5/5 ★ – SKeLeTrust's review of Celeste.

I had nothing short of a BLAST playing Celeste. I'm so glad I randomly decided to finally play this game. At its core, there is nothing about its design that I dislike. Whether it's taking full advantage of the mechanics given to you, having very difficult yet perfectly fair obstacles to overcome, having extremely intuitive and smooth feeling controls with a moveset that's relatively easy to learn but surprisingly difficult to master at certain points, and phenomenal pacing in both gameplay and storyline. There was never a moment in this game where I felt bored. After conquering each challenge I was ecstatic to begin the next, and obviously I won't sit here and pretend the game is absolutely perfect, but for 99% of my playthrough, I freaking adored this game, man. The game is also built around the extremely clever narrative around battling depression and mental health, and Madeline herself is a super likeable and relatable character. She might even be one of my favorite protagonists I've ever seen in a game. All the other characters are great too. The cast is relatively small, but it creates a lot of chances for getting to know them and seeing how they affect Madeline on her journey. This is without an iota of a doubt, one of the greatest games, if not, THE greatest game I've ever played. I have to this day not experienced something quite like Celeste, and I recommend this masterpiece to anyone looking for a challenge, but also a fantastic gaming experience like no other.