Celeste

Developer Matt Makes Games’ previous release was TowerFall, the archery-themed four-player battle royale. With its single-player focus and touching narrative, Celeste might seem like an odd follow-up. However, like TowerFall, Celeste features polished and intense action that makes it easy to love and hard to put down.

Celeste is a surprise masterpiece. Its 2D platforming is some of the best and toughest since Super Meat Boy, with levels that are as challenging to figure out as they are satisfying to complete. Hidden throughout those levels are a wealth of secrets and collectibles, some of which push the skills it teaches you to the absolute limit, along with enough end-game content to keep you playing for dozens of hours.

It’s ironic that a platforming game’s greatest, most innovative elements lie not in the platforming itself, but around it. Yet perhaps that’s the point. Matt Thorson, the game’s designer, is clearly a master of platforming mechanics, as evidenced by his work on TowerFall and some truly insane Super Mario Maker levels. Celeste reaches beyond, showing that tricky, well-designed platforming challenges are really just the tip of the iceberg. There’s far more underneath the surface. And maybe that’s worth dying for.

Simply put, Celeste is a tour de force. A piece of work that will no doubt go down as one of the year’s best platformers or even just one of its best games in general. Between the immaculately crafted levels with a wide variety of challenges, the intense gameplay that rewards crackerjack timing, the sheer amount of post-game content and things to discover in every chapter, and a moving, amazing story in the form of Madeline’s urge to climb the behemoth that awaits her, what we have here is truly magnificent and an experience that simply cannot be missed. And hey, word has it that the view from the top is amazing.

You can do anything you want and Celeste, with its challenging difficulty and motivational story, is an exercise of willpower and perseverance. You are going to get stuck in some sections and fly through others. You will oscillate between dark despair and renewed resolve. The sky is the limit, they say. More accurately, it's the summit. It's expectedly cold up there, but that's only part of it; it's also a place of light, learning, and invaluable self-discovery. And that's worth fighting for - not just in Celeste, but in all of life.

A great 2D platformer, with pitch perfect controls and some excellently designed levels. Superb storytelling, that deals with tough subjects in a highly effective manner. Fantastic music. The platforming does little that is genuinely new, and the art style is an acquired taste.

Escalar la montaña de Celeste nos ha brindado algunos de los mejores momentos que hemos vivido nunca en un juego de plataformas. Uno de esos indies que demuestra que con muy poco se puede hacer muchísimo, a golpe de talento: una jugabilidad perfecta, un derroche de buenas ideas, un gran diseño de niveles, una historia bien escrita y un apartado audiovisual muy cuidado que le pone la guinda al pastel. Si te gustan los plataformas es un juego imprescindible, una de las primeras grandes sorpresas de un 2018 que ha comenzado de manera inmejorable.

Celeste est tout simplement un jeu incroyable sur tous les plans. En réussissant à proposer un platformer exigeant et nerveux abordant une thématique psychologique profonde, le tout porté par une mise en scène d'une époustouflante beauté et servie par une bande-son dont on se délectera de chaque note, les développeurs de Tower Fall Ascension se hissent à nouveau au niveau des plus grands. Généreux comme pas deux, Celeste nous embarque dans un tourbillon de sensations d'une incroyable justesse, et propose même aux plus timides de tenter l'escalade, au risque de passer à côté de l'expérience initiale.

Hormis le fait que vos pouces risquent de souffrir, difficile de trouver des défauts significatifs à Celeste, tant il emmène le genre du platformer à un sommet qui culmine à très haute altitude. Le titre de Matt Thorson et son équipe excelle dans tout ce qu'il propose : une prise en main grisante, des niveaux tellement bien agencés que l'ascension de cette montagne devient addictive, des musiques qui servent à la fois le gameplay et une histoire qui devrait en toucher plus d'un...