Being tasked with menial labour and meticulous work is a trend in gaming that shouldn’t work as well as it does, and I suspect it won’t die any time soon. From running a clothing store to a food truck or even airport security, dozens of these job simulators come out, and they don’t all have to be mundane, either. Post delivery sims with meaningful stories to tell, alchemy sims taking you into the world of fantasy and a lot of jank, or ship-salvaging sims that comment on working class struggles are just a few of the more unique ones out there.
Today’s game is perhaps one of the more comedic ones out there. By taking “money laundering” way too literally, Cash Cleaner Simulator is a bit of a sinister entry into the genre of job sims out there that stands out through its core gameplay loop and an actual story to enjoy bit by bit as you pay off your debt.
Developer: Mind Control Games
Publisher: Forklift Interactive, Gamersky Games
Genre: Job Simulator, Cozy, Satire?
Release Date: May 8th, 2025
Reviewed on: PC
Available on: PC, PS5, XBS
Copy was provided by StridePR.
The base premise of Cash Cleaner Simulator is rather simple: You’ve been kidnapped and entrapped with no memory of what transpired and are tasked with taking cash, sorting it, and then sending it off to totally legit businesses on the dark net. Look, this sounds bad… but we’re already sitting in an unlit room, can’t escape, and a voice keeps giving us tasks to complete, so… With no place to go and nothing else to do, we might as well lean into it, right?
As such, we accept a job on the underbelly of the internet world, take the money we’re provided with, and fulfil the contracts to a satisfactory level. After we are done with a job, we are paid out in currency to buy stuff we need for jobs. Boxes, bags, money counting machines, decorations, and more await!
Some clients just want you to take a certain amount of cash and stuff it into a box, while others are more involved, asking for specific denominations and containers being requested. You’ve got picky clients in all jobs, so why not also have one in this very legal operation, requesting only $10 bills, stuffed into a mattress?
As such, some jobs are more involved than others and whether you take these or not is totally up to you, for the most part. Completing jobs earns you reputation, unlocking better jobs in the process. Some jobs vanish if not taken within a certain time period, while others are static and need to be taken as they also function as an introduction to new mechanics, like scanning money for counterfeits or using detergent to clean off radioactive gunk.
Since the currency you attain is separate from the cash you receive, paying off your loans means that you have to skim some money from your clients’ funds and use it towards that goal. They won’t miss a grand or two, right?
Money drops down from the ceiling, and the – very legal – businesses that you acquire it from are somehow not all that interested in providing exactly the amount needed for the job.
Most of the time, you end up with way more money through accepting jobs than you actually need to complete them, so you just take whatever is left over and use that for other jobs or your personal needs. Nice and easy. And with no real time limit on most jobs, you can just take your time to scrounge up more money needed to complete jobs by taking other jobs, which feels like taking loans to pay off loans, but hey, it worked for me.
I found it actually surprising just how much there is to the game. You can interact with various contacts on your phone, you can decorate the place you reside in, unlock new areas and machines, and sort of just “vibe” as you complete jobs at your own pace. As you make progress, there are even bits and pieces of a grander story that you get to savour.
There’s a level of depth to the money laundering mechanics, too, with marked or counterfeit money, as well as a plethora of collectable coins and bills, objects, and other memorabilia for you to amass on shelves or wherever you want to have them.
I love jank in games, oddly enough, and it’s just kinda funny to see piles of money explode everywhere as you play the game, but there are also various ways to ensure that doesn’t happen, which I found neat.
That said, while I get that it’s part of the game’s appeal that you’re sorting and counting cash, moving boxes around, and scanning bills for marks or counterfeits, I had an issue with the progression never quite delivering that automation payoff the genre usually promises.
In other games, you can hire staff or unlock some ways to alleviate the burden on you as a player, specifically as your operations scale up. Cash Cleaner Simulator, however, doesn’t do that, which can make the game feel a bit too tedious in the long run.
You may buy a money counting machine, which reduces that aspect of the burden, but you’re still left with manually washing and drying bills, manually supplying the machines with the piles of cash, and manually taking whatever got filtered out and putting it into other machines.
Yes, you can line these up so that they supply other machines, but with no funnels or other items to aid you, bills can lend elswhere and have to be picked up manually. I am not asking for full-on automation of these processes, of course, but just some help would go a long way, especially as jobs get more involved, specific and lengthy.
That said, it is clear that Cash Cleaner Simulator is a fun little passion project that is meant to be savoured one bit at a time. It's funny, doesn't take itself too seriously, and it doesn't step across the line with its darker undertones. On top of that, it actually has a surprisingly deep story with twists and turns that reward continued play, and it quite frankly manages to scratch that itch that Power Wash Sim left for me pretty darn well. Provided you enjoy the tactile, hands-on aspect of job sims more than the progression towards automation and optimisation, Cash Cleaner Simulator has a lot to offer.
This post was originally written by Dan Dicere from Indiecator.
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