head to head
vs
BorderlandsvsCastlevania II: Simon's Quest
Borderlands leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery); Castlevania II: Simon's Quest leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
BorderlandsCastlevania II: Simon's Quest
Axis by axis
Execution5 vs 4
Borderlands leans harder on execution: Standard FPS aim; numbers matter more than precision
Reads0 vs 0
Even - both lean on reads about the same.
Variance4 vs 4
Even - both lean on variance about the same.
Optimization6 vs 7
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest leans harder on optimization: Once decoded, it is pure item-and-route knowledge.
Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.