Oh yeah, that was definitely another inspiration (though not a totally conscious one).

When Noyb mentioned Chirotorie, I assume he was referring not only to the actual vacuum cleaner, but the Chiritorie Vs. minigame from WarioWare, Inc. as well. The mechanics are basically identical, but it has vacuum cleaner inspired scoring like you mentioned, so I thought you might not be aware of it.

I'd never actually seen a real Chirotorie before Noyb brought it up, though, so I was fascinated to see that they too control almost identically.

I faced a similar dilemma immediately after making it, and had to forcibly display it at a local gamedev meetup a week later to determine whether it was playable at all.

I will look into creating a version with online multiplayer later this year (I may not be successful).