Review: Mouthwashing (Switch)
By Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)
Mouthwashing was an immediate indie favorite when it debuted on PC in 2024. It’s the type of game that sparks considerable conversation and examination despite its relatively brief duration, making it feel long overdue to finally experience it on console.
Now, having gone through the new Nintendo Switch version, I can earnestly state that Mouthwashing has located an ideal new sanctuary. Even better, it operates flawlessly in handheld mode, allowing you to immerse yourself deeper into the unsettlingly personal horror narrative, unable to detach yourself from the horrors you’re enacting on screen.
For the few unfamiliar with it, Mouthwashing unfolds on the Tulpar, a space cargo vessel, with an aesthetic best characterized as Alien meets BioShock. The game revolves around the endurance of a long-distance delivery team after one of them crashes the craft into an asteroid. With dwindling resources and escalating tensions among the team, it is evident that things will soon take a turn for the worse.
The narrative is non-linear and often conveyed by unreliable narrators or through abstract nightmare sequences. You navigate between events occurring before and after the crash, portraying two distinct crew members. Gameplay is predominantly very straightforward: traverse the ship, engaging with items and your fellow crew members. It’s very much a walking simulator, but when it excels at instilling a constant sense of escalating dread with each movement, it earns that title.
With its simulated retro graphics, Mouthwashing finds its perfect fit on the Switch. While playing on Switch 2, I encountered no noteworthy issues — in both docked and handheld modes — as the console is more than adequate to cope with these highly stylized visuals. It truly feels like it was meant for Switch all along.
The only element of Mouthwashing that struggles in its transition to Switch is the controls. Navigating and interacting with (most of) the surroundings is acceptable, but anything necessitating greater precision,
