head to head
vs
Diddy Kong RacingvsWave Race: Blue Storm
Diddy Kong Racing leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Wave Race: Blue Storm leans Execution (Pure Mechanics).
Diddy Kong RacingWave Race: Blue Storm
Axis by axis
Execution7 vs 8
Wave Race: Blue Storm leans harder on execution: Throttle control over dynamic waves is a pure hands test
Reads1 vs 1
Even - both lean on reads about the same.
Variance3 vs 2
Diddy Kong Racing leans harder on variance: Balloon pickups and items inject moderate randomness.
Optimization5 vs 5
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.