Co-op maze arcade
Bad Ice Cream 3
Build ice, break ice, collect the fruit before something eats you. The best game here for two people sharing one keyboard.
- Made by
- Nitrome, London
- Released
- Rebuilt for HTML5 in 2020
- Shelf
- The ride · 10–20 minutes
- One session
- Five to fifteen minutes of levels
- Account
- No account
- Connection
- Forgiving if the connection stutters
- Controls
- Arrow keys for one player, two sets for co-op, touch on a phone
- Pays its way with
- Adverts on the page
- Last retested
- 22 September 2026
Opens the developer's own site in a new tab. The link is editorial: nobody paid for it, and we get nothing if you click it.
- To start
- £0, nothing to install
- Most it will sell you
- Nothing — adverts pay for it
- Paid random items
- None
Every price, with its source: what each cabinet really costs.
The first five minutes
You are an ice cream in a maze with fruit scattered around it and something wandering between you and the fruit. Hold a direction and you extrude a wall of ice; press again and it shatters. The first level teaches it in twenty seconds without a single line of text.
A London studio that never stopped
Nitrome has been making browser games out of London since 2004, and Bad Ice Cream is the series people remember. The version on their site today is a proper HTML5 rebuild rather than an emulated relic — the studio has been converting its back catalogue since 2020, with touch controls added for phones.
It matters for a site like this one: the studio hosts the games itself, so the link you follow is the developer's, not a portal that has wrapped someone else's work in its own advertising.
Why it earns the middle shelf
Levels are bite-sized and self-contained. You can clear three in five minutes, and the game never punishes you for stopping after any one of them — there is no streak to protect and no timer running while the tab is closed.
Co-op is the reason it is here. Two players on one keyboard, in the same room, is a vanishingly rare thing in free browser games, and it turns a ten-minute gap into something sociable rather than solitary.
What to expect from the free version
The page carries advertising; the game does not. There is no currency, no shop and nothing to unlock with money — you either clear the level or you do not.
On a phone the touch overlay works, but the maze is tight and precision matters, so this is a game we would rather play on a laptop. If you are on the platform with a phone, take 2048 instead and save this one for a desk.
What works
- Local two-player on a single keyboard, with nothing to install or sign up for
- Levels are short and the game is happy for you to stop after any of them
- Hosted by the studio that made it, with no third-party wrapper
- No currency, no unlocks, no pressure to spend
What grates
- Advertising on the page around the game
- Touch controls work but the maze wants precision a thumb cannot always give
- Pixel art is deliberately old-school; it will look dated next to the .io cabinets
The verdict
The friendliest cabinet on the floor and the only one built for two people in the same room. It is not trying to be a hobby — it is trying to fill ten minutes well, with somebody else, and it does that better than anything else here.
Questions we get asked
Is Bad Ice Cream 3 free?
Yes, on Nitrome's own site, supported by advertising around the game. No account and no purchases.
Can two people play on one computer?
Yes. Co-op uses two sets of keys on the same keyboard, which is the main reason we picked it.
Does it still need Flash?
No. Nitrome rebuilt its catalogue in HTML5 from 2020, so the games run in any modern browser.