Building comparison
head to head
DarksidersvsMario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is execution, and it is a single point.
Darksiders
Execution · Practiced Mastery
Zelda-meets-God-of-War action adventure starring the horseman War.
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Optimization · Practiced Mastery
Comedy RPG where every turn-based attack hides an action-timing minigame.
Darksiders leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery).
DarksidersMario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Axis by axis
Execution6 vs 5
Darksiders leans a little harder on execution, though the gap is small.
Darksiders
combo-driven combat with dodge timing
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Timed hits and dodge jumps every turn
Reads0 vs 0
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Darksiders
enemies are scripted
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Bosses telegraph fixed patterns
Variance1 vs 1
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Darksiders
world and bosses are fixed
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Encounters are authored
Optimization6 vs 6
Same score on optimization - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Darksiders
Zelda-style dungeons and upgrade routing
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Bros. Attack mastery and stat builds
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.