Clean Up Earth might be just what I crave

A few weeks back I was lamenting the lack of “eco games” on an episode of Point to Point. It seems with the impending climate apocalypse, that there should be more games about saving the planet. Games like Solarpunk, Terra Nil, and Spilled! are still few and far between. While the announcement of Clean Up Earth a few weeks ago still isn’t the big budget climate game I’m hoping for, I feel duty bound to at least give it a shout.

Clean Up Earth is a first-person Powerwash Simulator style game where you explore handcrafted levels, using their Terra Cleaner vacuum to suck up debris, aluminum cans, and toxic waste beneath the surface. As you do, the environment around you will react. Trees will burst into life and the air will clear of toxic smog as you clear up the beaches, mountains, and forests.

There’s still a lot unknown about Clean Up Earth, but the promise of a modular vacuum cleaner you can upgrade or kit out for specific scenarios and different sized maps to accommodate multiplayer groups sounds exciting. You can play solo, up to three-player coop, or join larger maps made for 10+ players in multi-group coop.

I’m happy to see more indie games coming out talking about climate and focusing on individual action, but I’m still waiting for the Factorio, but climate game, the Captain Planet beat-em-up, or a Sid Meyer’s Civilization game about unifying the world to save the planet. Clean Up Earth may not be big game I'm looking for, but when Magic Pockets launch the game in Q1 2026, I’ll put my vacuum backpack on and check it out.