Building comparison
head to head
DoDonPachivsGhosts 'n Goblins
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is optimization, and it is a single point.
DoDonPachi
Execution · Practiced Mastery
Cave's genre-defining bullet hell where survival is execution and score is a memorized chain route.
Ghosts 'n Goblins
Execution · Pure Mechanics
Capcom's infamously punishing arcade platformer that makes you beat it twice for the real ending.
DoDonPachi leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Ghosts 'n Goblins leans Execution (Pure Mechanics).
DoDonPachiGhosts 'n Goblins
Axis by axis
Execution9 vs 9
Same score on execution - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
DoDonPachi
Threading dense bullet curtains demands pixel-perfect movement
Ghosts 'n Goblins
Committed jumps and pixel-precise throws, no mercy
Reads0 vs 0
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
DoDonPachi
Fixed scripted patterns, nothing adapts
Ghosts 'n Goblins
Enemy spawns are scripted
Variance1 vs 1
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
DoDonPachi
Near-fully deterministic once patterns are learned
Ghosts 'n Goblins
Red Arremer movement adds slight noise
Optimization7 vs 6
DoDonPachi leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
DoDonPachi
Chain meter routing defines high-level play entirely
Ghosts 'n Goblins
Weapon choice and route memorisation are mandatory
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.