Icy Tower, the classic freeware platformer from the early 2000s that was a viral sensation back in the day, is returning via a new Steam release next year from the original creators. I’m so happy about that it makes me want to yell “Sweeeeet!” while cartwheeling wildly through the air.
On October 1, Icy Tower creators Johan Peitz and Anders “Neo” Svensson announced that the duo’s popular 2001 game Icy Tower is getting a remake. The plan is for this new version, which looks extremely faithful to the original game, to launch on Steam sometime in 2026. Here’s the trailer, which might activate some dormant part of your brain that contains all the memories you have of playing the original Icy Tower in a computer lab in middle school.
Here’s how the original creators describe this new, upcoming version of the classic platformer:
Icy Tower is the definitive arcade jumping game. Join Harold the Homeboy and his friends as they try to climb as high up as they possibly can in a mysterious tower. But one mistake and it is back to the beginning! With its simple pick-up-and-play appeal Icy Tower delivers a pure, compelling arcade fun. As the difficulty ramps up, the game will put your timing, precision, and nerves to the true test.
If you were under the age of 17 or so in the early 2000s and spent time online, there is a very good chance that you downloaded Icy Tower from Free Lunch Design and played it for many, many hours. The game’s simple controls, bouncy physics, and endless nature made it hard to put down. It also ran on even the crappiest computers, making it easy for anyone to play.
Icy Tower was completely free, too, and its file size was so small that people shared it from computer to computer. I’m not even sure how I stumbled upon it back in the early 2000s, but once I found it, my brother and I played way, way, way too much Icy Tower while dreaming of what was at the top of the tower. (It didn’t have an end you could reach, but we didn’t know that.) And sure, there were some ports and mobile spin-offs released over the years, but this looks to be the first real follow-up from the OG creators that perfectly captures the vibes of that first game.
And now, 25 years later (which makes me feel extremely old to write), Icy Tower is coming back and it looks great. I can’t wait to flip about for hours and hours when it launches in 2026. You can wishlist it now on Steam.
