‘Spilled!’ Is a Therapeutic, Easy-To-Play, and Adorable Cleaning Simulator That Hits All the Right Notes (Review)

Not every game needs to be a 40+ hour adventure to make an impact. Games like Spilled! make their point quickly, but their impact will be felt for quite a while longer. In this roughly hour-long adventure, I was in command of an adorable little boat. And as this adorable little boat, it was my job to clean up the pollution in a small body of water. Small bouts of video game logic are sprinkled in to make the experience more enticing, but the basic plot is that simple. But what Spilled! lacks in story, it makes up for in relaxation, environmental messaging, and just being a beautiful and fun little experience for everyone.

Short and Sweet Is the Name of the Game in ‘Spilled!’, and It Doesn’t Wear Out Its Welcome

Spilled! is a short game, and that’s something I’m going to echo a lot here. It has a simple premise, as well. Drive this cute red boat around, cleaning up the environmental hazards. Starting with the smallest little vacuum and oil catcher possible, I was only able to pick up this mess at what felt like a snail’s pace. By the end of the game, however? I was flying through these levels, using the vacuum like a rake to clean up pollution at the speed of sound. The progression here is appropriately spaced out, starting at a measly 20 coins.

Getting coins was a simple enough process, as well. I just needed to dispose of the waste that I had collected. And as the levels began to open up, I found better ways to make more money. Upgrading the boat was as simple as pressing a button, and I was quickly on my way to making the world a better place. While the bodies of water are limited in scale, they do encourage the idea of exploration. Each subsection of the map had two hidden animals hanging out. And it was up to me to save them, while sucking up the scum that they found themselves relaxing on.

Just Keep Chugging On

Each portion of Spilled!‘s map takes roughly 5 to 10 minutes to clean up, depending on how quickly I was trying to pass through them. But additional new features arrive on the boat as the adventure carries on. I could fish out barrels from the ocean floor. And I could also blast oil scum off walls to suck it into my ship. The final stage has a surprising twist that I’m not going to mention here, but I was excited to finally use all my skills to pay the bills. It’s an interesting and genuinely climactic end. But even after the credits rolled, I could go back in and finish cleaning up the world I was in.

Beautiful Sights and Sounds Make ‘Spilled!’ Worthy of Repeated Visits

Spilled! is a serene little game. It’s also the type of title you could hand to anybody, and they could figure it out quite easily. Accessibility, messaging, and just plain beauty are all parts of the core experience here. Finding hidden treasures, helping out your fellow living beings, and just making the world a better place. Its messaging couldn’t be any more clear, even with little to no dialogue during its runtime. All of the pieces are placed from the second it starts. And it’s up to the player to determine how to progress.

It’s a linear, simple adventure. But it’s also one that is going to stay with me for quite a while. Comfort food in digital form, I can pick up Spilled! and set out on an adventure on the high seas whenever I’d like. I don’t need to worry about a time limit or anything like that. Taking an adventure at my own pace is something that I need every once in a while, and Spilled! gets high marks for letting me do just that. Its beauty is more than skin deep, and it’s a game that gets the point across with ease. And I love it for that.

Verdict: Highly Recommended

---

Spilled! will be available March 26, 2025, on Steam. A code was provided by the publisher for the sake of review. Reviewed on PC.