There's a free sequel to Celeste Classic you can play in your browser

Celeste is a glorious precision platformer, but it began life as a PICO-8 prototype you could play in your browser. To celebrate the full game's 3rd anniversary, its developers took three days to make a sequel to that original prototype. Celeste 2: Lani's Trek can be played now over on Itch.io.

It's again a game about climbing a mountain, but this time you've got a grapple hook rather than an air dash. It still lets you move laterally and cling to vertical surfaces, but it's a lot trickier to use it to climb.

Noel Berry, one of the game's developers, said on Twitter that it took 3 days to make, which sounds impressive to me, who will take 3 days to get past the game's second level.

Although Celeste started its life as a PICO-8 prototype, it doesn't seem likely that this is a precursor to a fuller Celeste 2. In speaking to IGN back in 2019, Celeste designer Maddy Thorson said that they didn't know "how we'd do a sequel justice. And besides, we're way more interested in making something new for our next full release."

I'm happy with that. Celeste is wonderful, but so was TowerFall before that. I'm happy to see what its developers make next.

You can play Celeste Classic 2 in your browser on Itch.io, or download it. I missed the game when it came out earlier this week (because we were redesigning the site, hi), but spotted it just now because I looked at the Itch.io homepage - so here's a reminder to do that every once in a while.