Dishwasher working a second shift on XBL

Some might have scoffed at last year's Xbox Live Arcade game Dishwasher: Dead Samurai and its undead menial laborer in bloody combat with ninjas, robots, and the like. It turns out that a premise that far-fetched can support not just one, but two whole games, as developer Ska Studios has announced an Xbox Live Arcade sequel to the game in Dishwasher: Vampire Smile.

Vampire Smile apparently retains the original game's formula, with the Dishwasher character disposing of giant bosses and their evil henchmen left and right. The game features a mostly muted palette accentuated by splashes of color to go with special attacks and all-too-frequent dismemberments. According to the developer, Vampire Smile is built on a new engine allowing for "an even more visually gruesome experience."

The original Dishwasher gained notoriety after co-winning Microsoft's 2007 Dream-Build-Play contest, in which two independent game developers were awarded contracts to release their submissions on Xbox Live Arcade. However, it didn't actually see the light of day on Microsoft's console until last April, when it launched to a positive critical reception.

No release date was announced for Vampire Smile, with the developer saying only that it would be coming "when it's done."