Ask for the shape of the challenge.

Rhythm violence at speeds that stop being readable. The later levels are memorised rather than reacted to, whatever it feels like at the time.

The purest execution test in the catalogue and one of the cheapest failures — nothing is lost when a run ends, which is exactly why people attempt the same map four hundred times.

Each boss is a fixed piece of choreography that you learn by dying to its second phase forty consecutive times.

The purest execution test on this list and also one of the gentlest, because the retry is faster than your regret.

Modern checkpoint generosity on the surface, with a completion layer underneath that wants every box and no deaths across a level built to cause both.

NES difficulty with modern checkpoints — and you can smash the checkpoints for gold, which is the game’s whole attitude in one mechanic.

One hit kills you and one hit kills them, and the retry is instant. Each room is a plan you rehearse at speed, not an endurance test.

One hit kills, restarts land in under a second, and momentum is mandatory — stopping to think is usually the thing that kills you.

The EMMI zones are one-hit deaths with a counter window measured in frames, and the bosses expect dodges on reaction rather than pattern.

Momentum platforming with hitboxes that reward commitment and punish hesitation. Funky Mode exists because the late levels ask for a great deal.