#33: Celeste
Celeste is the complete package. Not only does it feature simple yet tight gameplay but Madeline's story about overcoming obstacles, learning to deal with stress, depression and figuring how to move forward with all parts of yourself (good and bad) has touched me more than most story heavy games ever did. To be clear, Celeste is first and foremost a great platformer where our heroine wants to climb Mount Celeste using a small set of tools (jump, dash, grab). It is the game's levels that bring variety to what you can do with wind, blocks that swing you around, clouds that bounce you up, floors that turn deadly after you touch them, an evil version of you and many more.
You will die a lot in Celeste but you respawn instantly at the start of the screen for another try and apart from later bonus stages, you don't lose to much progress as every new screen acts as a checkpoint. Also, you'll get to listen to the amazing soundtrack by Lena Raine as you work your way through the stage.
There's also a TON of content in Celeste, once you've finished the main story, you can go back and try to collect all strawberries that are located in difficult to reach areas in each stage, then there's the secret B-Side Tapes which unlock a much harder version of the stage, there's hidden hearts as well to unlock extra stages, then there's the C-Sides (short but demanding levels), you can go for golden strawberries (finish each stage without dying) and finally there's Farewell is HUGE level that will test all your acquired skills.
Last edited by TruckOSaurus - on 20 December 2022Signature goes here!
