting.
5. mhourousha | April 4, 2009 at 4:44 PM

Please，please fix the screen-tearing in the title update,or at least provide a ‘V-sync Lock’Option。:D
Besides, I think I met some slow-down in Arcade mode only,is it regular?
6. rmatheso | April 4, 2009 at 8:48 PM

I love how people are bitching that it is too hard. Normal was probably the best difficulty setting when starting with no upgrades. I will admit if you don’t have your shift blade fully upgraded by the latter half of the game, you’re toast. I found it to be just as hard as Ninja Gaiden II on Normal Difficulty. Now if I can just figure out that 10 second in-air combo achievement.

Oh and curse you James for making me play through it on Samurai to get those last 3 guitar picks.

(Sigh) Now I have to wait for the sequel… lol.
7. anautisticdog | April 4, 2009 at 9:45 PM

@rmatheso
I think the difficulty is perfect and as for the 10 secod air, Just knock them up in the air with your sword, then use your machine gun to keep them up.
8. hoov1185 | April 5, 2009 at 3:39 AM

This is such an awesome game to play co-op. Can you please, please, please patch in story co-op? Arcade is fun and all, but story co-op with our own guys would blow the doors off Castle Crashers.
9. chase25 | April 5, 2009 at 9:18 AM

@ mhourousha. The slow down is intentional in arcade, right before each round, it will give you what the object is. Some of the objectives is to beat the enemy while in half speed.
10. falcons7 | April 5, 2009 at 8:46 PM

yeah i made an account on this site just to leave a response. dishwasher completely delivered, it’s fun, simple, co-op, easy to pick up-have a blast-and put down. exactly what i wanted when i was waiting for this game to come out. fantastic job. 9/10, only cuz i now want a sequel.
11. therondevil | April 6, 2009 at 1:04 AM

I love this game! But please fix screen-tearing
12. bonuspunkt | April 6, 2009 at 1:11 PM

billiant old-school game
no fancy stuff, just plain fun and excellent achievement design
13. splitfire155 | April 6, 2009 at 7:48 PM

Can u please put the song played in the game on itunes and maybe release some tabs for the guitar solos they r pretty amazing
14. unannouncedproject | April 13, 2009 at 12:58 AM

I love the game, but most of the time that I try to play it I get an error message when the initial XBLA screen loads: “Content Unavailable. Dishwasher-related game content is unavailable. Returning all players to the Xbox Dashboard.” Once every dozen tries of attempting to start the game through various menus and I can occasionally get the game to start, but most of the time I cannot. This happens to me with the demo and the full version of the game, and I have no problems with any other XBLA games (I just downloaded and played The Maw no problem).

This sucks cause I really do like the game, I just can’t play it most of the time.
15. James | April 13, 2009 at 1:03 AM

unannouncedproject: someone else had that problem, and when they turned their Xbox360 off and on again it started working fine. Redownload maybe? Corrupt storage? Sorry anyway
16. searxl | April 17, 2009 at 6:10 AM

This game is amazing. One of the best arcade games I’ve downloaded. If not THE best. I’ll be waiting for the patch too fix the master of arcade achievement, though. I’ve done all the levels and was disappointed when I didn’t get it!
17. James | April 17, 2009 at 6:20 AM

searxl: just beat level 50 in solo or local co-op. It’s on our list, but you’ll probably get it before a patch goes through.
18. michellejuett | September 7, 2009 at 1:34 AM

Ohhh, that’s what you meant by the Dishwasher Cake X_X
19. James Dean | March 27, 2010 at 10:32 PM

I thought the cake was a lie, but apparently it lives! In other confusion, I wonder how many people end up here who are actually looking for dishwashers (http://www.superstoresearch.com/-Dishwashers), you know, the kind that actually err wash dishes. lol

Funky cake.
20. James Dean | March 27, 2010 at 10:37 PM

Please excuse my earlier ramblings, the dishwasher dead samurai has a very dark and atmospheric feel to it, which is a clever blend of creepy and cool and the kind of game you’d want to play at night sitting alone in the dark.