Suck It Up!

Suck It Up! released in full on Steam on June 1, 2026, as a free student project from Tower of Basil under Breda University of Applied Sciences, an action-adventure in which players take on the role of an exterminator wielding the S.U.C.C.-1000 vacuum, tasked with clearing alien goop and critters out of a distressed steampunk-flavored factory town before retirement. Its 14-review English pool sits at Positive (14 up, 0 down, 100%), and the reviews describe a genuinely charming, easy-to-love game whose biggest problem is simply that there isn't very much of it.

Character and world design draw unanimous, specific praise across nearly every review in the pool, a rare level of consensus even among the fully positive reviews this lane has covered this month. One reviewer wrote plainly, "the character and monsters in the game were very fun and designed well and I liked the factory city vibe!" Another, who framed their review as an outside evaluation of a student team's public demo, still singled out the art specifically: "I do like that the game ramps up the 'difficulty' first few... goo piles, do not spawn enemies, the next few do after being destroyed and the last few spawn them mid 'suck' which actually made it fun and engaging enough." A third reviewer put the presentation and tone succinctly: "especially loved the world design and character design of the main character," while a fourth simply wished for "some vocals, or more story," specifically because "I loved the artwork" enough to want to spend more time in that world.

The core suck-and-throw loop earns consistent, if modest, praise as satisfying rather than groundbreaking. One reviewer described the moment-to-moment gameplay directly: "Clean up the goop, pick up bigger objects to throw at bugs and suck those up too," calling it "solid execution on a Suck n' Blow action/cleaning kinda game." Another found it "very satisfying cleaning up the city and fighting the monsters," while a third called the overall gameplay "satisfying and easy to pick up," specifically praising how "the enemies became more difficult and harder to kill" as a run progresses. That escalating difficulty curve, introducing goop piles that spawn enemies only after being disturbed, then mid-suck, is the pool's most specific piece of design praise, suggesting a deliberately paced encounter design rather than simply throwing more enemies at the player over time.

Against that consistent charm, the pool raises a cluster of specific, concrete complaints that a reviewer looking past the game's free price tag should weigh honestly. Runtime is the most consistent: one reviewer noted the game "ends pretty abruptly after the 4th trophy area," adding "not sure how you're supposed to find the 5th and 6th areas when the game tells you you cleaned up the whole town and throws you back to the menu," which reads as either a bug or a mismatch between the store page's advertised content and what a normal playthrough actually delivers. Another reviewer who logged thirteen hours specifically speedrunning the game confirmed as much more bluntly: "the game is still very short at the moment, but that's to be expected," while still calling it a positive experience overall.

Performance and settings also drew specific, actionable complaints rather than vague grumbling. One reviewer reported having "to play on the lowest settings" due to unspecified issues, and separately requested "a general quality setting rather than separated" options, since adjusting several individual graphics settings by hand was more friction than the game's scope seemed to warrant. A different reviewer echoed the same lowest-settings workaround more casually, joking "turn down graphics a bit and the game will run just fine" while still rating the experience positively overall. Combat feedback was the other specific, recurring request: one reviewer wanted "just some minor sound effect like a SHWOOMP or a THWACK" when landing a hit, noting the current lack of audio cues made successful hits feel a little flat despite the otherwise satisfying core loop.

It's also worth noting explicitly that several reviewers frame their write-ups as evaluating a "demo" or an early public build rather than a fully mature release, language that shows up repeatedly even though the game is formally listed as a full release on Steam. That framing, combined with the abrupt four-of-six-trophy-area ending, suggests the content gap between what's advertised and what a typical player currently experiences is a real, ongoing rough edge rather than a one-off complaint.

A handful of lighter, less substantive reviews round out the pool without adding much beyond enthusiasm, which is worth noting for anyone weighing the 100% positive score at face value. Reviews like "Those critters won't know what hit them!!! 10/10 would succ1000 again" or "I am now a certified sucker. This game really helped me Suck it Up!!!!" are genuine and clearly affectionate, but they're closer to one-line endorsements than evaluative writing, and the pool's perfect score owes a fair amount to this kind of low-effort but sincere goodwill from a small, supportive early audience rather than to a broad, critical consensus. That's a meaningfully different signal than a game earning a unanimous score from a large, skeptical crowd, and it's worth factoring into how much weight the raw percentage deserves here.

Taken together, Suck It Up! is a charming, well-designed, but genuinely thin student release that earns its unanimous positive score more through goodwill, low stakes, and a zero-dollar price tag than through mechanical depth or content volume. For anyone curious about a free hour of vacuuming alien goop with real visual and character charm, it's worth a look, just don't expect it to last much beyond that first sitting.