Celeste

Celeste
A game about a girl who is depressed
Trying to climb a mountain due to unrest
This platformer game is very finessed
The myriad mechanics all coalesced
To put your skills to the ultimate test
The design is great, I do not jest
Secrets within add a lot of zest
All while you climb and push toward the crest
Although the peak is your true quest
You'll want to explore all the rest
The fruit, the tapes, at your behest
So I leave you with one request
Buy this game and you will be blessed
With a grand game, the very best
One more point to be addressed
If you want more you can invest
Many hours into mods, who could have guessed
Their ingenuity leaves many impressed
So many new things inside the chest
Known as the mod manager, Everest

Celeste sat in my backlog for what felt like forever. It wasn't until my kindred spirit convinced me to finally give it a shot that I dove in. And wow, I really wish I had listened earlier. This game is an absolute gem in the platformer genre. It actually surprised me both with its gameplay and emotional weight. Even though it's been out for years, for me, this game stands out as one of the best platformers I've ever played, and for this reason, I'm taking some time to write this review to make sure this game gets the recognition it deserves (even though that most likely it won't be read by anyone after being released for so many years).
Let me start by saying this: if you're into platformers, Celeste is going to feel like a gift. The controls are tight and responsive, making every jump, dash, and climb feel precise. Each level introduces new mechanics that keep the experience fresh and the game definitely knows how to challenge you, but it never feels unfair. In fact, I've never blinked twice after dying, actually enjoying every moment of it. I think that what's so remarkable about Celeste, is that it makes failure feel like part of the process. Every time you fall, you learn something new about the terrain, the enemies, or the timing, and when you finally succeed, it's deeply satisfying (and I apparently also make squeaking grunting sounds during these moments). The game encourages persistence, and the quick respawn times make retries virtually seamless.
But here's what really surprised me: Celeste isn't just a tough platformer, it's also an incredibly heartfelt story. You follow Madeline as she climbs Celeste Mountain, a journey that mirrors her internal struggles with anxiety and self-doubt. The character interactions are brief but impactful, especially between Madeline and her darker self, 'Badeline'. These moments hit hard, and by the time the story wrapped up, I found myself genuinely moved! ♡ And honestly, it's rare for a platformer to make you think as much as it makes you sweat, but Celeste does both effortlessly. Then there's Lena Raine's incredible soundtrack. The way it shifts from upbeat and energetic during intense sections to serene and emotional during quieter moments is nothing short of brilliant.
All in all, I can't believe I waited this long to play Celeste, but now that I have, I get the hype. If it's been sitting in your backlog, let me be your cherished confidant to tell you: go climb that mountain. You won't regret it.
Absolutely recommended ♡

This is one of those games where I judged it by the cover and did not read enough of the reviews! I though this was going to be a comfy, cozy platformer with a cute story. Ohhh boy was I wrong.
This game is a painstakingly handcrafted instrument of unyielding psychological torture.
Don't get me wrong.. I'm loving it. But goodness gracious, this is challenging. There's like... 4 controls? Direction, jump, climb, and dash. That's pretty much it. But the amount of things they did with that... it's nothing short of amazing.
This is a precision platformer in every sense of the word. You have to practice, die, practice again, and eventually you figure out the timing, the coordination, and all and get it. And that was one room. Now go to the next one. Each room is hand crafted with devious and malicious intent. It's kind of glorious.
The great thing is they don't punish you at all. Respawns are super fast, and you start right at the beginning of the room you were on. Rooms can sometimes be one screen only, so you basically just have to nail the room down. It appears that later in the game there is more scrolling and the rooms get larger, but I'm not quite there yet. Regardless, this can be more challenging than it sounds even if it is only one screen, as usually you need to zig zag through and avoid all kinds of nefarious things they put in your path... but it's doable. And when you finally beat a room, you are happy about it... and then you see the next one.
There are also a bunch of things later in the game, like enemies and such but I have no idea how those work so I won' t comment on them now. There is a story here that appears to be pretty cute. It's a simple story, but I quite like how they present it. It's about a girl named Madeline (changeable) climbing Mount Celeste (yes, I know, I thought Celeste was the girl's name at first as well) to prove to herself that she can.
This is a game that could potentially become frustrating. Frustration is the enemy of gaming, and so I recommend taking it in small doses if you are prone to that. Don't try to play this for 8 hours straight if you are at risk of going full tilt... it won't help. You need to breathe and be calm and coordinated with this game. I play for a room or three, then put it down and do something else. I'll slowly work my way through it over time, and that is fine with me because I enjoy every time I do get into it, and the challenge is always something I'm ready for.
This is a great game, and I am looking forward to slowly working my way through it.
Just breathe, Madeline... you can do this!

genuinely my favorite game of all time, endless replayability and great fan-made content. platforming feels tight and is made by a great group of people. I originally pirated this game many years ago, but I ended up buying it out of respect for the team who made it. I felt so bad about pirating that I actually ended up buying it 13 other times for people, across multiple platforms. this game has helped me discover so much about myself, and has helped me get through many tough times in my life, such as breakups and losses of loved ones. if you are reading this, go buy the funny trans jumpy game! (also 69 hours nice)

Celeste is my favorite game of all time, bar none, and it has been since I first played it six years ago on my Switch. Even after hundreds of hours of playing this game, I can see myself playing this game for hundreds of hours more without tiring of it. Its story, art style, music, and gameplay make it an experience that is hard to forget.
STORY
Celeste's story is probably its most captivating aspect on a first playthrough. Though it doesn't necessarily have most complex narrative, Celeste's characters are well-written and memorable, and its emotional moments are deeply moving, despite the story's simplicity. My favorite part of the story is that instead of simply existing alongside the visuals, music, and gameplay, it is accentuated by these other aspects of the game more so than I find many other games' stories to be.
VISUALS
People often talk about pixellated graphics in games as if they are inherently inferior to games with more realistic graphics. I find Celeste to be a compelling case against this viewpoint, as its visuals make the game look absolutely stunning at some points, despite its "low quality" graphics. Specifically, the color palettes used in each section often complement the mood of that section of the story very well. There are also the cartoon-style portraits representing each character during dialogue - though they might at first seem to clash with the game's pixel graphics during gameplay, I find that these portraits create a nice contrast in art style that make the game look more vibrant. And that's not even to mention the beautiful 3-D modeled mountain that occupies the background in the game's overworld map and title screen.
MUSIC
It's undeniable Celeste's soundtrack was Lena Raine's big break onto the music scene, and it surely doesn't disappoint. Celeste has one of the best and most memorable soundtracks I've ever heard in a game, and both its soft moments and bursts of energy accentuate the story and gameplay perfectly. It's not hard to see why, after Celeste, several other games, most notably Minecraft, enlisted Lena's help on their soundtracks. Though it would also be remiss of me not to mention Lena's fantastic solo work, my favorite of which has to be the EP "Singularity" released under the pseudonym of "Kuraine."
GAMEPLAY
As important as the previous categories are, to me, by far the most important place for a game to succeed is in its gameplay. And, to me, this is where Celeste shines brightest. It should be extremely apparent to anyone who has played this game for any serious length of time that the developers put a lot of care into the way movement feels in this game. Whenever you fail in Celeste, you have no one to blame but yourself, and, for a game as brutal as Celeste can be, that is extremely important. I am constantly impressed by how nuanced this game's movement is, and how it so seamlessly caters both to beginners still just grasping the controls and experts with hundreds or even thousands of hours.
DIFFICULTY
It's no secret that Celeste is a difficult game. Heck, "Difficult" is literally the second tag on its Steam page, right behind "Precision Platformer." Undoubtedly, a game as difficult as Celeste would be hard to stomach if its movement was any less refined than it is. And it's surely by no mistake that Celeste has such consistently stellar level design to accommodate this difficulty. But also, a story about overcoming obstacles as moving as Celeste's would be hard to tell without the player having to go through the same difficulties, frustrations, and setbacks as Madeline. That's where the true beauty of this game's story comes into play, is in its difficulty.
ASSIST MODE
On release, Celeste was lauded for its "Assist Mode," which allows players to adjust the games difficulty if they find the game to be too challenging to overcome but still ultimately want to engage with the games story. And this "Assist Mode" surely holds a lot of nuance, too, allowing players a lot of room for adjustment, ranging from just slowing the game down a little bit to fully making Madeline invincible. Personally, I can't say I'm a big fan of this mode. While I'm normally all for making games accessible to as many people as possible, with a game like Celeste, where the story is so inextricably tied to the game's difficulty, removing the difficulty can make the story feel cheapened as a result. Not to mention the fact that turning off Assist Mode removes the stamp that indicates you've used Assist Mode, which is a weird decision that can make it difficult to verify the legitimacy of achievements in the game, though that may be a moot point.
MODDING
While I normally wouldn't consider a game's modding community when reviewing it, with a community as vibrant as Celeste's it wouldn't be right not to bring up. Celeste has one of the easiest modloaders to both install and use of any game I've played, being surpassed only by Terraria's Steam integration with Tmodloader. There are also modded maps of a wide range of difficulties, ranging from "Beginner" all the way to "Grandmaster," so even if you've only beaten the main game and don't plan to tackle anything more difficult, there is probably still something that will appeal to you in modded Celeste.
CONCLUSION
This game is good. Like, really good. I personally think it's worth picking up at its $20 price point, but even if you aren't willing to pay that much, it frequently goes on sale for as little as $5, so there's really no reason not to give it a go. Also, I think it's making me trans? I didn't know games could do that???

The base game is barely an introduction to what this games engine has to offer. The amount of tech this game leaves out is insane. Play the base game then try any mod that has come out in recent memory. 10/10 game would waste my life on again

game turned me into a girl. 10/10 even bought it on nintendo switch just to support the creators