The developers behind critical indie hit Celeste have released an N64 inspired sequel, suitably named, Celeste 64.
Celeste 64: Fragments of the Mountain is available on itch.io to celebrate the sixth anniversary of Celeste’s original release. As a special thank you to fans, Celeste 64 is available for free from the team at Extremely OK Games.
Unbelievably, Celeste 64 has been created in around one week by the original team, demonstrating just how talented they are. As expected though, Celeste 64 is another heartfelt adventure from the team with a big dollop of retro style.
Celeste 64 takes inspiration from the best Nintendo 64 platformers such as Donkey Kong 64, Banjo Kazooie, and of course, Mario 64. Chubby 3D characters with visible polygons bring an added charm to proceedings while the writing is still as witty, and occasionally silly, as ever.
The original 2D mountain is replaced with a fully 3D world with graphics that harken back to those halcyon days when an N64 and a copy of Mario 64 was all you needed for a great time.
Retro By Nature
We’re big fans of Celeste at Retro Dodo. It’s one of the best 2D platform games out there and nails the balance of challenge and fun beautifully.
Celeste started life as a PICO-8 game when developers Maddy Thorson and Noel Berry collaborated on the idea during a game jam. The PICO-8 version is also playable within the original Celeste and a full PICO-8 version released to coincide with the game’s third anniversary.
Celeste 64’s graphics aren’t the only homage to the 1990s either, with returning composer Lena Raine delivering another belter of a soundtrack with audible callbacks to the original Celeste and a clear love for the music of Mario 64.
The opening of Celeste 64 is certainly impressive. The responsive controls make protagonist Madeline a joy to handle and their trademark blue-hair-dash has returned.
Platforming around the world is still great fun and experiencing the game with a third dimension presents a whole new set of tricky jumps to master.
We’ll definitely be joining Madeline on their next climb up Celeste mountain, and reminiscing about our favourite 3D platformers from yesteryear while we do it.
