The sorting/organisational sim game genre is experiencing rapid growth as developers rush to get in on the latest trend. So far, I’ve played my fair share and have found many entries lacking. But I was more than willing to put Tidy Up Together to the test with my friends.
Simple Premise
You enter the shop after a wizard has cast hurricane on your merchandise as a result of a bad interaction. That’s the extent of the plot, but you don’t really need more than that. The intro letter is also fully voiced, which is a nice touch.
There are three Tidy Up Together levels to choose from: Wyrmling, Dragon and Leviathan. Consider these easy, medium and hard, as the number of items you have to sort goes from a few hundred to a few thousand (9500 for Leviathan!). Although it was hard to imagine what thousands of items would look like, the sheer volume of items in the Leviathan level was quite impressive once I saw it.
Tidy Up
There are no real restrictions on where you need to place your items, other than the “area” they belong in. These are pretty easy to figure out, with weapons, toys, clothing, etc having huge signs above them. All you really need to worry about is not doubling up on items while you sort. I played with keyboard and mouse and found it really comfortable to pick up, place and scroll through my inventory. There are controller options, but I didn’t find them as intuitive and would likely switch them around if I intended to continue with them.
As with other organising games, you get access to skills which you can upgrade. An item finder, extra inventory space and increased character speed will aid in your organisation. They do make a huge difference to your gameplay and can be ignored if anyone is looking for a real challenge.
Tidy Up… Together
The main draw of Tidy Up Together is the fact that you can play it with your friends. I’ve looked at so many of these games, and often, the multiplayer ones were filled with AI slop and ran poorly. Thankfully, Tidy Up Together uses no generative AI and works incredibly well. Also… you can pet the cat!
We went in as a team of four and smashed through the first two levels and associated achievements within a few hours. My team worked well to complete the goals and, once we realised there was a timer to beat, we locked in. Even as a team, we managed to relax, laugh and thoroughly enjoy our time together.
The options for character customisation were fine but not extensive, and enough for us to recognise each other at a glance. I also appreciated the option to hide screen names if wanted.
Ship-Shaped
Tidy Up Together ran really well on my PC. However, I do recommend dropping the settings upon launch, as everything defaults to “epic” levels and 200 fps for some reason. The controls worked naturally and fluently, but we did turn off the motion blur.
The textures and models look good and offer a nice variety to uncover. Some collections, such as sushi, felt a little random in a fantasy setting, but it would be hard to think of enough items to fill hundreds of shelves without duplicates. Similarly, the music was perfectly ambient while still adding to the overall atmosphere, lending itself to hours of dissociative gameplay.
Open For Business
Tidy Up Together is a great example of a tidy-up game done right. Steam’s homepage might be chock-full of organisation and sorting games at the moment, but there are still some interesting and worthwhile spins on the genre for us to explore. The multiplayer option and anti-AI stance of the developer make Tidy Up Together a strong contender, and worth checking out if you’ve not tried one of these games before.
Platforms: PC
Publishers: Malum Games
Developers: Malum Games
Played On: Steam
Key Provided By: Keymailer
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