the game that dares to ask to ask "what if celeste was a 3D platformer and also was bad?"

character writing and little bits of post-celeste story are super cute as always, but the game itself plays so badly that it was a slog to get through. its free and was made in a week so i'm not annoyed by this, but at the same time context doesn't make it any less aggravating whilst you're playing

lena raine continues to be perfect in every project she's involved with

I can't complain about Celeste 64. It's a free game that is, at the bare minimum, a bit of fun. I didn't enjoy it much though.

Lovingly crafted, the presentation of Celeste 64 defines its identity. The characters and world look fantastic, and Lena Raine knocks it out of the park again with a tiny yet powerful soundtrack.

What you do here is collect strawberries in a Super Mario 64-esque landscape. The world is small yet compact. While it only took me an hour to find everything, it's a lot of collectibles crammed into a small space. I found some strawberries a little brutal to locate, but otherwise found the pacing of locating them solid. I just don't really like how this feels to play...

Madeline can jump, climb walls and dash, but I had an unusally tricky time judging distances. The controls just feel a little too loose and unpredictable for how precise some of the platforming can get. Again, this took me an hour so nothing stumped me for too long, but I felt like I was at odds with the game's physics for that entire playtime. Usable? Sure, but nothing really stuck out to me as "great" here.

I'm not upset about that, Celeste 64 is free, it's a passion project to celebrate the anniversary of a masterpiece and that's wonderful. The context won't inflate my score, but it will allow me to recommend this to anyone. It's a quick bit of fun, and that's just fine.