What should I play next

Ask for the shape of the challenge.

Not “something hard” — something that leans on the axes you want leant on and stays out of the way everywhere else. Demanding on strategy, forgiving on execution, under twenty hours. Everything below is scored through your own calibration, so “demanding” means demanding for you.

You have not calibrated, so this is matching against an average player. It still works; it is just not about you yet.

Calibrate
Or from something you finished

Sign in and this can read the ask out of a game you have already beaten.

Execution
Reaction
Strategy
Puzzle
Grind
Punishment
Learning Curve
Obscurity
Clear

Read out of Super Meat Boy

Nearest fingerprints in the catalogue. The same demands, a different game.

Trackmania

2020 · Nadeo · ~15h

5.3STEEP

Pure execution with zero consequence: you will restart a seven-second track four hundred times and enjoy every one of them.

UnratedEXE 7.0REA 6.0GRD 5.1
EXE 7.0REA 6.0STR 1.0PUZ 2.0PUN 0.4OBS 2.5GRD 5.1 — you asked for forgiving

Cuphead

2017 · Studio MDHR · ~12h

5.9STEEP

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

UnratedEXE 7.5REA 7.5CRV 7.0
EXE 7.5REA 7.5STR 2.0PUZ 0.8GRD 2.8PUN 3.2OBS 2.5

osu!

2007 · ppy · ~100h

6.0PUNISHING

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.

UnratedEXE 7.5REA 7.0GRD 6.2
EXE 7.5REA 7.0STR 0.5PUZ 0.8PUN 1.0GRD 6.2 — you asked for forgivingOBS 4.6 — you asked for forgiving

Ghostrunner

2020 · Slipgate Ironworks · ~8h

5.5STEEP

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

UnratedREA 7.4EXE 6.8CRV 5.0
EXE 6.8REA 7.4STR 2.5PUZ 2.0GRD 0.9PUN 2.6OBS 2.5

Celeste

2018 · Extremely OK Games · ~10h

4.6MODERATE

Frame-perfect demands wrapped in the kindest failure state in games — you will die two thousand times and each one costs you half a second.

UnratedEXE 6.4REA 4.5CRV 4.1
EXE 6.4STR 1.5PUZ 3.0GRD 1.9PUN 1.8OBS 1.2REA 4.5 — you asked for demanding

Beat Saber

2019 · Beat Games · ~30h

4.4MODERATE

Legible in ten seconds and physical after ten minutes. The ceiling is not comprehension, it is whether your arms can still be in two correct places a second from now.

UnratedREA 6.0EXE 5.7GRD 2.6
STR 0.5PUZ 0.5GRD 2.6PUN 0.6OBS 1.5EXE 5.7 — you asked for demandingREA 6.0 — you asked for demanding

Hotline Miami

2012 · Dennaton Games · ~8h

6.0STEEP

Instant death in both directions and an instant restart. The difficulty is entirely in how quickly you commit to a floor plan you have already memorised.

UnratedREA 8.5EXE 7.2CRV 4.0
EXE 7.2REA 8.5STR 3.0PUZ 2.0GRD 1.1PUN 2.9OBS 2.5

Ori and the Blind Forest

2015 · Moon Studios · ~10h

4.3MODERATE

You can save anywhere for a resource cost, which turns the escape sequences into a planning problem: no soul links means no checkpoints, and the game does not hand them back.

UnratedEXE 5.5REA 5.5CRV 4.0
STR 1.5PUZ 2.5GRD 1.2PUN 3.0OBS 2.1EXE 5.5 — you asked for demandingREA 5.5 — you asked for demanding

Devil May Cry 5

2019 · Capcom · ~15h

5.1STEEP

You can finish it by mashing. The difficulty lives entirely in the gap between finishing it and playing it, and the game is happy to let you ignore that gap forever.

UnratedEXE 6.4REA 5.8CRV 5.4
EXE 6.4STR 2.5PUZ 1.0GRD 2.8PUN 3.2REA 5.8 — you asked for demandingOBS 4.3 — you asked for forgiving

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

2014 · Retro Studios · ~12h

4.5MODERATE

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

UnratedEXE 5.4REA 5.4CRV 5.0Not on your platforms
STR 1.5PUZ 1.5GRD 2.4PUN 3.6OBS 3.0EXE 5.4 — you asked for demandingREA 5.4 — you asked for demanding