Celeste turned six years old last week, and to mark the occasion, developer Extremely OK Games has released a free 3D spinoff of the game.
Dubbed Celeste 64: Fragments of the Mountain, the new title was made by the original team within a week. The Itch.io page describes it as a “small, heartfelt platformer” clearly inspired by Mario 64.
Developers typically celebrate a game’s birthday with special artwork, or maybe a sale. Not all of them are able to reimagine their game in another graphics style, which helps Celeste 64 stand out.
When Celeste first released in 2018, its success helped keep the platformer genre afloat after most triple-A studios abandoned it. And since the original was 2D, having a 3D spinoff is only fitting.
It also continues Extremely OK’s habit of building upon the original in unconventional ways. As Kotaku notes, it celebrated Celeste’s third birthday in 2021 with a sequel, Celeste 2: Lani’s Trek.