Game Review: Celeste on Google Stadia (2018 Independent Game of The Year)
I first became aware of the game Celeste via a promotional announcement video on the Google Stadia YouTube Channel, and prior to that announcement, I had never heard of the game Celeste.
Which kind of baffled me, because later on, after playing the game for a while and reading more about the history of the game, I became aware that Celeste had actually won the 2018 Independent Game Of The Year Award — so obviously I am not reading the right gaming blogs or subscribing to the right gaming YouTube Channels — because clearly that is a big deal and accomplishment that I missed in my day to day travels on the internet / new sources that I read. Congratulations to the Developers / Team who created Celeste!
Since I first became aware of Celeste via the Google Stadia YouTube Channel — I am going to write about that experience first. My feelings after watching the promotional video announcement, admittedly, was that I was only feeling so-so about playing or buying the game. I loved the music soundtrack. I loved the story line about a woman who goes on a soul searching adventure and decides to climb a mountain to find themselves. What I did not like was the pixelated artwork style of the game play. This was a huge turn off for me. Most likely, because while I grew up playing pixelated games such as Pokemon, Super Mario Bros., Megaman, and Zelda on NES, Super NES, and / or Gameboy — at that time — pixelated games, in one way or another, were standard across games — and even then — they had more defined gaming art styling packaged within it. In 2020 and beyond, that is not the case anymore, and so - this just required a large mindset readjustment for me. On my end, I was just kind of confused as to why someone would intentionally make a pixelated game when we have advanced so far in terms of video game graphics — not really understanding at first judgement that this was an intentional artistic decision. The only other game in this moment that I am aware of that is intentionally pixelated is Minecraft, and clearly Celeste was not in the same realm or genre of gaming as Minecraft. I was absolutely passing massive judgement against playing Celeste, just based on the promotional video and the pixelated artwork style game play alone.
However, it was not until Google offered Celeste as a free game as part of the Google Stadia Pro Membership, that I had no excuses anymore not to play and try out Celeste. And I am grateful that I was given the opportunity to play Celeste, because it IS a remarkably wonderful game to play! Life changing even! From the character controls, to the music soundtrack, to the story line — both the literal and subliminal story lines about mental health and self discovery — to the game play artistic styling that grew on me as I played, and all of the marketing in general for Celeste — it is why it made my list of Top 20 Games from 2020 to continue playing in 2021 and beyond on Google Stadia.
Playing Celeste on Google Stadia is a dream. It is really fluid and seamless. I would go as far to say that every game should have as tight as game play controls as Celeste. I played Celeste via the Google Chrome web browser with a Google Stadia controller. In Celeste, you feel like you are in complete control of Madeline, the protagonist, at all times. The controls for Madeline are really simple and easy to pick up and learn. Learn more about why these controls are so good:
Beyond the great game play controls for Celeste, let’s discuss the marketing of Celeste starting with Theo’s Instagram account: https://instagram.com/theounderstars . Theo is Madeline’s unexpected romantic / friendship interest while climbing Mount Celeste. If Instagram Accounts for video games is the new video game manual with artwork that used come with newly purchased physical games, then Celeste is setting the standard high. While I did not become aware of Theo’s Instagram account until after completing the game, it really was a “wow moment” discovery, because it ties directly to story line of Theo within the game, provides more context about Theo’s life and own journey of self discovery, and ties to the noteworthy screen capture from Celeste that is all over the internet:
The website for the game Celeste is really great, and it is clear why this game has it’s own fandom: because anyone playing this game can easily emotionally invest into this story line of self discovery and relate to it completely. Mount Celeste is even based on a mountain in British Columbia. But maybe it is not the story line or pop culture references people fall in love with. Maybe it is the soundtrack; the song — First Steps — IS an extremely infectious melody that all players are greeted with upon first playing Celeste — and in the very end.
And even the story line of self discovery — you start to wonder throughout the game — what exactly is Madeline trying to self discover? Well — Matt Thorson — one of the lead creators / developers of Celeste — wrote this Medium.com article to highlight that Madeline was on a journey of transgender identity self discovery — although it was not explicitly stated as such within the game: https://maddythorson.medium.com/is-madeline-canonically-trans-4277ece02e40 . Everyone should read that article — it’s raw and authentic and very real. It makes you love Celeste that much more.
I guess I should say at this point that Celeste is an indie puzzle game — but that is putting it mildly given that Celeste is really a game that you experience in it’s entirety. Throughout the game, you complete puzzles, you collect strawberries, you complete levels, you collect level heart tokens, and you play alternative versions of levels with B-Side Cassette tape tokens that you collect throughout the game — and of course — you die a lot. A lot. But it is really no big deal, because a reset after you die is a one to two second affair for quick game play continuation.
Are you loving Celeste yet? It’s time to get vulnerable! Celeste is worth your time, worth your emotional investment, worth your tears, and it is clear after playing Celeste for about ten hours why this game won the 2018 Indie Game of The Year Award.
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Article Disclaimer Note: Views are my own and not of my employer. I was not compensated, endorsed, or sponsored in any way for this article except for being a part of the Medium Partner Program.
