The best Google Stadia games for 2022 | Digital Trends

Celeste perfects the art of balancing challenge with reward. It’s a knuckle-busting 2D platformer in the vein of  Super Meat Boy and Shovel Knight but takes itself much more seriously. You play as Madeline, a young girl riddled with anxiety and self-doubt. On a journey of self-discovery, Madeline decides to climb Celeste mountain, where she encounters demons internal and external. Celeste is a challenging game, but it’s one that everyone should play. It’s one thing for a game to brood in the corner like a spoiled child, but that’s not what Celeste does. It offers a compelling narrative that gets right to the edge of being on the nose but never goes past that line. The story sticks out, but Celeste is still a challenging platformer, first and foremost. Tone is what sets it above its counterparts. As a character, Madeline faces a challenge she can just barely overcome, and in the same way, Celeste tasks you with challenges you can just barely overcome. It’s a tough game, but not an unfair one. The controls are ultra-tight, much more so than other platformers, giving you precise control over how Madeline jumps and dashes. With that, Celeste is less about blindly failing screens and more about learning the exact movement to get past them.

Read our full Celeste review