Celeste: Strawberry Picking on Mountaintops

Does Celeste really need an introduction? I ascended the snowy mountaintop back in 2018 when the game initially was released but simply forgot to take notes. The game’s many secrets, extra modes, and achievements basically asks for a revisit, so I did, finger at the ready to take screenshots where needed.

Just in case you need a refresher, in Celeste you play as Madeline who decided to climb a mountain to overcome their fears and uncertainties. During the climb, you’ll regularly have to break through both physical and mental barriers, with the help of (mostly) friendly folks you meet along the journey. Celeste’s story is much-revered for its openness on self-doubt, panic attacks, and the way you can grow by accepting all parts of yourself, both positive and negative.

In practice, Celeste plays as a 2D platformer: more specifically, the “Masocore” subgenre of extremely difficult platformers that have a tendency to let you die over and over again. I’m generally speaking not patient enough to sit through that kind of punishment but for some strange reason Celeste is an exception. Instead of having extremely challenging platforming sections in an otherwise not too platform-intensive game (Hollow Knight) or having the game laugh at your pathetic attempts to cross that big chasm (The Messenger), Celeste actually encourages the player to try again.

Not just implicitly, by rewarding the player with some kind of achievement, a cool item, or in this case, a collected strawberry count that goes up, but also explicitly, by postcard messages in-between loading segments that state you should be proud of your death count and it’s okay to fail. For example, upon starting the second chapter, this postcard¹ is sent to Madeline:

Strawberries will impress your friends, but that’s about it. Only collect them if you really want to!

It’s okay to skip the hard parts. Isn’t that fantastic? Of course you’ll probably ignore the message once you see those enticing strawberries floating around in hard to reach places and of course your death count will go up by a hundred or so each time you attempt to grab one of them, but that’s okay too. Contrary to Hollow Knight, you’re not severely punished if you die, and contrary to The Messenger, there’s no irritating tiny devil quipping stupid remarks about your worthlessness. Respwaning takes less than a second: you want another crack at it? Or perhaps continue the climb?

After you finish the game, the 3D map of the mountain that twirls around to the top as you select later levels reveals which strawberries you’ve missed, should you be inclined to try and catch them all. But that’s far from the only challenge this game has to offer. Every level is like a cassette: it has an A-side, the regular one, and a B-side, the challenging one you can try to take on after a successful climb. Yes, the very challenging levels have an even more challenging mode I had no problem with leaving mostly untouched. Oh, and there’s more than a few secret level(s) and collectible(s) to uncover as well. If you know what you’re doing, you can breeze through the game in five hours, but it’ll be more like 20 to satisfy the completionist in you.

As you can see in the screenshots here, the chosen pixelated art direction and vibrant colour palette that completely changes as you ascend contribute to the game’s gripping atmosphere. Madeline’s animation work is great as well: their long hair waving along the wind direction in open areas, the subdued blur and soundtrack as you submerge into pools of water, the reflections from waterfalls, the way the weather is rendered and influences the gameplay, …

Lena Raine’s atmospheric soundtrack (available on Bandcamp) completes the package, with an encouraging tune accompanying the first chapter, upbeat 8-bit-esque tunes like Scattered and Lost during a hotel visit, or more subdued tones like Golden that help to tell the story of Madeline fighting with their inner self (spoiler alert: all is well in the end).

Each chapter introduces new obstacles and mechanics you will have to deal with. The first chapter teaches you the basics: Madeline can dash to reach higher ledges and grab onto them for a short while. Then bigger and bigger chasms start appearing to help you exercise those skills. Chapter three introduces spots you can only traverse once, four comes with lots of wind, five has moving platforms that move as you do and too many bubbles zipping in a direction of your choice—provided your reflexes are up to speed. Even the strawberries try to teach you something: how do I get there and make it back alive in order to score that one?

As much as all game journalists rightfully revere Celeste’s story of self-acceptance, the biggest draw for me was the extremely satisfying platforming. Madeline controls so well and precise. Once you finally reach that ledge in the upper right to get to the next screen, you can’t help but pump your first in the air—only to die again the second after that. But as we’ve learned: that’s totally okay! When something like that happened in Hollow Knight, I’d curse and have to resist the urge to throw the controller at the screen, but here, all I say is “huh” and I go at it again. And again. And again.

I love 2D platforming games and I have not yet come across anything that matches Super Mario World’s feeling of totally being in control. Until Celeste. Modern 2D Mario somehow has become a slippery bugger, Sonic is more about speed than about precise platforming, the Castlevania games are more about backtracking and careful enemy management than platforming, and I wasn’t that impressed by 2D Rayman. Of course each platformer has their own distinct focus, but if you’re looking for pure platforming challenges wrapped in a cosy 8-bit style package dipped into a sauces of meaningful backstory, you can stop looking now.

Just be sure to grab those strawberries on the way to bake a lovely pie! If you feel like it, of course. On my first run, I managed to get 111/175 strawberries and died “only” 2738 times. A friend has a save game with all 175 strawberries. It did impress me. But I don’t want to go there!