Here's a free N64-style version of Celeste from Extremely OK Games

Celeste celebrated its sixth anniversary this month, and developers Extremely OK Games have marked the occasion by releasing a free Nintendo 64 homage to their excellent platforming game over on Itch. Made in just "a week(ish)", Celeste 64: Fragments Of The Mountain channels the spirits of Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie as it tasks players with collecting dozens of strawberrys hidden around its snowy 3D landscape. It's well worth checking out if you've got a spare minute or so, though given how rock hard it is you may want to put aside a good hour or so if you want to truly master its controls and uncover every last secret.

You can grab it for free on Itch right now if you fancy giving it a spin on Windows or Linux devices - and the devs have said they're still working on a macOS version of it as well, which is "coming soon". You'll also want to use a controller for this one, as having given it a spin myself this morning, its platforming segments are pretty darn tricky, and likely even fiddlier if you attempt to play with a keyboard.

Admittedly, part of Fragments Of The Mountain's difficulty comes from having to figure out exactly what all the buttons do, and what effect its various power-up doodads have on your chibi version of Madeline, as the game doesn't tell you a thing when you first boot it up. It's also been a hot minute since I last played Celeste proper, too, so I had to spend a bit of time re-acclimatising myself to its climbing, wall jumps, dashes, jump dashes (and dash jumps) before I felt like I could take on its various challenges.

The world itself though feels just like an old Super Mario 64 level, with distinct challenges branching off in all different directions, and multiple pathways to explore and take through it. Here, though, you don't have to start the level again once you get one of its many collectible strawberries - you just carry on and see what else lies in store for you. The soundtrack is peak Super Mario 64 as well, which is just the icing on the cake for me. Honestly, there were moments when I could have sworn I was back in the depths of old Dire Dire Docks. The choice of instruments is that on point. Lovely stuff.

Extremely OK Games are also working on a new platformer at the moment, the lovely-looking Earthblade, which is one of my personal most anticipated games of 2024. Due out later this year on Steam, this "explor-action platformer" promises a seamless 2D pixel world to jump and dash across as you piece together its fractured history. It's been a while since we've heard much about it, but here's hoping it's not too long before we get another glimpse of it.