Among the resurgence of tightly controlled platformers, there have been few games that had an impact in the genre past just pure gameplay. Stories in platformers have been second rate to the game play mechanic. while being fun to play, lack any reasoning to why the player would complete these puzzles or collect these items. The new game developed by Matt Makes Games (the creators of Towerfall), Celeste, chooses to make the story as impactful as the platform gameplay that makes this genre of games memorable.
Celeste's story begins when your character named Madeline (or whatever name you choose), has set her goals on climbing the infamous Celeste Mountain. The mountain though, has unexplained features that affect the climbers when they scale this infamous mountain. For Madeline, it is her anxiety becoming a ghostly entity that she interacts with throughout the game. The story had the right amount of dialogue, letting you interact with various characters and items without it being overbearing or unwanted. The story of Celeste is touching and while it feels at times to be on the nose about the topics dealing with mental illness, it doesn't come off as cheesy but sincere.
The gameplay is pretty much copy and paste of most 2D platformers for the past decade. You move your character from the entrance to the exit while avoiding obstacles along the way; Celeste changes it up by adding a dash mechanic that helps clear long jumps and tight spaces without taking damage from the spikes that protrude out of the walls. Every level adds an extra additive that makes the stage more challenging to complete, like a jewel that refills your dash so you can clear long stretches without landing on the ground so you can refill it. There is also climbing so that you can climb sides of walls and avoid obstacles that way, there is a finite time you can hold or you'll lose your grip and fall. All of these mechanics mixed together make Celeste a fun but challenging play through especially in the overtly saturation that is the platformer right now.
Celeste was one of the first games I completed this year and it will be one of the more memorable ones in the upcoming year. With it's fluid mechanics and personal storytelling, the simplicity of Celeste is part of it's charm and should not be overlooked among the towering eighty plus hour games with more density than heart. The replayability of Celeste is stretched even more with collectable strawberries, Tapes that unlock an even harder version of the stage you are on, and a post game level that will put your platforming skills to the test. Celeste is a charming game that I enjoyed quite a bit and didn't feel bored or frustrated from this great challenging platformer.