Strawberry Jam has been in development for over two years, and that’s evident from the trailer. There are a ton of new biomes on display, like the titular Strawberry Jam fields, a neon-lit urban area, and some dusty dunes. More abstract, spacy designs return from the main game, too. The trailer has a little bait and switch half-way through, transitioning from the eye-candy biomes to tough-as-nails platforming teases. Some of the twitchy jumps and last-second dashes look closer to Celeste’s C-sides that I was never good enough to beat (I did knock out a few B-sides, though.) Thankfully, there’ll be multiple difficulty options included in Strawberry Jam, which may or may not be compatible with Celeste’s already great accessibility options. Some levels seem to be remixing assets from the base game, like the zooming mechanical blocks that send you flying. Others look like they’re introducing whole new abilities, like a rose that sends you flying upwards, and I’m sure there’s even more tucked away in the 111 new fan-made levels. The music here seems on par with Lena Raine’s incredible soundtrack for the base game, mixing hyperactive 8-bit tunes with sensitive piano cuts. You can hear a sneak peek of other tracks over on the Strawberry Jam YouTube channel. The Bandcamp and streaming revenue from the Strawberry Jam soundtrack will be donated to the charity Trans Lifeline. The Celeste Strawberry Jam mod will release on PC via the GameBanana page on February 17th, and it’ll be playable through Celeste’s modding API Everest.
