Moldwasher Review (PC)

I can’t say that I had a grime-cleansing sushi roll on my bingo card, but there you go. As it turns out, there is a game that transforms one of the most sought after cleaning jobs—the fridge—into a lo-fi interactive gig in which the whole point is to scrub the crags and crevices of various kitchen appliances. Think of it as a distant cousin of PowerWash Simulator, only with a low-poly cartoon environment and a piece of sushi. If that doesn’t like the kind of quirky fodder that you’d find the least bit interesting, then you might as well stick to power washing. Oh, this cleaning job is a little stranger than your average late night aisle spillage.

Moldwasher doesn’t leave a lot to the imagination, nor does it pretend to be something it isn’t. As its title openly states, it’s all about knuckling in on the jobs that, well, nobody wants to do. Take the sink, for example. Even now, as I find myself scrubbing across porcelain and plastic with a microscopic jet stream, I can sense the kitchen keeping a watchful gaze. If I put as much effort into abolishing bacteria in real life as I do in this pixelated bento box, then my world would be squeaky clean—spotless, even. Yet, I find that there is more of an incentive to sift through limescale here. Blame the sushi, I guess; it’s too adorable to ignore.

Of course, the process of eliminating grime isn’t all that different to how it is in the likes of PowerWash Simulator. In a similar fashion, it presents you with a grease-smothered world, a utility belt of gadgets and gizmos, and a tool that allows you to manually scrub and rejuvenate old appliances. With as little as a click, a flick of the wrist, and a well-placed splash, you can transform bacteria-infested food slicks and leftover spillages into sparkling spaces. And I suppose, when you take most of what the game offers into account, that is how you spend most of your time here.

Let it be said that, while the game primarily revolves around cleaning, this isn’t your typical House Flipper-like situation, in that you have no second bedrooms to clean, no appliances to install, and no walls to destroy with a sledgehammer. Instead, you have a bite-sized world that erects its four pillars around the kitchen—a place of awful bacteria, questionable stains, and tiny specimens that prowl the leftovers from behind the counter. And it’s in this world where you, the bundle of sushi with a cheeky smile, begin your noble quest to add a fresh lick of polish to its grimy quarters.

The process of eradicating mold in this pint-sized cartoon diorama is as simple as it sounds on paper. In fact, once you select your tool and guide your petite hero to a location, it’s as simple as waddling back and forth with a cursor and removing the dirt at a snail-like speed. Of course, depending on the stain and the size of the task at hand, you might opt for a simple washer tool. But in other cases, you might find that a pickaxe, a leaf blower, or a flamethrower can make for a better choice for removing trickier plaques. Again, similar to PowerWash Simulator and the multi-purpose nozzle attachments. Well, sort of.

The idea behind Moldwasher is simple: to take the eagle-eyed sushi cube and venture into each nook and cranny of the kitchen to pulverize dirt. From sinks to microwaves, fridges to shelving units, everything you find here is unfit for purpose. It’s your job, in short, to make sure that even the dirtiest of appliances can be made to function again. Not that the owner of the house could care less, mind you.

If you’re wondering whether or not a game like this is as satisfying as it is filthy — yes, it is, thankfully. Like PowerWash Simulator, House Flipper, or just about any other clean ‘em up simulator of its kind, the work that you complete here can be made to feel as equally rewarding and therapeutic. Granted, it might not boast the visual complexity of a big-budget IP, but it is an adorable game that ticks a lot of important boxes.

Of course, there isn’t much of a storyline for you to cleanse here. A kitchen is in dire need of a clean, and a piece of sushi sets out to make it happen. There is no major character development — only a collection of locations, a host of substances and meager molecules, and a simple gameplay hook that requires you to spot and clean areas with a collection of tools.

The good news is that, despite there being little to no plot, the game does have its fair share of perks and tool-based milestones for you to chase. For example, once you earn enough points, you can upgrade your tools, unlock lo-fi beats, and install add-ons and other cosmetics in your basement. Granted, these are all small things, and not to mention things that you would have encountered hundreds of times before. Yet, even with its lack of originality, it provides a good and well-balanced experience that can make small spells of progress feel all the more satisfying.

Above all, there’s a niche game here that will most definitely appeal to the target demographic. Given its cutesy atmosphere and its lo-fi style, its therapeutic gameplay mechanics and its lightweight progression tropes, there’s a good chance that it will turn quite a few heads in the sandbox clean ‘em up community. It might not be the best thing to grace the kitchen sink, but it is a pleasant surprise that you might just fall in love with for all of the right reasons. What more can I say? It’s a sushi roll with a flamethrower. If that isn’t enough to make you smile from ear to ear, then I don’t know what will.

Verdict

Moldwasher makes the dirtiest of jobs all the more appealing thanks to its adorable aesthetics and simple gameplay mechanics, its lo-fi beats and its limescale-smothered cartoon dioramas. With a sizable bouquet of tools, locations, and cosmetics to unlock, it stands tall as a worthy candidate in the clean ‘em up field. As a perfect game, no — but as a well-rounded indie that has the power to entice the target demographic, yes.

When all’s said and done, it feels like a no brainer, to slide a game like Moldwasher into your to-do list. Surely, if you enjoy incremental cleaning games that drip feed you short spells of happiness and simple tasks that quite literally anyone could tackle on a rainy day, then it’s highly likely that you’ll get a kick out of squeezing this cloth out for a couple of hours.