Contains some rather big spoilers about storyline, probably read after you played the game. If you don’t indend to, carry on.

Celeste is Super Meat Boy-esque platformer, a very unforgiving one. Celeste demands precise movements, timing and thinking a few steps ahead on the screen full of moving platforms, portals, dash-refreshing-orbs you’re trying to beat for hundredth time. If this kind of self-flagellation is your genre (mine definitely), you’ll be fully satisfied. Design-wise, its top notch. I’m still amazed what Celeste manages to achieve with just three action buttons (climb/dash/jump) and arrows. This is a referential hardcore platformer for years to come.

But it’s also a heartfelt, emancipatory story.

Protagonist of Celeste is Madeline, adult (possibly young adult, game don’t say) woman who is struggling with self-acceptance and decides to climb magical mountain of Celeste to prove that she’s worth something.

The fact that the hero of a cute platformer is a grown-up, struggling woman shouldn’t be diminished. On a first sight, Celeste might appear as a fantasy game, but it almost certainly isn’t. It’s a metaphor, one that goes very deep, lodged in the sweet spot between being set in a kind-of imaginary world, but in fact talking about stuff that’s hauntingly real.

Beyond the cliché

While games like Super Meat Boy present a boyish power-fantasy of a determined, fearless hero trying to save the *ehm* damsel in distress, Celeste is vulnerable. Madeline’s quest is not about fulfilling traditional masculine goal. It’s a self-help journey full of doubt, fear and (we’ll get to that later) fights with your own mind. And it feels refreshing.

Sometime during the second act, Madeline encounters Theo, another traveler on quest to defeat the mountain. While Madeline is insecure and unsure of her abilities, Theo is positive, encouraging man, who takes selfies all the time. They almost immediately become friends and for a while I was afraid that developers won’t resist the urge to end the game with them falling in love. Luckily, they didn’t. If the end was one big romantic happy end, it would destroy the emancipatory potential — a woman ultimately finding the solace in man’s arms instead of finally beating her fears with the help of friends.

Madeline is neither masculinised heroine, nor pretty flower set in a rainbowy world of cuteness. She’s more nuanced, in the end telling a story that’s more general.

In. Out. In. Out

A lot has been talked about how Celeste portrays mental health. The mountain is not only a just a metaphor for self-help mission, it’s also a symbol of crushing weight of serious psychological disorders. Hints about Madeline’s anxiety culminate when she confesses to Theo about her crippling depression, in a monologue that is far more sincere that you would expect from a hardcore platformer. Madeline gives the player a very vivid account about what does it feel to live with depression. That is further than most of titles hinting at those things go.

The experience of mental distress is woven into the fabric of the game itself. Celeste dodges the ludonarrative dissonance mark with elegance, when the whole game part becomes a step further in battling Madeline’s ghosts. There’s a minigame about coping with panic attack (by breathing), there’s a very intense encounter with Madeline’s dark side.

At the same time, the colorful pixel art style of Celeste makes a clear point: no matter how happy somebody seems, you cannot know what’s really happening to him.

It’s all good in the end

At its core, Celeste is a humanist game. During your travels you encounter several characters, from seemingly primitive older woman to dissociative owner of mountain resort Oshiro, who later becomes a boss to beat. But as it turns out after you reach the mountain’s summit, all the enemies in the game (inner and outer) were just victims of their own demons. When Oshiro turns into monster, we shake our head watching Madeline being so trusting. During the last screen, we appreciate her undivided humanity, as Oshiro joins the celebration of Madeline’s success.

So, yes. Celeste is a totally awesome platformer with challenging (and once you unlock the B-sides utterly challenging) jumping puzzles and tempo that’s as immersive as it’s unforgiving. But more importantly, it’s a game that uses all this properties to make bold, important and ultimately successful statements about very real struggles.

After all, we all have our own mountains to climb.

You can get Celeste on many places, both PC and consoles. Check official website.