This series is intended to highlight some of the free games that I enjoy and would recommend. Specifically, the focus will be on games that are permanently free (not free-to-play with microtransactions and not temporarily free) and that are available through the likes of Steam, Itch.io, GOG, or Epic Games. Any recommendations of such games are welcome as well!

Game: Celeste 64: Fragments of the Mountain

Platform: Itch.io

Release Date: January 29, 2024

Developer: Extremely OK Games

Genre: 3D Platformer

Length: ~ 2 – 3 hours

Content Warning(s): None

In 2018, indie studio Maddy Makes Games (eventually rebranded to Extremely OK Games) released the retro 2D platformer Celeste. To say that the game was a success – commercially and critically – would be an understatement. The story of a young woman named Madeline and her attempt to scale a daunting mountain, the game was heavily praised for its tight gameplay, its very tough but also very fair difficulty, its gorgeous soundtrack (by the amazing Lena Raine), and its exploration of themes like anxiety and depression. I first played Celeste a few years ago, and it almost instantly became my number one favorite game of all time; it still holds that spot to this day.

Every few years, to commemorate the anniversary of the game’s release, the developers make and release a small spin-off for free. In 2021, for the third anniversary, this was the PICO-8 game Celeste 2: Lani’s Trek. In 2024, for the sixth anniversary (and for a week-long game jam), Extremely OK Games decided to take Madeline to another dimension with the 64-bit-inspired 3D platformer Celeste 64: Fragments of the Mountain. Rather than being split into discrete levels like the original game, Celeste 64 goes for more of an open world feel with a number of different floating mountain fragments and buildings that Madeline can explore and go between at will. The goal is to collect strawberries (there are 30 total) hidden throughout the world and in Super Mario Sunshine-inspired secret levels that are entered by touching floating cassette tapes. Many of the major mechanics of the original Celeste, including dashing and golden feathers, make a return, as do several key characters in small roles.

The big question, then, is how well does Celeste translate to the third dimension? The answer is pretty well, for the most part. From an aesthetics perspective, the developers really nailed it. It truly looks like a game you could have found on the Nintendo 64 in the 90s while also being recognizably Celeste. The fog and snow effects look gorgeous. The chibi-ish character designs are adorable. And the soundtrack is fun too:

The gameplay is a bit rough in places, as could be expected for a game made in a week, but I was surprised by the mechanical variety that the developers were able to include as well as the cleverness of some of the platforming tasks. Most of the mechanics pulled over from the original game seem to hold up well, with some necessary alterations (the golden feather allows Madeline to fly horizontally rather than vertically, for example). The fractured mountain world is quite fun to explore with all its nooks and crannies. And while the gameplay as a whole isn’t as tight as the original Celeste, that looseness allows for some interesting experimentation here and there.

There were really two main issues for me. One was the controls. They are serviceable for the most part but can be noticeably clunky at times (particularly if you are playing using a keyboard, like me). For probably 80% of the game this isn’t too terrible of an issue, but there are a few key areas (especially in some of the secret areas) that require precision platforming and it can be a bit excruciating. This is compounded by the lack of options for remapping the controls. The other issue is the lack of a map showing either the general location of strawberries or the location of strawberries that you already collected. The world isn’t huge, but it can still take time to traverse and it can be annoying to spend a chunk of time scouring an area for the last few strawberries only to realize you’d already done that before.

All-in-all, though, I enjoyed Celeste 64 a lot – both as a huge Celeste fan and a fan of 3D platformers in general. I do think that this is one that will be more meaningful or interesting to people who are already familiar with the original game, but I would guess that new players could find some fun with it as well.

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Game: Gravitas

Platform: Steam

Release Date: August 23, 2019

Developer: Galaxy Shark Studios

Genre: 3D Puzzle Platformer

Length: ~ 30 – 60 minutes

Content Warning(s): None

Trailer:

Let’s not beat around the bush – Gravitas is obviously heavily inspired by the Portal series. It’s impossible not to see the similarities while watching the trailer. This has led some people online to refer to it as a shameless rip-off of Portal, but I strongly disagree with that framing. This very much feels like a game that was built with love – and it was made by students to boot. To me, Gravitas falls much more cleanly into the category of homage than rip-off.

And honestly it doesn’t hurt that the game is very fun, as well.

In Gravitas, you play as an unseen person (given that it’s played from a first-person perspective) who has arrived at some kind of space station. Once inside the lobby, you are approached by a floating cuboid robot calling itself ‘the Curator’. Evidently the station is the ‘Gallery of Refined Gravity’, or ‘GORG’ for short, and you are to be the Curator’s newest pupil. Your job is to test out the various large art installations the robot has created, utilizing a special glove to manipulate gravity, move cubes, and solve puzzles along the way.

There are two main characters you interact with over the course of the game – the Curator and SHI, the station’s computer (and the Curator’s assistant). Despite the game’s short run time, both of these AI are quite well defined. The Curator is amiable on the surface, but it becomes rapidly apparent that he is arrogant and intolerant of other viewpoints. He views himself as some kind of grandiose master artist, but is sometimes comically inept when it comes to the finer details (as evidenced in a fun gag with one-way mirrors). SHI, meanwhile, is the practical one, constantly trying to rein in the Curator’s excesses in a manner that can border on passive aggressive. The voice actors aren’t on the level of Ellen McClain or Stephen Merchant, but they are surprisingly dynamic and clearly were having fun with their roles. (The way SHI says ‘GORG Reminder’ is burned into my brain.)

The writing isn’t as tight or as clever as that of the Portal games, either, but I still had quite a few laughs. The (frequently one-sided) banter and arguments between the Curator and SHI in particular were consistently quite funny. I was worried at the beginning that the dialogue could tip over into twee, but luckily that didn’t happen.

The gameplay side of things is pretty strong as well. The game ran smoothly, without any noticeable bugs or glitches, and I didn’t encounter any major optimization issues (something that is otherwise quite common with student games, in my experience). The central gravity manipulation mechanic is easy to grasp, and even with how short the game is the levels are still able to iterate on it in some interesting manners. The puzzles themselves seem to hit that sweet spot between easy and difficult; none of them are likely to fully stump you, but they still require some thought to figure out.

Really, if I had one complaint about the game it’s that it is too short. I liked this game a lot, and I am always down for more Portal-likes. And the fact that it is a student capstone project makes it all the more impressive.

Images courtesy of the games’ Steam and Itch.io pages, the Celeste Wiki, IGN, and Polygon.