head to head
vs
Contra III: The Alien WarsvsHollow Knight
Contra III: The Alien Wars leans Execution (Pure Mechanics); Hollow Knight leans Execution (Practiced Mastery).
Contra III: The Alien WarsHollow Knight
Axis by axis
Execution9 vs 8
Contra III: The Alien Wars leans harder on execution: Relentless bosses and bullet dodging
Reads0 vs 1
Hollow Knight leans harder on reads: Bosses run scripted attack pools; not adaptive.
Variance1 vs 1
Even - both lean on variance about the same.
Optimization6 vs 6
Even - both lean on optimization about the same.
Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.