The Dishwasher Vampire Smile review: you will need a hand

[SourNotHardcore]

Blood, darkness and an indie atmosphere – can you ask for more? Ska Studios is at it again as they continue the Dishwasher story with The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile. Will this next title be as awesome as the first? Let's cut this game open and find out.

The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile is the sequel to James Silva's ‘08 indie XBLA hit, The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. Back then, Mr. Silva, an unknown dishwasher, took up the art of game development. He won Microsoft's Dream-Build-Play XNA competition and casually used up his prize money to create The Dishwasher Dead Samurai. Today, he's becoming quite the experienced developer and he's showcasing this new talents with Vampire Smile.

The game begins out with a series of flashbacks detailing the events of the previous game. From there, you get the option to choose to play as Yuki, the Dishwasher's stepsister, or the famous Dishwasher himself. Once you decide which character you want to participate in the blood bath, the game picks up from Dead Samurai's aftermath and sends you right back into the fray.

Although both characters share the same campaign levels, they play quite differently from one another. With Yuki, you play as a crazed, young girl with a chainsaw on her arm. When I said that this girl was crazy, I sure meant it. As you progress throughout the game with her, you'll find out she's being haunted by internal demons that leave her a bit cuckoo. On the other side of the blade, the Dishwasher continues his journey from the first game. He's still rockin' his two cleavers and he's even learned a few new tricks along the way.

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Vampire Smile's combat system is all about hacking and slashing with style. The fighting mechanics revolve around combos and juggles that must be mastered if you want to survive. Imagine a combination between Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden on a 2D plane. You got that? What you now have is a dark and difficult with enough sword juggling and magic up the butt to drive any sane man completely insane.

The combat system has a fantastic flow to it. It doesn’t take long to get used to it, but it’s one of those “easy to learn, hard to master” ordeals. Once you start tying in combos and switching from swords to cleavers and even syringes, you’ll starts to see the game’s true combat potential as a system that takes both rhythm and style to the next level. It goes without saying that the fact that you have a sort of teleportation ability really helps to keep those combos. It's extremely satisfying to send your enemies flying only to catch up with them high in the air and combo the living daylights of the out them, gravity all nonsense now.

With great combat systems come great items. There are quite a handful of beads that you can find by successfully beating certain timed rooms that have you race the clock to kill all enemies on the screen. Each of these beads has a different effect. Some may give you more health as you slice and dice, while other give you more armor… bleep bloop.
Vampire Smile looks good. The game has a black and white style; ergo, it makes the blood and magic effects look totally wicked. There’s nothing like juggling an enemy for 15 seconds and then quickly chainsawing him for a gratifying 3 seconds of slow-mo bloody death. For an indie game, The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile certainly has the style and art of a big budget title and it does a great job at conveying this.

If you’re looking to pick up a smooth and bloody yet artsy game, The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile will be sure to fit you fancy. With only 800 MSP ($10), you can’t go wrong with this game.

Score
9/10

[KillerOfCereal]

Nice read. I might buy this if I have the spare points.

[Smore ninja]

The Dishwasher was just something I never did get into. After reading this I decided to give Vampire Smile a shot but while the warping mechanic was fun to work with in combat it really didn't take hold.

[ralphswurld]

The portable Dishwasher was just something I never did get into. After reading this I decided to give Vampire Smile a shot but while the warping mechanic was fun to work with in combat it really didn't take hold.

Grimly beautiful and violently enjoyable The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile is one of the finest games released so far this year. This game is just simply astonishing.