Mouthwashing

Submission 210

About

Mouthwashing is a 2024 indie surreal horror video game developed by Wrong Organ and published by Critical Reflex. The game follows the story of five crew members who get stranded on board of a spaceship hauling a cargo of mouthwash after a collision with a space object. Following the release of the game in late September 2024, it became a popular subject of fan art, references and memes online.

History

On September 26th, 2024, indie surreal psychological horror video game Mouthwashing, developed by Stockholm studio Wrong Organ and published by Critical Reflex, was released.^[1] The game follows a story of five crew member of a space ship named Tulpar who get stranded in space following a collision with a space object. On the same day, the official trailer for the game premiered on YouTube^[2] (shown below).

Gameplay and Features

Mouthwashing is a psychological horror game set on a spaceship hauling the cargo of mouthwash. Following a collision with a space object, the ship gets stranded in space, with its five crewmates left guessing whether any help is coming in time to save them before rations run out.

The game has a fragmented timeline, with characters Curly, the former captain who was severely injured in the crash and who is bed-ridden, and Jimmy, the second pilot who took on captain's responsibilities after it, being the two protagonists. The gameplay largely involves the player speaking to other characters, including shy medical worker Anya, grumpy mechanic Swansea, and his cheerful intern Daisuke, and completing various tasks to piece the story together.

Reception

Mouthwashing was met with positive reviews online. On Steam,^[3] the game had an average user score of 96% (Overwhelmingly Positive) based on over 2,700 reviews as of October 16th, 2024.

Fandom

Following its release, the game and its characters achieved viral popularity as inspiration of fan art online, with users praising the story and the writing game. For example, on October 2nd, 2024, X^[4] user @Ekrixart posted a Shinji Throwing a Bottle at Asuka meme featuring characters Swansea and Daisuke, with the post (shown below) gaining over 500 reposts and 2,400 likes in two weeks.

Memes and fan art based on the characters and referencing the plot of the game saw viral spread across X and Tumblr in October 2024, with the dialogue lines "Take responsibility", "I hope this hurts", "Useless ray of goddamn sunshine", and "In the back of my mind, it's always there" being referenced and used as captions for posts. Character Anya became particularly popular as inspiration of fan art online.