head to head

After Burner II cover artvsNew Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe cover art

After Burner IIvsNew Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe

After Burner II leans Execution (Pure Mechanics); New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe leans Execution (Pure Mechanics).

EXECUTION8 /10READS0 /10VARIANCE1 /10OPTIMIZATION2 /10
After Burner IINew Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe

Axis by axis

Execution8 vs 8

Even - both lean on execution about the same.

Reads0 vs 0

Even - both lean on reads about the same.

Variance1 vs 1

Even - both lean on variance about the same.

Optimization2 vs 3

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe leans harder on optimization: level routing for speed/collectibles

Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.

full breakdown

After Burner II

full breakdown

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe