Game: Bathhouse Creatures
Genre: Simulation, Strategy
System: Steam (Windows)
Developers | Publishers: Sleepy Rocket
Controller Support: Full
Price: US $TBC | UK £TBC | EU € TBC
Release Date: June 2nd, 2025
A review code was provided, with many thanks to Sleepy Rocket.
Bathhouse Creatures is a simulation title from indie developers Sleepy Rocket. In it, you meet a young dragon who is here to help you start a bunch of different bathhouses for the local wildlife.
Pixel Art Extravaganza
In this simulation game, you have a little pixel art bathhouse, and you get to help a bunch of very cute pixel art critters take relaxing baths, hang out in the sauna, and leave happy. In order to do that, you can automate water cleaning and heating, get decorations, and even provide snacks or toys.
You start with some ducks, nostalgic for the good old days of the bathhouse, then you get to meet some very cute capybaras, criminal hippos, thieving monkeys, and a whole lot more. Each will come into the bathhouse looking for certain decor and a relaxing atmosphere.
As critters pile in the door, they will have stars over their heads to indicate how happy or unhappy they are with their service so far, and you can raise that by getting them into a bath quickly, sending them to the sauna in some levels, or by having the right decor in their bath for them. The gameplay loop is basically getting your decorations and tubs ready, then starting the day. After the day starts, you need to fill and empty tubs, heat the water, clean up trash, and get customers in and out as quickly as possible.
The Pros of Bathhouse Creatures
Bathhouse Creatures is super cute. The pixel art, music, and sound design are all great. I thought the non-pixelized art was a little amateurish, but it was also endearing. Overall, it looked good and sounded good as well. The controls were fine as soon as I got a handle on them, and the gameplay loop is pretty fun.
I liked all the little decorations and the adorable little animals as well. It was a lot of fun to play, and I think the developers made a really good, smooth game with a lot of love and heart in it.
The Cons of Bathhouse Creatures
Unfortunately, Bathhouse Creatures was a little disappointing in some aspects. The first was that the menu doesn’t include the keyboard keybinds, so I stumbled around trying to figure out how to place decorations for the first couple of in-game days. All the other interactions were pretty intuitive, so I wonder if that was a me problem and not an issue with the game. That being said, it wasn’t my only issue.
Later on in Bathhouse Creatures, you host monkeys in your bathhouse, and it turns out that all the monkeys are thieves. If you aren’t paying attention, you will lose all the decorations you spent your hard-earned money on as the monkeys walk out of the bathhouse with anything that isn’t nailed down. I didn’t really understand why the developers chose to have this be a mechanic in a cozy, relaxing game; it feels really out of place, even in the fast-paced world of soaking in the bath.
Another small issue I had with the game was the decorations. They are limited in where you can place them; if you purchase a fan, for example, that is the only decor that can go on the wall. It felt very limiting in a game where I wanted to be able to place a bunch of plants around to make it feel like a cozy little space, but you really can’t do much.
Also, why do only the monkeys steal? And only the hippos are Mafia members? This felt like a weird way to handle this; in a game that’s supposed to, once again, be cozy, there were in-game stereotypes that all the animals fell into in a way that made me a little uncomfortable. Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, and I really didn’t care for the way Bathhouse Creatures (unknowingly, I’m sure) made all the animals have specific personalities like they weren’t individuals.
Conclusion
I understand that this is a cute little game that most likely didn’t mean anything by the whole in-game stereotypes of animals, so I want to give it the benefit of the doubt. However, if this sort of way of portraying species might feel bad to you, I would steer clear of Bathhouse Creatures. If this sort of thing doesn’t bother you, then it’s a perfectly cute little sim. I had fun with it; it wasn’t the best sim I’ve ever played, but I would play it again.
Final Verdict: I Like it.
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