As someone who has gotten all 175 red strawberries, and is currently working on B & C sides... I cannot emphasize how excellent the game is, mechanics-wise, lore-wise, level-design-wise, soundtrack-wise, etc. My personal GOTY.

(That being said, my keyboard is suffering.)

• Helsinki

Celeste is really really good and I love it so much because it was a demonstration of the fact that a ton of things people thought were not compatible were. You can't put accessibility options into a game billed on difficulty. You can't make a story heavy narrative game while still being a hardcore platforming game—the story people won't like the difficulty and the mechanics people will skip narrative. Hardcore gamers hate female protagonists, and they won't want to play as girls.

And all of that was wrong and didn't matter. Celeste is a "hardcore platformer", see. Not in the sense that it is hard, but in the sense that it focuses less on combat or battles and more on very difficult, precise platforming challenges that demand good play, thinking, planning, and high execution skills. Like Super Meat Boy. But of the games of its type, Celeste is probably the most accessible. Not just because it has accessibility options designed to make it possible for even people who have disabilities that would prevent them from playing the game from completing it, but also because it is very cleverly designed. It's good at teaching players, and at keeping new players from becoming intimidated. And while challenging, I wouldn't describe beating it as some privilege for the talented few. I bet all of you could beat the main game (there was an expansion that... is harder to get into and much harder to beat. But the main game is very completable) without being too frustrated. So if you came for the story, you will get an ending.

But if you came for the challenge, you won't be disappointed, because Celeste gives you control-breakingly hard content to play as optional content, for bragging rights (you must, alas, complete some of this to get to the expansion). Most obviously, Celeste has collectible strawberries scattered throughout its levels. They're hidden, locked behind extra hard platforming, or both—but don't worry, the game helps you hunt down the strawberries you missed if you want them all. Then, there are blue hearts, ususally locked behind cryptic puzzles, and finally there are tapes, which are locked behind nasty platforming challenges. Collecting a tape unlocks a B-side for the level, which is much, much harder. Beat every B-side and find their hidden collectibles, and you can unlock C sides.

It's so so brilliant. Just... go play it.

And yes, you do get King Knight in Shovel Knight Treasure Trove. And their multiplayer vs game. You get it all.

The reason for this that Treasure Trove was the original version of the game, which was sold initially for either $10 or $15, and was from a kickstarter. Everybody who bought that game or got a copy from the kickstarter had been promised all those extra campaigns for free, but as more and more of them came out and they became increasingly in-depth, it made more and more sense to raise the price, which they did, and then made each campaign except Plague Knight's available separately in case someone only wanted one.

I will say that on its own, Shovel of Hope (the original Shovel Knight campaign) is just this amazing, absolutely delightful and charming 2D platformer. While Plaugue of Shadows is... arguably weaker (and a lot more complicated), Spectre of Torment plays excellently and King of Cards isn't just really fun, it... also includes a collectable card game. And by challenging yourself in the mirror, you can actually play local multiplayer. And there's co-op now in Shovel of Hope, and you can change the pronouns and gender presentation of all the characters in that campaign, and every version of that campaign has special extras specific to the platform—switch has really extensive Amiibo support, 3DS had a streetpass multiplayer game, PlayStation has a boss battle with Kratos, and Xbox had a Battletoads fight and Battletoads armor (which changes how the game plays)... which is now in the PC version because of Microsoft's XBox/PC parity thing they want to do.

It was always really good and now it's just... so full of stuff and heart and charm and it is well worth the price of admission if you like 2D platformers.

I can confirm that Shovel Knight and Owlboy are on sale

(I also found out that Elden Ring is on sale, so I grabbed it - people seem to like it so I figured I might as well)