Building comparison
head to head
Contra III: The Alien WarsvsSuper Mario Odyssey
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is execution, and it is a single point.
Contra III: The Alien Wars
Execution · Pure Mechanics
Peak 16-bit run-and-gun of set-piece bosses and razor-thin dodges.
Super Mario Odyssey
Execution · Pure Mechanics
A 3D platformer whose joy lives in tight movement and capture-driven traversal.
Contra III: The Alien Wars leans Execution (Pure Mechanics); Super Mario Odyssey leans Execution (Pure Mechanics).
Contra III: The Alien WarsSuper Mario Odyssey
Axis by axis
Execution9 vs 8
Contra III: The Alien Wars leans a little harder on execution, though the gap is small.
Contra III: The Alien Wars
Relentless bosses and bullet dodging
Super Mario Odyssey
Precise platforming and capture-move tech ceiling.
Reads0 vs 0
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Contra III: The Alien Wars
Set-piece bosses are pure scripts
Super Mario Odyssey
No adaptive opponents whatsoever.
Variance1 vs 1
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Contra III: The Alien Wars
Everything is fixed and learnable
Super Mario Odyssey
Almost no randomness in level design.
Optimization6 vs 5
Contra III: The Alien Wars leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Contra III: The Alien Wars
Weapon management and pattern memorization
Super Mario Odyssey
Moon routes and movement tech learnable.
A matching score does not mean a matching test. Two games can both sit at 10 on execution and demand completely different things of you - which is why the reasoning above matters more than the number beside it.