Icy Tower

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a game by Free Lunch Design
Genre: Adventure/RPG
Platform: PC (2001)
Editor Rating: 7.5/10, based on 2 reviews
User Rating: 6.0/10 - 6 votes
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See also: Best Casual Games, Arcade Games, Old School Games, High Score Games
Icy Tower
Icy Tower
Icy Tower

Here we have Icy Tower. A game that on the surface could not look any more simple and basic. However, Icy Tower is one of those very addictive games that gets its hooks right into you and you keep saying “just one more go” for about an hour! This was a bit of a phenomenon a couple of years back and it is very easy to see why once you have played it for just five minutes.

What’s Up, Homeboy?

The premise of Icy Tower is that you are playing as Harold The Homeboy and he wants to showcase his sick jumping moves by getting to the top of the tower. That is all there is for a backstory on the game, but to be fair for a game like this that is actually more than I would expect.

Run, Jump, Land, Repeat

The gameplay of Icy Tower could not be any more simple. You control Harold with the arrow keys and the space bar is your jump button. Those are the only controls that you have to worry about so anyone can play this game. You need to jump and get as high as you can. The level will move faster and faster and the platforms will start to move the higher you get up. You can also jump off the walls to get to a higher platform. The game has a score system and to get the highest score you will have to do combos.

Check This Sick Combo Bro!

The way that you do these is by clearing multiple floors in one leap. If you build up your meter on the left side of the screen enough you can do super jumps and cartwheels. This can make you leap the length of the screen in a single leap. This is great in theory, but I found that this tended to happen at random times and more often than not I would do one of the super jumps by accident and it would throw my rhythm off and I would fall to my death!

One And Done!

The biggest challenge of Icy Tower is that this is a one life kind of game. If you fall, it is game over and you have to start over from the beginning. This is to be expected with a game like this, but sometimes when you die, you feel it is because of the game and not because you made a mistake this can be frustrating.

While it is frustrating there is just something that tells you to have one more go and in that regard, Icy Tower is super addictive. For me, it is the kind of game that I played and played until the point the frustration grew to be more than the fun I was having.

Tinker Away

You can download some “add-ons” for Icy Tower that allow you to use custom characters. I found this to be a major chore and hard to do as you do not do it through the actual game. To be fair this could be my lack of technical ability. Also when you download the game, watch that it does not try to install this weird toolbar on your computer as well!

Icy Tower can be a fun game for what it is. I think that it is the kind of game that you will either get addicted to or rage quite. I kept going back to try and beat my high score and I did have a lot of fun with the game. At the same time though, I did get frustrated and this led me to shut the game off.

6.5/10

Pros:

  • The platforms change after ever 100
  • It is very easy to learn the basics of
  • The game is very addictive
  • The high score system is fun
  • You always want to have just one more go

Cons:

  • It can be very frustrating
  • It wants to download other stuff to your computer!

Download Icy Tower

PC

System requirements:

  • PC compatible
  • Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows 7/2000/Vista/WinXP

Game Reviews

I had a hard time writing this Icy Tower review. Not because the game is not good, but because the game is so much fun and so addictive that I wanted to keep on playing it. This is a free to play game and it is one of the most charming, addictive free to play games that I have ever had the pleasure to play. It is very simple in its concept and pretty much anyone can pick up and play this game, but that is where its addictive nature shines through.

From The Bottom To The Top

As this is an arcade style of game, Icy Tower does not have any kind of deep narrative that you have to keep on top of. Basically, we play as a funky little dude who is trying to make his way to the top of this tower and that is that. To be honest with you, I am cool with this. A game like this is clearly designed with being a bit of a throwback to the days of 80s and early 90s arcade gaming so I get a kick out of the basic premise here.

Jump, Jump!

I haven’t jumped this much since the days of Kriss Kross when I was in primary school! How about that for a dated reference! Icy Tower is a game that has a very simple concept. We start at the bottom of this tower and we need to make our way as far up as we can. You just use the space bar and the left and right arrows. You need to jump up the floors, but the skill comes from unleashing combos where you jump multiple floors at once. You pick up momentum when you run from left to right and when you jump off the walls.

Hurry Up!

I would wager that more than a few of you read what I just wrote and think that Icy Tower is a very simple and easy game. It may start out that way, but the challenge ramps up really fast. The first few floors are very easy, but the tower will start moving down! This makes things much more challenging and the speed the tower moves picks up after so many floors, meaning that the challenge keeps getting harder and harder. One of the most addictive aspects of the game is keeping that combo meter going. It kind of makes you try to focus on several floors ahead, but the trade off here is that if you are doing that and mistime a jump, it can put you in a very dangerous position.

Spicing It Up A Little

The background of Icy Tower never changes, it is the same ice covered tower that we are traversing the whole time you play the game. However, every 100 floors the platforms that we land on will change. It starts as stone, then ice then wood and it goes on and on until you reach floor 1000 and then they are all made of glass which is hard to see, making it even more challenging. It is not much, but I do think the variety of the jumps keeps you on your toes as it is exciting when it changes, but it also adds an extra level of challenge for you to contend with.

8.5

I cannot say enough positive things about Icy Tower. Think of games like Doodle Jump and you will have a basic idea of what to expect here. The game is basic as far as the gameplay and the way that it looks goes, but I dig it, it adds to the charm and gives the game a real classic arcade game kind of fee. The whole point of this is getting the high score and it can be a lot of fun and very addictive if you have a friend who is into this game and you keep trying to outdo each other when it comes to your high score!

Pros:

  • The game is very addictive
  • It is great if you like high score based arcade games
  • I liked how the platforms would change every 100 floors
  • You can challenge friends to try and beat your high score

Cons:

  • It is addictive, but it is the kind of game where you do eventually have your fill
  • I like the arcade style, but a little bit more personality would have been nice

Snapshots and Media

PC Screenshots

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