It's cute, it's charming, it's challenging without being overly frustrating, it's wonderfully designed, Celeste is genuinely one of the best platformers of all time. Restricting it to just 2D would undermine how amazing it truly is. For how few controls it has, it does a lot with them; you really only have a jump, dash and climbing maneuver, yet the developers add so many new ideas in that keep the individual chapters fresh, culminating in The Summit which is straight up one of the best levels in anything. The music is mostly relaxing but knows when to get you pumped up for a difficult section, the sprite-work is gorgeous, and I could spend so, so long talking to Theo and the Granny - I've come to absolutely adore the "voice-acting". The side-content is ingrained into the main levels so well, and obtaining the strawberries isn't some ridiculous challenge, it's mostly just being smart - which I am not - with your moves. The bossfights (especially Chapter 3 [actually all of Chapter 3 sucks, fuck you Oshiro]) kind of suck for the most part, but some of my favourite moments also occurred during one later on, and it gives the game a large sense of identity so I'm conflicted about them. Other than that well... I love the story, I love the music, I love Madeline (and Badeline) - I fucking love this game.

Reviewed on May 01, 2024


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