head to head
vs
Animal CrossingvsTiny Tower
Animal Crossing leans Optimization (Systems & Chaos); Tiny Tower leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Animal CrossingTiny Tower
Axis by axis
Execution0 vs 0
Even - both lean on execution about the same.
Reads0 vs 0
Even - both lean on reads about the same.
Variance3 vs 2
Animal Crossing leans harder on variance: Random visitors, fossils, and villager moves
Optimization4 vs 5
Tiny Tower leans harder on optimization: Stocking schedules and floor economics are trivially solvable
Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.