The incredible (and incredibly introspective) Celeste graced our home consoles in 2018, sending us all on a journey of air-dashing, strawberry gathering, and self-reflection. Now, three years to the day, the team at Extremely OK Games have released a sequel…of sorts.
Before Celeste was Celeste, it was Celeste, a more simplistic game built in the Pico-8 engine and released in 2016. That version, now known as Celeste Classic, has since been overshadowed by its big sister, but that doesn’t mean the developers have forgotten about it.
Enter Celeste 2: Lani’s Trek, a follow-up to the original Celeste that Extremely OK Games programmer Noel Berry says was made in just three days.
As the name suggests, this sequel isn’t about Celeste protagonist Madeline but a new character named Lani. Instead of using magical air-dashing powers, Lani’s trek up Mount Celeste revolves around a grappling hook. While I’ve only played a few minutes so far, it’s tough in all the same ways that made the previous Celeste games so great.
Celeste 2: Lani’s Trek can be played right in your browser or downloaded on itch.io.
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