What if Andrew Ryan from Bioshock and even more messed up version of Walt Disney teamed up to make a carnival themed resort? That’s essentially the concept behind Thomas Brush’s adrenaline-fueled fever dream of a game. And I mean that in all the best ways. Twisted Tower has been on my most anticipated games of 2026 list for a while now, so much so that I even featured it in one of our Indie Wednesday articles. Waiting for Twisted Tower to release was tough, but now that it’s finally here, how does it stand up to the hype? Let’s grab our mallets, slip on our clown shoes, and get into Twisted Tower.

Behold the Twisted Tower.

Twisted Tower wastes no time in getting into the action. You play as Vincent, a young man who we see proposing to his girlfriend, Charlotte, at a drive-in movie theater, which just so happens to be playing her favorite film, Twisted Tower. She says yes, the screen fades to black, and Vincent wakes up in his apartment to find that Charlotte is missing. He sees an invitation has been slipped under his door, claiming that Charlotte has been taken by the film’s director, V.C. Twister, and was brought to the Twisted Tower resort. If he wants to save her, he’ll need to go there and make his way to the top of the tower. The whole introduction and setup takes less than two minutes before Vincent arrives at the Twisted Tower and the shenanigans begin.

Developer Thomas Brush of Atmos Games has been very transparent on his source of inspiration for Twisted Tower being the masterpiece that is Bioshock. You can see this instantly from the reveal of the Twisted Tower much like how we first see Rapture. The themes are similar: a wealthy man trying to create his artistic dream, only for things to go horribly wrong. Combat is in the same vein as well, but I’ll touch more on that later. However, I want to be clear that Twisted Tower is NOT a straight ripoff of Bioshock. While heavily influenced by it, Twisted Tower has enough of its own ideas and offerings that set it apart and keep it unique.

Hello Mr. Huggee Bear! Let me give you a loving tap with my Twisted Mallet!

As I mentioned earlier, Vincent’s goal is to make it to the top of the Twisted Tower, which is easier said than done. Each floor of the tower has its own theme, as the Twisted Tower was meant to be a resort celebrating the various films and projects of the crazed V.C. Twister. There’s the main lobby, the hotel with various suites, a mermaid themed waterpark, a clown casino, a carnival forest with a hedge maze and massive Ferris wheel, and a space station. Each of the floors and locations have their own distinct theme and style, while still feeling like they belong in the same demented grand concept. 

In order to gain access to each floor, Vincent will have to explore and find tickets to unlock them in the central elevator. While exploring, Vincent will find TVs scattered around, each with a direct message from V.C. Twister himself, taunting Vincent while Charlotte screams in the background. Tape recorders are also littered about, many with photos attached, each playing recordings of Vincent and Charlotte in private, showing just how long V.C. Twister has had his sights set on them for some unknown reason. Notes and files can also be found, and these give us more insight into who Vincent and Charlotte really were. Most of the tape recorders and notes are right out in the open, but a few others aren’t as obvious to find, so it’s important to be sure you explore thoroughly. 

Welcome to the circus of valuuuuuuue!

Gameplay might feel similar to Bioshock initially, but it’s not long before Twisted Tower‘s original ideas begin to create a divergence. There are no plasmids here; you never become a hero with superpowers. Instead, Twisted Tower features a very large assortments of weapons. These include things such as the Twisted Mallet, a pistol, a magnum revolver, a tommy gun, a shotgun, a chain-gun, a sniper slingshot, and rocket launcher, to name a few. Each of the weapons are carnival themed and have been designed to look like toys, with tweaks like the chain-gun shooting bubblegum balls and the magnum revolver shooting marbles, while also sporting hilarious names like the Shartgun for the shotgun, which happens to be my personal favorite.

New weapons are introduced fairly frequently throughout Twisted Tower, keeping the gameplay feeling fresh and exciting the entire way through. I thoroughly enjoyed each weapon and found myself constantly switching between them instead of picking one or two favorites and only using those. Certain weapons are great for distance and headshots, such as the pistol, magnum, and sniper slingshot (although, this weapon is so OP that it’s not introduced until very late in the game), while others are great for crowd control like the chain-gun and tommy gun.

Ariel, you’ve really let yourself go.

Ammo isn’t overly scarce, but some of the weapons like the tommy gun and chain-gun blaze through ammo very quickly, so it’s good to be mindful of how many shots you have left when in encounters with large groups so you aren’t met with the Looney Tunes-like flag popping out of the weapon’s muzzle during a crucial moment.

Much like the weapons, enemies are also well varied in Twisted Tower. Each enemy type is a corrupted version of what you’d expect to find at a carnival or fantasy/sci-fi lands: murderous mascots with furry suits and giant heads, slobbish clowns with running makeup, obese “mermaids” wearing frilly bathing suits, fairy godmothers with hateful faces, and aliens with giant brains piloting UFOs with turrets attached. They also utilize different weapons and move differently, some are slow like the chain-gun wielding murder clowns, others fast like the giant fish hook wielding berserker mermaids. This means you’ll have to come up with strategies on which enemies to take out first and which weapon to use at any given time. Combat is a ton of fun, being incredibly fast-paced with responsive controls. 

I hate these little toy phone bastards. They swarm you like piranhas.

Weapons and tape recorders aren’t the only interesting things you can find in Twisted Tower. You’ll also occasionally unlock new items or toys for you to play with using Twisted Tokens, which expand the options for traversal and exploration. For example, there are fairy wings that will allow you to dash across large gaps, clown shoes that make you jump high when bouncing on trampolines, and even eventually a jet pack (which doesn’t really let you fly, it’s more of a double jump feature). Obtaining these will allow you to get past certain obstacles, reach new locations, and even find hidden areas. 

Fairy Queen! Fairy Queen! Changing teardrops to a smile. Holding daydreams for a while.

Twisted Tower is more than just a straight-forward first-person shooter. There are some mild platforming sections, which your new toys will help you get past. There are also rollercoasters you can ride, an enormous Ferris wheel you can climb, and rooms that you can turn completely upside down, providing new paths to check out.

Platforming feels great and never unfair. Although, the one gimmick that I struggled with were the parts involving trying to speed over to a bombable door with an exploding dice block before it blows up, but that’s mostly a skill issue on my end. Even one more second on the explosion timer and I would have been fine, but it is what it is. 

Hello dice block bomb door. My old nemesis.

There are also chase sections involving venomous spiders, which I wasn’t particularly a fan of. Not just because of my intense arachnophobia, but more because these sections usually involve never-ending waves of spiders who spit their venom at you.

Not only does it poison you and drain your health, but it turns the screen bright green and obscures everything, making it difficult to navigate where you’re going. While trying to escape the maze-like chase sections, it’s already easy to get lost without the help of spiders overrunning you at every turn while your life quickly dwindles. Thankfully, these are few and far between.

Trapped in a labyrinthine sewer system with leaping venomous spiders? No, this is fine.

As far as the visuals, I was extremely impressed by the level of detail given to each and every location. Twisted Tower was developed by a very small team at Atmos Games, eventually finished mostly solo by Thomas Brush, who also developed the wonderful game, Neversong. The graphics are surprisingly good, especially for such a small studio on a tight budget.

As previously mentioned, each floor and area has its own distinct theme, which make them look and feel drastically different from one another. The amount of details put into every section is admirable, and I found myself taking time to soak in all the sights around me. The cartoonish designs of the characters and enemies was a smart choice given the limited budget and team. There are also a ton of visual gags sprinkled throughout each area, which add a lot to the experience.

These Seahorses also have flamethrowers for heads. Neat!

The sound design in Twisted Tower is fantastic. Its purposely over-the-top cheesy vocal performances fit the tongue-in-cheek tone of the game well. The soundtrack utilizes a blending of original tracks with hard synth carnival-sounding themes along with existing songs from the mid 1900s that add to the atmosphere. I’ve had “They Say It’s Wonderful” stuck in my head for days, which I’m not mad about. Every section of Twisted Tower is filled with the sounds of a carnival, along with whirring gears of the machinery, the storm raging outside, the maniacal wails of the enemies, and of course the booms, blasts, and squeaks of the weapons.

Twisted Tower was everything I was hoping for and more. The combat was even better than I was expecting, and I was in constant awe and delight as I took in every new horror each floor had to offer. My one minor issue is that I felt the ending, while unexpected, left me with some unanswered questions, especially the more I thought about it. However, Twisted Tower is a nonstop thrill(carnival) ride from start to finish, and can be completed in one sitting as it only takes about four to six hours to complete. There’s also a New Game Plus option, which will give you access to other areas on each floor that were previously boarded up, so there’s plenty of incentive to play it more than once. I know I will. If you love Bioshock and want to play a severely demented carnival-themed take on it, then its time to scale the Twisted Tower.

Twisted Tower is available now on PC (Steam).

Reviewed on PC with i7-12700kf, RTX 5070, and 32gb of DDR5 RAM.

A copy of Twisted Tower was provided by the publisher.