Loddlenaut Review - Cleaning the Ocean, One Bubble at a Time
Developed by Moon Lagoon, Loddlenaut is a relaxing ocean clean-up game that’s part Sonic Adventure’s Chao Gardens, part Powerwash Simulator. Honestly, when I first read that description, I knew exactly where I stood - this game was going to be my kind of thing.
A Polluted Paradise in Peril
Your mission takes place on GUP-14, a once-thriving ocean planet now choking under mountains of waste. The culprit? The mega-corporation Guppi, who have been dumping trash here for years. The marine habitat is in crisis, and it’s up to you to turn the tide.
Armed with your trusty Bubble Gun, you’ll hoover up floating litter, scrub away thick goop clinging to coral, and watch as colour slowly returns to plants and reefs. It’s a strangely satisfying transformation - dull, decaying landscapes shift into vibrant, living spaces. Of course, this is a battle that never truly ends. Just like in the real world, the trash always comes back.
Meet the Loddles
While the clean-up work is rewarding in itself, the real heart of Loddlenaut is the adorable blob-like creatures you meet along the way - the Loddles. At first, they’re tiny and helpless, just following you around. But with care, cleaning, and the right snacks, they grow, and sometimes even evolve into unique breeds depending on their diet.
Your onboard Loddlepedia logs each type you discover, along with the foods that triggered their evolution. Before long, you’re not just restoring the ocean - you’re building a thriving little ecosystem of weird and wonderful Loddles, each with its own personality.
Cleaning, Crafting, and Upgrades
Back at your Home Cove, the trash you collect gets sorted into Metal, Glass, Plastic, Organic Matter, and Batteries. Recycling enough of each type rewards you with upgrade materials, but you can also use the junk to craft handy tools like cleaning bombs.
Harvest fruit from freshly cleaned plants to feed your Loddles, create more complex recipes, or craft toys for them from recycled scraps. Over time, you’ll unlock upgrades that make life much easier - from Oxygen Tanks that keep you exploring longer, to a Scrap Vac for sucking up microplastics, to inventory boosts and new gear like Puddle Scrubbers.
A World Worth Saving
GUP-14 is split into different regions - from the gentle coral of Ripple Reef to the murkier waters of Grimy Gulf - each with its own percentage meter showing how much you’ve cleaned. Fully restore an area and you can fast-travel back any time, though the litter and goop will eventually creep back in.
To help with upkeep, you can plant seedlings that repel goop or leave certain Loddles behind. Some Loddles specialise in cleaning, others in pollinating, and others in energising the area. You can also take them out on clean-up duty - some will even give you a handy energy boost mid-mission. Keeping them healthy, happy, and housed in a clean biome means they’ll eat, grow, and maybe even have babies.
Relaxing and Rewarding
The game’s colourful, soft pixel art style radiates comfort, while the soothing soundtrack perfectly matches the slow, deliberate pace of underwater exploration. New upgrades and areas unlock at just the right rhythm - enough to keep you curious, without overwhelming you.
Hazards do exist, from dense clouds of microplastics to large reinforced trash containers, but these simply add gentle goals to work towards. Eventually, you’ll even get gear to explore deeper waters, which adds a satisfying sense of progression.
Updates and Longevity
Even when you’ve “finished” an area, the slow return of pollution gives you a reason to come back - and the devs are keeping things fresh with updates. The recent Goddle update added the Goddle Grotto area, new equipment upgrades, more Loddles to discover, and rare variants like shiny, radiant, and ghostly Loddles.
On the Switch eShop, Loddlenaut is £15.99 (currently 10% off until October 3rd), which feels like great value for the amount of relaxing, repeatable content on offer.
Final Thoughts
Loddlenaut is a delight - gentle, rewarding, and surprisingly addictive. The blend of restoration gameplay and creature-raising makes every dive feel purposeful, and the evolving Loddles give your clean-up efforts a personal touch. It’s not a high-stakes challenge, but that’s exactly the point.
In the end, we decided to give Loddlenaut the Collecting Asylum rating of 8.5/10.
A calming, feel-good adventure that proves even the smallest actions can make a big difference - both in games and in the oceans we share.
Are you interested in Loddlenaut? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Secret Mode for the Loddlenaut Switch review code!
