Product Info

Platform

Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC

Publisher

Matt Makes Games Inc.

Developer

Matt Makes Games Inc.

Genre

Action, Adventure, Platform

Players

1

File Size (Minimum)

1.26 GB

Release Date (NA)

Jan 25, 2018

Purchase From

eShop

PSN Store

Microsoft Store

Steam

Celeste will challenge you. Celeste will beat you down. Celeste will help you, and you’ll love every second of it; from the storyline, to the music, to the gameplay. Climbing a mountain has never felt so frighteningly good.

I Need to Do This

Madeline, or whatever you wish to name the young red-headed woman, is on a quest to climb the challenging Celeste Mountain, a fictional mountain located in western Canada. As you climb, you’ll encounter an appealing cast of characters: A wandering photographer from Seattle, a granny who lives in the mountains, a ghost who operates an abandoned hotel, and a hostile version of Madeline.

While the story of climbing a mountain may sound dull, the story is all about Madeline overcoming her inner demons. While climbing, you’ll encounter Madeline’s “other self” as she tries to overcome the protagonist’s mentality. “You are many things, darling, but you are not a mountain climber.” “You can’t handle this.” “Let’s go home.”

Madeline responds to her hostile version, “That is exactly why I need to do this,” and continues to climb further. Players will yearn to follow Madeline, to help achieve her goals, and overcome the anxiety and depression that dwells inside her.

Just Breathe

Celeste is hard, but the developers knew exactly what they were doing. The gameplay sounds simple — climb. However it’s not as simple as it sounds. Players will have to maneuver around moving obstacles, jump, and climb to avoid spikes, pitfalls, and other obstacles to complete each chapter with precise movements. One false move and you’re dead.

Because the game requires quick problem-solving and precise movement, one simple scene will take countless times to complete, causing frustration and laughter during the enumerable deaths you’ll take. Celeste does an excellent job making dying not that terrible. The game encourages you to keep trying, and consider new ways to get across death traps. When you perish, the game sets you back at the entrance of the scene; not as stressful as having to start from the beginning of a chapter.

Madeline’s control is straightforward and easy, but tough to master. Only using jump, air-dash, and climb, you’re required to use them at most necessary moments. Air-dash is your best friend and worst enemy. In most cases you can only use it once to help land you on a platform or climb, but using it without caution will destroy you.

If you are still having issues, Celeste has an “Assist Mode” that helps players conquer difficult scenes and help you get to the top. While every tool is not needed, it gives you some assistance such as extra jumps, slowing down game speed, infinite stamina, etc. While the tools are helpful, we highly recommend playing the game without it at first to get a taste of what the game is all about — challenge.

Collecting is Fruitful

As you travel and climb through the chapters, you’ll notice floating strawberries in obscure areas. While they do not grant any special powers, these delicious fruits are for bragging rights on how many you’ve obtained.

The majority of them require precise movement and skill to grab one. However, once you’ve grabbed one, you must proceed back to a platform in order to officially obtain that strawberry for the record.

Hunting down strawberries adds an additional replay value for those who enjoy aiming for perfection, and if you’ve missed a few, you can repeat the chapter to obtain them.

B-Side

Just when you thought the game was already challenging, you haven’t experienced the B-Side. B-Side is an alternate version of the game, and adds additional challenges for mountaineers. For example, stamina plays more of an important role than before.

To obtain the B-Side, players will need to explore the chapter in-depth to find secret pathways. Once you find a cassette tape floating in mid-air, you must maneuver Madeline around the scene’s traps in order to obtain it. After finishing the chapter with the cassette tape obtained, you can revisit the chapter’s evil-sided gameplay. Enter at your own risk, climbers!

Gorgeous Scenery and Luxurious Music

While the characters aren’t very detailed, the game’s environment makes up for it. Each scene was laid out to perfection in various ways. In some levels you can fly through obscure objects, while others are deadly to touch (aside from spikes). Celeste not only adds intriguing secrets but they’ve also added clever easter eggs, such as a tribute to the classic Super Mario Bros. 3.

Whatever the layout, it pushes players to maneuver accordingly, and do what the developers intended you to do: Think. Leaving it all up to the players to diagnose a pathway to get from one end to the other, and at various speeds.

With flourishing colors and unique layouts, the atmosphere will suck you into the game’s world, along its fantastic soundtrack. Composed by Lena Raine, each score enhances the game even further, and brings you closer to Madeline, escalating your emotions when tackling each chapter. You’ll be humming the tunes by the end of the day.

B-Side tracks are even more impressive; using the same track of the chapter but in a remix form, composed by various artists. This is a clever way to utilize the alternate world.

Overall

Celeste a fantastic platformer that’ll test your precision and problem-solving skills. Each chapter challenges you to win, die, and have fun. Clearly a game to own in your digital gaming library. The only addition the game could possibly add would be adjusting the control buttons — luckily that is in the works.

You’ll perish hundreds of times and that’s okay! When you’ve figured out how to maneuver around death traps, you’ll be smiling right up until you die again. When that happens, pick yourself back up and try again. I guarantee you’ll smile again.

This is it, Madeline. Just breathe. You can do this.

Celeste is available for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Stream.

A Nintendo Switch review code was provided by Matt Makes Games for this review.