You also get plenty of options on how to play. There is a story mode with about seventeen levels, but also a series of arcade-style levels that challenge you to rack up a high score, and you can even play some of these modes online. System link and same-system co-op are also supported, including an option for a third player to join in using a guitar as their controller! Combine this with a basic system of upgrades to buy, and you have reasonable depth for a game of this genre.

The game does have a few problems, though none of them are crippling. The foremost of these is that the graphics are very vivid and animated, but occasionally they’re so much so that it’s hard to tell what is happening. It’s also a very hard game until you gain certain upgrades, meaning there may well be a short period of time where you have to ’grind’ to get these. Finally, the gameplay does eventually get repetitive... but this is true of almost every game in the genre, and some people don’t mind that at all.

But those flaws don’t stop Dead Samurai from being a winner. It’s a great example of how beat ’em ups should be done, and is clearly a product of love; you’ll see plenty of gaming references (such as Street Fighter style moves with some weapons, and an Achievement earned by going ’Peter Moore’ on a guitar solo mini-game) and other signs the developer is ’one of us.’ I went in with the worst possible circumstances; there was nobody for me to play local co-op with, and I have an existing hatred for the genre. Yet this game is so well done and priced so reasonably that it won me over, and I think you’ll love it too. Ten bucks is a bargain, so give The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai a try.