Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed | Category "Moon Sweepers"

Clean a whole planet with a toothbrush in Moon Sweepers, the PowerWash genre's latest crime against perfectionists

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 12:44:03 +0000

I don't much go for PowerWash Simulator-likes, but there is something appealingly unwholesome about a game in which you have to wipe the dust off an entire moon. Using a toothbrush. True, you can upgrade to beefier hoovering equipment in Moon Sweepers by cashing in shipments of lunar dirt, but that strikes me as a dangerous concession to brute mass production thinking – it risks consigning centuries of artisanal knowledge to, well, the dustbin.

Take pride in your craft, colleagues! If we become over-reliant on hoover-me-dos, we'll lose the skill of cleansing celestial objects by hand, and sooner or later, they'll give our jobs to the bots. You can keep your new-fangled vacuum mops. If anybody needs me, I'll be over here in the Sea of Tranquility, collecting individual motes with a pair of tweezers.

What are we all playing this weekend?

Julian Benson — Sat, 31 Oct 2026 09:45:21 +0000

My scares should have been reserved for today, what with it being All Hallows' Eve and all, but my fright came on Thursday.

Part idle game, part automation game, Moon Sweepers exploits the sickness in me that adores both Satisfactory and Cookie Clicker

Julian Benson — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:30:00 +0000

When Edwin talked about Moon Sweepers yesterday he focused on the artisanal approach to space rock cleaning. Like the puritan he is, he wants to wipe away all the dust on the moon using a toothbrush. He says you should take pride in your work, stick one spacesuit-clad middle finger up to the machines and say 'Fuck off, robots. Let me show you my art!" as you get down on all fours and brush away moon dust.

I've taken a different approach.