I’m not much of a 2D platformer fan. These kinds of games can lack an up front story and have some hidden areas, leaving a lot up for discovery. This design can cause many players to miss a good chunk of content either for lack of willingness to explore or them simply not having enough time. I’m not against this design as it means there’s more opportunity for unique experiences. Celeste’s story is the primary focus and it’s one with a lot of depth. It does have secrets and collectibles to collect, but even without finding them all, the experience is pretty solid.

Madeline needs to climb Celeste mountain. Why? She’s feeling directionless in life and needs to accomplish something. She struggles with her self-worth and anxiety that causes her to doubt herself. The journey to the top is to prove to herself that she is capable and not a waste of life. Madeline battles these feelings internally and externally as the mountain materializes these negative emotions into a mirrored copy. This struggle is the main crux of the game and its representation of these topics is done very well. I felt for Madeline and wanted her to overcome her self-doubt. A story like this may not be for everyone, but the perspective this game provides on the topics it tackles would be beneficial for all to see. It pushed me to complete the game, despite some of my issues with the gameplay.

As a 2D platformer, the gameplay is mostly what you’d expect. Your options for movement are fairly streamlined compared to others in the genre that have multiple unlockable abilities. You can dash and climb, that’s it. When climbing, you have a stamina system that manifests as Madeline panting and turning red. You have to touch the ground between dashes to refresh it and that’s about it. These systems are grounding and help you to mechanically be able to understand the environments you enter. Each level of the mountain has a diverse level design, constantly introducing new elements to keep the gameplay fresh. With simplistic controls, the levels had to be varied in design or player interest would have dwindled. It all feels carefully crafted as one level will be a simple mountain climb in a really windy area and the next will be an ancient temple filled with dangerously sharp crystals and ancient technology that bounces you around. The mechanics and the story keep the experience focused, so none of the new environmental mechanics seem out of place. I did have issues with the controls at times though. You can dash laterally as well as diagonally and sometimes Madeline would just dash the wrong way and I would die. Death isn’t a huge deal in the game as you’ll just respawn at the start of the area so you can try again, but it felt bad that the game wasn’t controlling as tightly as needed because a lot of the levels required precise inputs. It frustrated me a lot in the beginning, but I pushed through because of my interest in the story. (This may have been a skill issue, though I’m not sure.) I did collect a solid amount of strawberries, the main collectible in the game, despite my issues. Many of them are hidden well, while others are easy to find, but difficult to obtain. Some of the puzzles for these strawberries are insane. I simply didn’t have the patience to figure many of them out. I did enjoy solving most of the main puzzles and think the gameplay is overall solid.

The pixel art environments are very pretty. Each one is distinctly unique from the others, but maintain elements that make it easily readable. There were only a couple instances where something blended into the background causing me to spend more time than I’d like trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. Mostly, the varying elements popped out and it was fun discovering what the new pieces to the puzzle did. Character art is a bit different. While they stand out from the environments well enough, they lacked expressiveness. The character portraits and other pictures are what really gave them life, helping to convey their emotions, despite a lack of spoken dialogue. There are “voices” for the characters, but they’re just gibberish sounds. The creators were smart with their artistic design choices and I appreciate the work they put into every part of this experience, but I wish the pixel versions of the characters had a bit more life to them.

Though I had some problems with Celeste mechanically and small gripes about visuals, the game is honestly pretty good. The simplistic controls coupled with the ever changing environmental mechanics made mastery of the fundamentals rewarding. The levels require tight execution and were mostly easily readable. Learning by experimenting with new environments kept the experience feeling fresh throughout. The story is relatable and insightful, providing a look into how anxiety can control a person. It illustrates the internal struggle in a way that makes it easy to understand for those that can’t comprehend the concept of mental health issues. The experience is made invaluable by its depiction and the ideas it presents. Platformer fans will like this one a lot and people that appreciate meaningful stories will too.