Crash Bandicoot

Engineered in a lab by an evil yellow scientist to feel increasingly miserable to play towards the finale. The stiff jumps and precise periodic hazards turn what (feels like it) should be fast-paced platforming into a perfectionist waiting game. Crash suffers dearly from the agony of uplifted consciousness; he will slip through the tiniest cracks in his ravenous hunt for death, and can easily be killed by the Stone Tape psychic imprints where enemy hitboxes once stood five centuries ago.

The soundtrack's a good mix and they do some neat stuff with the level design, where they'll toss an easier one your way and reprise the same setting/challenges/gimmick in a later, longer, harder level, but what ultimately saves this game for me is that Crash goes “whew…” and wipes the sweat off his brow when you finish a level. Yeah, me too.