We love all sorts of games. Sometimes it is hard to cover a game in our traditional review style that’s why we have tidbit-style reviews. These shorter reviews cover games that deserve attention too but simply don’t fit our good, mixed, and bad template. In addition, they get a monthly summary article to give them even more reader attention!
Cleaning Up! | 88%
Publisher: Unbound Creations
Developer: Unbound Creations
Everybody has had an issue with cleaning at some point in their lives. Maybe you had too much to do, or you were tired and decided to leave it for the next day, and when you were done, you felt relief at being in such a clean space. What I’m certain of is that you cannot have left as much dirt and trash around as you will see in this game; it’s an absurd amount of filth, but that’s exactly why it is so satisfying to clean it all up.
When I first booted up Cleaning Up!, Steam prompted me with a recommendation to use a controller to play the game, so I naturally followed its recommendation. I did have a nice time playing with a controller, but I missed having an easy way to cycle through my cleaning tools. When I tried playing it with a mouse and keyboard, I realised that the mouse wheel does a better job at this, but otherwise, the gameplay was pleasant.
Cleaning Up! looks and sounds very simple; this aligns with its cute aesthetic and gives it some charm. The background music is relaxing, and the sound effects make the cleaning feel even better.
The gameplay, unsurprisingly, consists of cleaning up quite a few different places, like a cafe, a dungeon, a castle, a cemetery, and even the moon! The levels are varied and very fun to play, with a total of 20 of them, excluding the tutorials for each tool/basic gameplay. There are a few mechanics tied to side objectives exclusive to some levels, like being careful not to spray a cat with water, not breaking valuable objects, avoiding moving cars, and avoiding traps, among others. These help the levels feel fresh throughout the entire length of the game, which only lasts for about two and a half hours, if you decide not to play New Game+.
The tools used for cleaning up are one of the reasons why the game remains interesting throughout its campaign, and they consist of:
A broom that destroys black goo; a vacuum cleaner to pick up any solids, which are many, and drop them in a trash can later; a mop to clean up dirt; an air freshener spray; and a water sprayer to clean up green goo present on some objects.
You can purchase upgrades for your tools between levels to increase their range, strength, capacity, and overall efficiency. Doing so is a must, as it will make a big difference in how fast you can finish levels. You can also unlock and purchase 20 skins and hats for your character, and a bunch of them reference other games and media, such as Mario, Wario, Mouse: P.I. for Hire, The Office series, and even the Severance series.
I found Cleaning Up! to be quite a fun little adventure, despite its short length. Cleaning up trash and dirt is very satisfying and easy to do, and it’s done differently from other cleaning games, which makes it easy for me to recommend to anyone looking for a relaxing time.
Hi there, I’m Colombo, I live in Brazil and I’ve been gaming since I was around 5 years old. Xbox became my main platform on the Xbox 360 era, before that I had played a bit on PC, Polystation (basically a skinned SNES), PlayStation 1 and 2. I really enjoy to experience immersive worlds, but I also enjoy playing silly games to have a laugh or just have fun.
