The greatest triumph of Celeste is that its best-in-class jumping and dashing is blended beautifully with an important and sincere story and an incredible soundtrack that make it a genuinely emotional game, even when your feet are planted firmly on the ground.

Quotation forthcoming.

Building on Towerfall's sublime movement mechanics, this nails the flow of leaping through levels. A story peppered with endearingly earnest characters, makes this fantastic adventure a triumph. [March 2018, p.92]

Celeste is an beautiful, optimistic game about how triumph can outweigh any number of failures. It's about reconciling your pain, frustrations and defeats. It's about getting better, in every sense.

Celeste is one of the most entertaining 2D platformers in recent years. It'll defeat you from time to time, but its inviting controls, level design, and presentation will keep you coming back until you persevere and overcome every challenge thrown your way.

Celeste is a wonderful precision platformer that does far more than simply challenge your dexterity. While there's plenty of intense screen-hopping to enjoy, it's offset by a well-told, personal story that softens the hard edged gameplay with some great slower moments. What's more, you can enjoy the story even if you're struggling with the platforming using the Assist Mode to bend the game's difficulty to your liking. The action is super smooth (though we did have to battle with the dash on occasion), there are lots of secrets to uncover, and it looks and sounds great. Even with some rare bugs, fans of both a steep challenge and a heartfelt narrative will find a lot to like about Celeste.

Celeste has a couple of hiccups in its aesthetics and tech, but the core of what Matt Thorson and his team have made contains a wonderful story of endurance and resilience for both the characters and the player, that begs not to be missed.