head to head
vs
CupheadvsTrauma Center: Under the Knife
Cuphead leans Execution (Pure Mechanics); Trauma Center: Under the Knife leans Execution (Pure Mechanics).
CupheadTrauma Center: Under the Knife
Axis by axis
Execution9 vs 9
Even - both lean on execution about the same.
Reads0 vs 0
Even - both lean on reads about the same.
Variance1 vs 2
Trauma Center: Under the Knife leans harder on variance: First encounters hide pathogen behavior briefly
Optimization6 vs 5
Cuphead leans harder on optimization: Loadouts and boss phase order are fully learnable.
Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.