Game: TetherGeist
Genre: Indie, Action, Adventure.
System: Steam (Windows) (also available on Nintendo Switch)
Developer|Publisher: O. And Co. Games | Out of Space Games
Controller Support: Yes
Steam Deck: Playable
Price: US $14.99 | UK £12.99 | EU €14,99
Release Date: May 7th, 2026
Review code provided with many thanks to Indie Pups
TetherGeist: A Platformer With Heart And A Lot Of Falls
Precision platformers and I tend to have a slightly complicated relationship. I admire them greatly, but there are also moments where they make me stare at the screen like I’ve just been personally insulted by a buzzsaw. TetherGeist somehow managed to pull me into that familiar cycle of frustration, determination and “okay, one more attempt” surprisingly quickly, and I see that as a positive.
TetherGeist is a 2D precision platformer that naturally invites comparisons to games like Celeste, but it still carves out enough of its own identity to feel worthwhile. More importantly, it manages to balance its demanding gameplay with a surprisingly warm and thoughtful story about difference, perseverance and growing up.
You play as Mae, a young girl living within a tribe where spiritual projection is considered a normal rite of passage. The issue is that Mae cannot fully separate herself from her spirit in the same way everyone else can. Instead, her spirit remains tethered to her, creating limitations that make her feel somewhat left behind compared to the others around her. Naturally, being told to wait patiently for another year is not really on Mae’s agenda.
So begins her pilgrimage, and thankfully, the game handles its themes with a nice amount of restraint. It never feels overly dramatic or heavy-handed. The story quietly exists alongside the gameplay rather than constantly interrupting it, and I appreciated that a lot. There are definitely conversations here about disability, self-worth and feeling different, but they’re woven into the world naturally rather than delivered with a giant neon sign pointing at them. No doubt there will be players who will connect deeply with the game’s messaging.
Teleporting Through Trouble
The big gameplay hook revolves around Mae’s tethered spirit abilities, and this is where TetherGeist becomes genuinely interesting.
Mae can project her spirit outward, essentially creating a temporary teleportation point. Once activated, she can instantly warp to the spirit’s location. At first, this sounds straightforward enough, but the game quickly starts building increasingly elaborate platforming puzzles around the mechanic.
Hazards, moving platforms, environmental triggers and timing challenges all begin interacting with your spirit abilities. You are not simply jumping from platform to platform. You are constantly chaining movement together, managing positioning and trying not to panic while your brain attempts to process three things at once.
As you progress, more abilities are introduced that further expand the movement system. Some allow you to rebound off surfaces, others manipulate environmental objects, and eventually the game becomes this fast-paced dance of teleporting, redirecting momentum, and narrowly avoiding instant death. Because yes, this is absolutely one of those games where touching almost anything dangerous sends you straight back to the checkpoint.
Thankfully, checkpoints are extremely generous. The game understands that repetition is a huge part of the experience, so retrying sections is quick and painless. That helps keep frustration under control, even when certain later challenges start becoming extremely demanding. And they do become demanding.
There were definitely moments where my brain simply stopped cooperating with my fingers. Some sections require very precise timing while simultaneously juggling multiple abilities, and although I admired the clever design, I occasionally found myself muttering at the screen like an exhausted football manager during injury time.
Still, when everything clicks together, TetherGeist enters a genuinely satisfying rhythm. There’s a strange meditative quality to repeatedly attempting a difficult sequence until muscle memory finally takes over. Those moments where you clear a complicated section flawlessly feel fantastic.
Collectables, Secrets And Optional Pain
The game also encourages exploration through collectable flowers and hidden routes scattered throughout the levels. Some are easy enough to grab, while others are tucked behind particularly nasty platforming sequences that exist purely to test your determination.
Early on, I enjoyed hunting these down quite a bit. They add extra flavour to the levels and encourage experimentation with your abilities. However, I’ll admit that as the difficulty ramped up later in the game, my enthusiasm for chasing every collectable started fading. Eventually, I became far more interested in simple survival than risking another ten failed attempts for one flower hidden above a wall of thorns.
That said, completionists and speedrunning fans will probably adore this setup. The game clearly understands the audience it is aiming for, and there is a huge amount of replay value here for players who enjoy mastering movement systems.
A Warm Visual Style
Visually, TetherGeist sticks to a colourful pixel-art presentation, but it does so very well. The environments feel inviting and expressive, balancing softer tones with vibrant effects during the more supernatural moments.
Mae herself is instantly likeable, and Bao, her little axolotl spirit companion, adds plenty of personality to the adventure without ever becoming irritating. I particularly liked how Bao subtly helps indicate ability usage during gameplay. It’s a small touch, but one that makes the flow of movement easier to follow during stressful moments.
The sound design deserves praise, too. The audio cues tied to spirit abilities are especially effective, almost sounding like soft musical notes chiming as you teleport and chain movements together. It gives successful movement sequences a really satisfying rhythm.
Conclusion: Spirited Away
TetherGeist ended up being a really pleasant surprise. It takes a genre that can sometimes lean too heavily into frustration and balances it with thoughtful storytelling, approachable checkpointing and movement mechanics that feel rewarding to master.
Now, make no mistake, this is still a demanding precision platformer. If games in this style have never appealed to you before, I do not think TetherGeist is suddenly going to convert you overnight. There were certainly moments where I felt my patience being tested, especially during some of the more complicated late-game sections.
But when the game finds its rhythm, it becomes incredibly satisfying. The movement feels great, the world has warmth to it, and Mae’s journey is genuinely easy to root for.
If you enjoy precision platformers, especially games in the same family as Celeste, then TetherGeist is absolutely worth checking out. And even if you are normally a bit hesitant with this genre, like I am, there is still a good chance this one might pull you into its flow state too.
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot
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