There are plenty of games about saving kingdoms, stopping apocalypses and defeating ancient evils.
Pixel Washer would just like you to clean that absolutely disgusting food truck, please.
Publisher Acclaim and California-based indie developer Valadria have released a new gameplay trailer for Pixel Washer, offering another look at the cosy cleaning sim ahead of its upcoming release on PC, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. And this isn’t the first time we’ve talked about it, as it was a game we included in our Steam Next Fest roundup back in June.
The new footage focuses on three particularly important aspects of Pigxel’s professional cleaning career: filthy places, increasingly capable power washers and the vehicles you can spend your hard-earned cleaning money on.
Yes, one of those vehicles is called the Pig Mobile.
Obviously.
Pigxel has quite a mess to deal with
Pixel Washer puts players in control of Pigxel, a small pig with a large pair of goggles and the apparently unenviable job of cleaning an entire town.
Rather than aiming for realistic environments, Valadria has built everything using colourful pixel art. The dirt covers those environments in layers, with cleaning gradually revealing the artwork hiding underneath.
The latest trailer shows off locations including grimy game rooms, museums, city streets and filthy food trucks, with more than six different areas promised for the full game.
It is essentially the familiar satisfaction of watching a pressure washer obliterate years of questionable grime, only now everything is made from pixels, and the person holding the hose has hooves.
The Steam page describes the experience as deliberately relaxed and almost Zen-like, with players earning coins as they restore the town.
Different messes require different sprayers
Pigxel will not have to tackle every filthy surface with the same bit of equipment.
Players can build up an arsenal of power washers, with different spray patterns designed to tackle different kinds of dirt and situations.
Money earned from cleaning jobs can also be put towards better equipment, increasing things such as pressure, spray width and range. The Steam listing mentions tar, slime, mud and even snow among the substances players will eventually need to deal with.
That upgrade system should give Pixel Washer a bit more progression beyond simply moving from dirty thing A to dirty thing B.
Although, admittedly, watching dirty thing A become suspiciously shiny is already doing quite a lot of the work here.
You can spend your cleaning money on a taco truck
Naturally, someone as successful as Pigxel cannot be expected to walk between jobs.
The trailer also shows several vehicles that players can unlock and purchase with the money they earn, ranging from practical work vans to taco trucks and considerably less sensible options.
At the top of that particular ladder is the Pig Mobile.
The vehicles are used to move Pigxel and his cleaning equipment around town, adding another bit of progression alongside the expanding selection of washers.
Quite why a professional cleaner needs a fleet of vehicles instead of one reliable van is probably best left unanswered.
Sometimes financial responsibility has to make way for owning a ridiculous car shaped appropriately for a pig.
Cleaning things apparently remains extremely satisfying
Pixel Washer is arriving in a genre where the central appeal has already been fairly conclusively proven: people really enjoy watching dirt disappear.
Valadria is putting its own spin on that satisfaction through the pixel-art presentation.
Instead of revealing a realistic patio or fire engine underneath the grime, each job gradually restores a colourful piece of pixel artwork. That gives the cleaning process a more obvious before-and-after transformation, particularly across locations such as the museum.
The wider experience is being paired with a chilled soundtrack and deliberately low-pressure structure, aiming for something players can switch on and gradually work through without needing to worry about enemies, difficult objectives or the impending collapse of civilisation.
Pixel Washer’s free Steam demo has already been available since 2 June and currently carries a Very Positive rating from players, giving anyone curious about Pigxel’s particular approach to sanitation an opportunity to try it before release.
Our take on Pixel Washer
There is something wonderfully straightforward about Pixel Washer.
Here is a dirty thing.
Here is a pressure washer.
Make the dirty thing not dirty anymore.
Valadria does not seem interested in unnecessarily complicating that central satisfaction, but the different equipment, vehicles and pixel-art environments should give players enough progression to keep the cleaning from feeling completely repetitive.
The visual style is probably its strongest differentiator. Watching colourful pixel scenes gradually emerge underneath layers of muck gives every job a clear payoff, while Pigxel himself brings enough personality to stop the whole thing looking like a straightforward cleaning simulator with the resolution turned down.
And we cannot pretend the Pig Mobile has not helped.
Pixel Washer is currently listed as coming soon to PC through Steam, with Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 versions also planned for this autumn. Acclaim has not yet announced an exact release date.
A free demo is available on Steam now.
Until then, Pigxel appears to have plenty of grime to be getting on with.
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