History VideoGame / TheDishwasher

''The Dishwasher'' is a side-scrolling BeatEmUp series released for the UsefulNotes/XboxLiveArcade by (formerly) one-man design team [[Creator/SkaStudios Ska Studios]]. The first game, ''Dead Samurai,'' went up for sale in April 2009, with the sequel, ''Vampire Smile,'' following suit two years later.

* DropTheHammer: In ''Vampire Smile'', The Dishwasher obtains the "Violence Hammer"; a hefty pole with ninety pounds of steel girder on the end, wrapped in barbed wire with hooks, knives, and other assorted painful bits tied on, wielded like a polearm.

** An [[CosmeticAward achievement]] in ''Vampire Smile'' references ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' (the method of initially unlocking the item that lets you get the "achievables" required for it, which involves pressing Start after [[ItMakesSenseInContext cat's head pops out of the corner of the screen when you juggle enemies in a specific area]], [[spoiler: which in turn transports you to a BossRush with the developers' heads pasted on the bosses]]), ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' (specifically the "achievements PSA", with Caboose saying "I also have my own achievables!" or "I have so many achievables!" whenever you unlock one, along with the name of the achievement as well as the fake achievement popup being straight from the short) and the overall concept of silly achievements (3 of them consisting of opening a present, double jumping and shooting an enemy with the AwesomeButImpractical weapon described above).

* AndYourRewardIsClothes: The Dishwasher gets a shirt after you beat the first game, and a NiceHat if you beat it on Samurai difficulty.

** In ''Vampire Smile'', however, there are the Shoguns: huge, armored, halberd and rocket launcher weilding minibosses that come down with a fairly large shockwave. Problem is, they can do this over and over again while swinging around the aforementioned halberd.

** An [[CosmeticAward achievement]] in ''Vampire Smile'' references ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' (the method of initially unlocking the item that lets you get the "achieveables" required for it, which involves pressing Start after [[ItMakesSenseInContext cat's head pops out of the corner of the screen when you juggle enemies in a specific area]], [[spoiler: which in turn transports you to a BossRush with the developers' heads pasted on the bosses]]), ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' (specifically the "achievements PSA", with Caboose saying "I also have my own achieveables!" or "I have so many achieveables!" whenever you unlock one, along with the name of the achievement as well as the fake achievement popup being straight from the short) and the overall concept of silly achievements (3 of them consisting of opening a present, double jumping and shooting an enemy with the AwesomeButImpractical weapon described above).

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign, HeavyMetalUmlaut: Iffenhaus Prison, the banker Ömödö, Dishwasher's Dekkentozter, possibly other examples.

* AxCrazy: The Dishwasher himself may be unsettlingly violent with all his beheadings and grenade-feedings, but The Prisoner is flat out ''messed up''.

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: In ''Vampire Smile,'' enemies in critical condition will often kill themselves if left alone for a few moments. Given what the protagonists tend to do to their opponents when they're dazed, this might be more sensible than it looks.
* BittersweetEnding: Yuki's ending in ''Vampire Smile.'' [[spoiler: The Fallen Engineer is dead ''(again)'', but so is the Dishwasher, and Yuki doesn't much care what happens to the rest of humanity now that her mind has been purged.]]

* ChainsawGood: The Dishwasher gets a chainsaw in the first game. Yuki gets one grafted to her arm in ''Vampire Smile.'' Both do everything one could expect a chainsaw to do.

* ChekhovsGunman: The masked rider in Dead Samurai [[spoiler:is a well-camouflaged early appearance of the Big Bad.]]

* DissonantSerenity: The main reason Chef stands out like a sore thumb is his default expression: a placid smile. Cheerful disposition, it needs to be said, is in ''very'' short supply in this series. This makes it all the more jarring if [[spoiler: Yuki kills the Dishwasher]], since he sort of freaks out.
* DropTheHammer: In ''Vampire Smile'', The Dishwasher obtains the "Violence Hammer": A hefty pole with ninety pounds of steel girder on the end, wrapped in barbed wire with hooks, knives, and other assorted painful bits tied on, wielded like a polearm.

** In Vampire Smile, however, there are the Shoguns: huge, armored, halberd and rocket launcher weilding minibosses that come down with a fairly large shockwave. Problem is, they can do this over and over again while swinging around the aformentioned halberd.
* EasyModeMockery / EasierThanEasy: Pretty Princess mode, unlockable in ''Vampire Smile'' by dying five times in a row in the same room. In it, everything is covered with a pink filter, hearts float through the air, and enemies all bleed hearts and rainbows. Also, it's actually quite a challenge to even die on this mode.
** The achievement you get for unlocking it, named "Game Reviewers Shall Be Pleased", is also a TakeThat to critics
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Dishwasher and the Chef. In the second game, Yuki is referred to as "the Prisoner." Just about all the villains are addressed this way, too: There's the Doctor, the Banker, the General, and the Judge. [[spoiler: And the Fallen Engineer.]]

* HooksAndCrooks: The [[EliteMooks Freaks]] of ''Dead Samurai'' use a pair of somewhat long hooks, though they replace them with long straight-bladed ninja swords in the sequel - probably in response to what the ''Dishwasher'' did with them: the [[FinishingMove Messy Kill]] against the Freaks involves [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaling them with the blunt end of the hook and setting it upright on the ground for display.]]

* ImprobableWeaponUser: something of a recurring theme in the series' arsenal is The Dishwasher or Yuki picking up some dangerous object and comfortably and gracefully using as a weapon as though there were a thousand-year old martial art behind its use.
* InterfaceScrew: [[spoiler: One boss in ''Vampire Smile,'' the Invalid, is a wheelchair-bound hospital patient who turns off the TV and turns it back on with the game in a different ''genre.'' He uses the distraction to leap out of his chair and strangle you while screaming his head off.]]

* {{Metaphorgotten}}: "Diaboldi's corpse looks like it's been hit by a truck...with knives welded to it...Maybe some sort of mulching mechanism."

* NotUsingTheZedWord: Well, the game doesn't like calling Yuki a vampire, but she's got BloodMagic, CuteLittleFangs, and often tears open enemy throats with her mouth as a finisher, so if the shoe fits...
* OneToMillionToOne: Yuki's method of TeleportSpam. A particularly nasty example since she is simply shredded into a full body version of PinkMist instead of transforming into a swarm and is implied to feel all of it.

* ReverseGrip: The Dishwasher's Shift Blade in both games, and Yuki's Conviction in ''Vampire Smile''

** Your biggest hints that the game isn't taking its revenge plot seriously occur within one minute of the reveal of the underlying revenge plot itself: [[Film/TheMachineGirl A girl with a Japanese name, on a quest for revenge, has her arm replaced with a chainsaw]], and, [[Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo after escaping from a prison whose name means "the house of If", the people she's going after are a general, a banker, and a judge.]]

** An [[CosmeticAward achievement]] in Vampire Smile references ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' (the method of initially unlocking the item that lets you get the "achieveables" required for it, which involves pressing Start after [[ItMakesSenseInContext cat's head pops out of the corner of the screen when you juggle enemies in a specific area]], [[spoiler: which in turn transports you to a BossRush with the developers' heads pasted on the bosses]]), ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' (specifically the "achievements PSA", with Caboose saying "I also have my own achieveables!" or "I have so many achieveables!" whenever you unlock one, along with the name of the achievement as well as the fake achievement popup being straight from the short) and the overall concept of silly achievements (3 of them consisting of opening a present, double jumping and shooting an enemy with the AwesomeButImpractical weapon described above).
* SinisterScythe / EpicFlail: The paired kusarigama (Kamas in ''DS'', Kama-Kazi in ''VS''), used alternatively like nunchaku and just plain sickles by the Dishwasher in ''Dead Samurai'' and then by Yuki in ''Vampire Smile''. They take the role of the token DualWielding, quick, finesse weapon - in the first game, they effectively replace the cleavers.

* WardensAreEvil: The Warden, the first real boss of Vampire Smile, is a hulking man with arm blades and is called [[BossSubtitles Iffenhaus Pain Administrator.]] Not exactly a nice sounding title. [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking He's also the most dangerous opponent in the prison]], and he even manages to slice off your arm in his final moments.

''The Dishwasher'' starts the eponymous Dishwasher, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysInTheTin a dishwasher]] working in a bleak world where humans are choosing to be mass-converted into cyborgs and the undead run amok. One day, he wakes up in the restaurant kitchen with mild amnesia, a big hole in his chest where his heart should be, and an army of cyborgs out for his head. For lack of anything better to do, he picks up a couple of meat cleavers and carves his way through a tale involving evil supercomputers, long-lost siblings, an alien chef, and [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot shotgun-wielding vampire cowboy assassins]]. The games' plots are presented as a series of gritty comic strips which can sometimes make it a challenge to see whether the story is taking itself seriously or not.

''The Dishwasher'' starts the eponymous Dishwasher, [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment a dishwasher]] working in a bleak world where humans are choosing to be mass-converted into cyborgs and the undead run amok. One day, he wakes up in the restaurant kitchen with mild amnesia, a big hole in his chest where his heart should be, and an army of cyborgs out for his head. For lack of anything better to do, he picks up a couple of meat cleavers and carves his way through a tale involving evil supercomputers, long-lost siblings, an alien chef, and [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot shotgun-wielding vampire cowboy assassins]]. The games' plots are presented as a series of gritty comic strips which can sometimes make it a challenge to see whether the story is taking itself seriously or not.

* '''{{Gorn}}''': The first game splashed ''floods'' of gore across the screen, and the second amps it up even further. Finishers nearly always involve some form of dismemberment or someone getting ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice. In ''Vampire Smile,'' one of Yuki's boss finishers turns the entire screen red for a couple of seconds.

** An [[CosmeticAward achievement]] in Vampire Smile references MortalKombat (the method of initially unlocking the item that lets you get the "achieveables" required for it, which involves pressing Start after [[ItMakesSenseInContext cat's head pops out of the corner of the screen when you juggle enemies in a specific area]], [[spoiler: which in turn transports you to a BossRush with the developers' heads pasted on the bosses]]), ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' (specifically the "achievements PSA", with Caboose saying "I also have my own achieveables!" or "I have so many achieveables!" whenever you unlock one, along with the name of the achievement as well as the fake achievement popup being straight from the short) and the overall concept of silly achievements (3 of them consisting of opening a present, double jumping and shooting an enemy with the AwesomeButImpractical weapon described above).

%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

* AwesomeYetPractical:
** The Dishwasher's Shift Blade is a katana that allows him to teleport. It's also probably his most well-balanced weapon, and rips enemies apart once fully leveled up.
** Yuki's Painkiller weapon is a giant ''syringe'' that not only has excellent lockdown and anti-air capabilities, but also sucks the life from enemies.

''The Dishwasher'' is a side-scrolling BeatEmUp series released for the XboxLiveArcade by (formerly) one-man design team [[Creator/SkaStudios Ska Studios]]. The first game, ''Dead Samurai,'' went up for sale in April 2009, with the sequel, ''Vampire Smile,'' following suit two years later.

* TheObiWan: The Chef is something of a mentor and protector figure to the Dishwasher, appropriately enough. He's effectively the one who kicks the journey off by rescuing him from the Sinthesis, and of course is a rare source of exposition.

* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] - ''everyone'' has completely white skin, regardless of actual race and/or probable skin tone. The Chef is, according to [[WordOfGod the developer]], quite black, but appears just as ashen as everyone else.
** Confirmed that The Chef is black, in Charlie Murder, another game by Ska Studios.

** An [[CosmeticAward achievement]] in Vampire Smile references MortalKombat (the method of initially unlocking the item that lets you get the "achieveables" required for it, which involves pressing Start after [[ItMakesSenseInContext cat's head pops out of the corner of the screen when you juggle enemies in a specific area]], [[spoiler: which in turn transports you to a BossRush with the developers' heads pasted on the bosses]]), RedVsBlue (specifically the "achievements PSA", with Caboose saying "I also have my own achieveables!" or "I have so many achieveables!" whenever you unlock one, along with the name of the achievement as well as the fake achievement popup being straight from the short) and the overall concept of silly achievements (3 of them consisting of opening a present, double jumping and shooting an enemy with the AwesomeButImpractical weapon described above).

* OneToMillionToOne: Yuki's method of TeleportSpam. A particularly nasty example since she is simply shredded into a full body version of RedMist instead of transforming into a swarm and is implied to feel all of it.

* FragileSpeedster: When you engage [[spoiler: the Chef]] in ''Dead Samurai,'' he can kill you in seconds but drops in two strong combos. [[spoiler: But as far as future battles and [[GameplayAndStorySegregation the plot]] are concerned, he's NighInvulnerable.]]

** The [[GaolTime Gaoler]]: Dealer of Crooked Justice

** Confirmed that The Chef is black, in Charlie Murder, another game but Ska Studios.

* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] - ''everyone'' has completely white skin, regardless of actual race and/or probable skin tone. The Chef is, according to [[WordOfGod the developer]], quite black, but appears just as ashen as everyone else.