head to head
vs
Castlevania II: Simon's QuestvsLa-Mulana
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); La-Mulana leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Castlevania II: Simon's QuestLa-Mulana
Axis by axis
Execution4 vs 5
La-Mulana leans harder on execution: Stiff jumps and savage Guardian fights.
Reads0 vs 0
Even - both lean on reads about the same.
Variance4 vs 4
Even - both lean on variance about the same.
Optimization7 vs 8
La-Mulana leans harder on optimization: Decoding tablet riddles converges into pure solved 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.