For me, although I loved Celeste ’s story and art direction, it was always about the challenge. Never has a game made me so astonished at its ingenuity and its seemingly endless ability to surprise.

In a retrospective on Celeste, Maddy Thorson revealed that the game's protagonist Madeline is trans, and was a huge part of their own complicated journey in gender identity.

Celeste also throws a bone to the completionists among us here, because after you’ve beaten a chapter once you can pause to see a dotted line representing which strawberries you’ve found and ...

One of Celeste’s final images is also one of its most striking. Following an intense dream, Madeline awakens with tears in her eyes. She is laying in bed, looking pensive as she stares up at the ...

While Celeste is a difficult test of platforming precision, there's also a supernatural story unfolding around the mountain itself. And it's one that causes Madeline to confront herself, her ...

In-game, as Madeline's world becomes more twisted and horrific, so do the game's art style and environments: bright blue ice and golden skies turn to blood-red monsters and greying surroundings.