Celeste - Game Review [Preliminary]

So I decided today I wanted to play a game I haven't played before. I came to the conclusion that I wanted it to be a game on the Nintendo Switch as, in my opinion, the Switch is the best modern game console (by FAR).

I looked up what the highest rated switch games are as of today. I expected the first two games to be The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Super Mario Odyssey. They were. This was well-deserved, by the way.

But the game in the #3 spot was strange. It was called Celeste. I never heard of it or saw it before. I was at Target at the time, so I checked to see if they had it. Nope. How could they NOT carry the 3rd best rated Nintendo Switch game?

Then I did some more research. The game was actually digital download only (at least from what I can tell). It was released by a small development team (I guess you could call them indie?) and was ONLY $20. So there exists a game that is in the top 3 best games of a major console, and it's an indie platformer game that only costs $20??? I was dumbfounded that I hadn't heard of it before.

When I got home, I promptly purchased and downloaded it. I've been playing for about three hours now.

I'm in awe at this game. Is it beautiful to look at? Absolutely. Is the music FANTASTIC? That's an UNDERSTATEMENT. And what about the gameplay? So far, it's some of the most genuinely challenging games I've played in a long time, and for ALL the correct reasons.

The game that this game most closely resembles in gameplay is Super Meat Boy, while it most resembles Undertale in graphical style (and perhaps even music).

The controls just work. They feel how all games should feel. They feel NATURAL. They just click with your instincts as someone who plays games. It's perfect.

The difficulty is the real star of the show so far, in my opinion. I think hard games are automatically better than easy games, every time. It's as if every difficult game gets 10 or 20 points added to its score AUTOMATICALLY in my mind. But the difficulty has to be legitimate. It has to be skill based difficulty that gradually increases as you progress. I don't want the game to have training wheels on for the first quarter of the game. I also don't want to necessarily be thrown directly in without any help. This game does it exactly right.

It gives you one room per ability you have. Here's how you jump. Here's how you wall climb. Here's how you dash. Good? Let's go.

The game got difficult quickly. And it should. Like I said, difficult games are inherently more fun. I'm not saying there aren't fun easy games. Look at basically every Zelda game between Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild. Easy as pie, but masterpieces nonetheless. Windwaker is quite possibly my favorite game of all time, and is also quite possibly the easiest game I've ever played. But if it was as difficult as Celeste, it would surpass "masterpiece" by far.

I think we live in an age where game developers are afraid to create difficult games. In the age of game journalists who absolutely suck at video games and have no business reviewing them, game developers need to be careful. Games that are too difficult are seen as "discriminating" against those who, well, aren't good at video games. That, by that way, is the absolute most laughable thing I've ever heard of. If you're bad at video games, don't play difficult video games. Simple. You have no inherent right to ANYTHING in video games. If a game developer wants to create a difficult game, while they are never above criticisms for it, I absolutely disagree that they should be given low ratings simply due to that difficulty, but PROVIDED THE DIFFICULTY IS GRADUAL.

Cuphead is a great example. There were plenty of reviews that skewered it for being too difficult. Cuphead started off relatively easy and got very, very difficult near the end. That's how hard games SHOULD be built. If you dock points off of a games rating because you yourself are shit at it, you're objectively incorrect and are bad at your job. Skewer games that get too hard too fast. Not games like Cuphead or Celeste. Anyways...back to Celeste.

The combination of the graphics, the music, the gameplay itself, the story (which I am not far into but I love so far), and (most importantly for me) the difficulty, create a masterful game soup that's perfect for the cold and lazy game climate we're in currently.

I can't wait to continue playing after I'm done writing this. You may be wondering why I wrote this review. No one probably cares to get down to this point unless they skipped to here, right? Well, that's fine. But I wrote this for a simple reason. Because I wanted to.

Be sure to keep an eye on my YouTube channel for some Celeste playthrough videos, as I may livestream the remaining sessions I have with the game.

Cheers!