Celeste

Welcome to Celeste Mountain, a precarious climb to overcome with sheer force of will and a lot of character development. You play as Madoline, a sassy cutie who came to climb the mountain because they weren’t feeling the best in their home life, and you’ll meet a number of interesting and quirky characters each with their own stories, advice, and baggage during your climb.

This game is difficult, it’s a very tricky platformer with a near infinite skill ceiling, but thankfully the main 7 levels of the story can be completed with a bit of luck and a whole lot of determination, don’t be put off by seeing a death count creep into 3 digits, just breathe, you can do this. The game has a very quick and snappy respawn system, a death is instant and returns you to the start of the room you’re in.

Fun fact, while the game’s story is laid out as a struggle through anxiety and self-doubt, the game’s creator Maddy Thorson was actually using this game as an outlet, and during the development of the game not only realised that she was trans, but also realised that Madeline was trans too, as their struggles so closely aligned, albeit presented in different ways. Interestingly enough, the game’s composer Lena Raine is also a transwoman who has experienced anxiety issues, so the game’s soundtrack is this wonderfully brilliant blend of hopeful yet tense when it needs to be, and the audiovisual design of certain cutscenes are incredibly well done.

So anyway, the moral of the story is that trans people can double jump, and plural people can triple jump, and you’ll just have to play the game to figure out what I mean by that.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/504230 £14.99
Humble Bundle: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/celeste £14.99
Itch.io: https://mattmakesgames.itch.io/celeste $19.99
Switch: https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Celeste-1207064.html £17.99