Celeste

Celeste is a precise, extremely demanding platformer from Canadian studio Matt Makes Games, whose heroine Madeline attempts to climb the fictional Mount Celeste, her physical journey gradually revealing a much deeper, honest story about anxiety, depression, and self-acceptance, embodied literally by the heroine's dark shadow double. The gameplay is built on perfectly tuned jump, air-dash, and wall-climb controls, with each level constructed as a carefully designed puzzle demanding precise timing and spatial awareness, compared by critics to the classic Super Meat Boy for its merciless yet fair difficulty.

The game is divided into single-screen challenges that restart almost instantly upon death, turning dozens of failures into a smooth learning process rather than a source of frustration. Each chapter also introduces its own mechanic, from moving blocks through wind currents to mirror reflections of the heroine, and once it's exhausted the game drops it, so the challenges never repeat in the same form. The game also includes an assist mode allowing players to slow the game down, add infinite dashes, or unlimited stamina, opening up an otherwise extremely demanding experience to players who would otherwise hit high difficulty as a wall, without it being viewed as cheating.

Side collectibles called strawberries and hidden B-side levels with even more demanding design offer experienced players dozens more hours of content beyond the main story. The accompanying chiptune-orchestral soundtrack by Lena Raine ranks among the most acclaimed game music of the decade and on its own underscores the emotional arc of the story, as the main theme returns in transformed form depending on how Madeline is faring. Celeste is generally regarded as one of the best-written and most precisely crafted platformers of the entire console generation.