Building comparison
head to head
Contra: Rogue CorpsvsZombies Ate My Neighbors
Neither is harder. They score identically on all four axes, so the difference between them is in kind, not degree.
Contra: Rogue Corps
Execution · Practiced Mastery
Twin-stick shooting throttled by an upgrade grind more than reflex ceilings.
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Execution · Practiced Mastery
A campy 16-bit run-and-gun about rescuing neighbors from B-movie monsters.
Contra: Rogue Corps leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Zombies Ate My Neighbors leans Execution (Practiced Mastery).
Contra: Rogue CorpsZombies Ate My Neighbors
Axis by axis
Execution6 vs 6
Same score on execution - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Contra: Rogue Corps
Twin-stick dodging and aim carry every firefight
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Dodging monsters while sniping with squirt guns
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: Rogue Corps
Enemy waves are scripted spawns, not minds
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Monster movie AI is fully patterned
Variance2 vs 2
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Contra: Rogue Corps
Loot drops add mild noise to the grind
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Victim placement varies slightly per level
Optimization5 vs 5
Same score on optimization - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Contra: Rogue Corps
Weapon upgrades and build grinding gate progress heavily
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Weapon-versus-monster matchups and level routing
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.