One of the best parts of living in the UK is all the history which is right on our doorstep. Unfortunately, one of the worst parts about living in the UK is that sometimes you need to actually live in said history, and anyone who’s lived in an old building will know just how bad it can be for mould.
Needless to say, Stachybotrys Chartarum, otherwise known as black mould, has become my lifelong enemy. So I’ve decided that my free time that isn’t spent battling it in my bathroom is best spent battling it in a cosy cleaning sim, because I’m nothing if not consistent.
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This is where Moldwasher comes in. It’s a cosy top-down pixel art cleaning sim in which you play as a little Salmon Nigiri, who is tasked with cleaning up their kitchen. This involves you washing bubbling mould off of fridge shelves, cleaning up a clogged sink, and even fighting a germ-spreading fly.
I’m not kidding. I turned up to one level thinking all I had to do was wash off some mould from the sides of a fridge, pretty normal stuff for Moldwasher. But as I went on I noticed more mould was appearing. Now this isn’t abnormal, since if you don’t wash the grime off fast enough, it will gradually spread around the level, but it seemed faster this time.
That’s when I noticed the fly buzzing around. At first I had thought nothing of it. It just seemed to be an annoying obstacle which I’d spray with water whenever it got too close to me. But I was wrong, The fly was actually spreading dirt around the level as I was cleaning it, I’d even been unknowingly following it around for a couple of minutes while wondering where on Earth it was all coming from.
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Once I realised that embarrassing detail I managed to corner the fly into a tight spot at the edge of the map and finish up my cleaning. I found out later that you can actually kill the fly in order to stop it from spreading any more mould, but that seems a bit harsh if you ask me.
Moldwasher nails that oddly satisfying feeling you get from methodically spraying off substances from walls and floors, leaving a sparkling shine behind. It’s cute, simple, and manages to help satiate my need for eradicating all the mould from my apartment.
It’s also extra calming thanks to all the low-fi tracks you can uncover under the grime as you’re making your way through a level. There’s also stickers and trinkets to be found under all the dirt, and the money you make from each level can go to a toy machine where you can purchase more of them to decorate your base with. You even have a chance of scoring a rare rainbow plushie—although I haven’t been so lucky yet, but here’s hoping.
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