For the purpose of this thread, I am specifically talking about games where you have no health and are expected to die over and over and over and over and over again until you eventually master it.

Personally, I'd consider my favourites to be Super Hexagon, Dustforce, and Bit.Trip Runner. All of them manage to be incredibly satisfying when you finally succeed. Yeah, I played Super Meat Boy, but I didn't enjoy it as much as some other people seem do.

Super Meat Boy, The End is Nigh, The Binding of Isaac while playing as The Lost...huh those all seem to have something in common.

The N Games come to mind, as well as Fenix Rage.

If Hotline Miami counts then I'd like to submit those as my favorite, along with SMBoy.

Super Meat Boy, Dustforce and Super Hexagon are all fantastic. Luftrausers is cool too, but I didn't get into it in the same way I did the first 3. You also can't forget Geometry Wars!

Super Meat Boy, Dustforce, and I Wanna Be The Guy are probably my top 3

Yeah Hotline Miami is a nice pace between dying and mastering a level.

@kingbonesaw: I'd definitely say the Trials games count. Those games are all about replaying sections over and over until your eventually reach perfection.

Based on your description I would say Boson X, Neon Drive and Super Hexagon. Honorable mention being Hotline Miami. Like you I also didn't quite connect with Super Meat Boy, not sure if it was it's visual style or me not wanting to engage with the gameplay at the time, but it just never stuck with me.

VVVVVV and Spelunky are listed as such according to the Giant Bomb Wiki.

Can't say I agree that Spelunky really fits the mold, but both of those are probably the only ones in that list that have really clicked with me.

I did like Trials too, but I haven't played those games in over 15 years or whenever that flash game got popular. Wouldn't call it a favorite either case.

Can we count Banished too? It certainly doesn't have a quick restart option like any of those other games, but I've certainly started over a lot of times after the entire village suddenly got wiped out by the plague and stuff like that.

@fisk0: I would argue Trials never really got a lot better than those flash games, so I don't think you missed much other than fancier graphics either way. Are the flash Trials still playable somewhere? I should look.

That cat mario game is the only one I feel earns the title.

Besides that, definitely Hotline Miami 1 + 2. I guess the second, if I had to choose.

I always thought of masocore as a really specific type of platformer. Like Dustforce is hard but that's because its momentum based. And Hotline Miami isn't that difficult compared to Meat Boy or IWBTG.

Regardless, They Bleed Pixels and Wings of Vi are my favorites. Pixels has these really long levels that get really hard and technical when you add in the (not great) combat. Vi I never finished but was really tough in a very specific IWBTG-ish way.

Trials. Love that every level brings different challenges. Simple controls with mechanics in the physics that are slowly learned over time the more it's played. Then, after learning, mastering is a whole nother step.

Does Bit.Trip Runner2 count if the 1st one does? I freaking adore that game. It'd be a toss up between Miami Hotline and BT Runner2 if those count. Otherwise, I don't know shit about this genre.

Is the Skate series too much of a stretch?

Flywrench is awesome, does that count?

I always saw masocore more as bullshit trial&error games intentionally filled with shit that kills you without you being able to see it coming ala cat mario or iwbtg or 100000 spikes (The only from those 3 I actually kinda like). :p I thought it not being a fair challenge you can react to besides rote memorization was part of it. But the games people have posted about here that I recognize are definitely mostly just a fair challenge you can react to, albeit a hard one like flywrench (edit: I do think Hotline Miami 2 is maybe a bit more than a fair challenge though haha ).