Episode 78: Celeste

Celeste is not your average platformer.  When it was released in 2018, it took the world by storm, delighting casual players and speedrunners alike.  Its levels were divided into screens reminiscent of Super Meat Boy, featuring fast and frequent death with extremely frequent checkpoints.  It had a simple, but warming and competently written story, a rarity for the platforming genre.  And while it might appear simple at first glance, the mechanics at play here unfold deeper and deeper the more you seek to master what the game has to offer.

We round out our second Xmas special with a detailed breakdown of everything that makes Celeste tick - the music, the story, the gameplay mechanics and much more.  Is Celeste really the new high watermark for 2D platformers, overthrowing the old guard like Mario and Sonic?  Or have we just been bewitched by something new and unusual?

On this episode, we discuss:

• Is Celeste a difficult game, and is there a distinction between how punishing a game is versus how difficult it appears?  What is the difficulty curve like, from the A sides all the way to Chapter 9?
• How does Madeline feel to control, and what does Celeste do to finetune this experience?  Can a simple moveset of jumping, climbing and dashing inform a deeply satisfying mechanical experience compared to a more complicated moveset?
• Is it fair to classify Celeste as a precision platformer?  In what ways does the main game and the different cassette tapes emphasise precision, technique and puzzle solving?

We answer these questions and many more on the 78th episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

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Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

Celeste OST; Farewell OST: Lena Raine

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Maddy’s Article on Madeline being canonically trans

Game Maker's Toolkit on why Celeste feels good to play

Twitter thread detailing a lot of hidden game feel design choices

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Enjoy the show?  Are we right to claim that Celeste is the greatest platformer of all time?  Got any games that you’d like to see us review?  Come let us know what you think on our community discord server!