head to head

Donkey Kong cover artvsI Wanna Be the Guy cover art

Donkey KongvsI Wanna Be the Guy

Donkey Kong leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); I Wanna Be the Guy leans Execution (Pure Mechanics).

EXECUTION8 /10READS0 /10VARIANCE1 /10OPTIMIZATION6 /10
Donkey KongI Wanna Be the Guy

Axis by axis

Execution8 vs 9

I Wanna Be the Guy leans harder on execution: Frame-tight jumps through sadistic trap gauntlets

Reads0 vs 0

Even - both lean on reads about the same.

Variance1 vs 2

I Wanna Be the Guy leans harder on variance: Traps surprise once, then are known

Optimization6 vs 6

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.

full breakdown

Donkey Kong

full breakdown

I Wanna Be the Guy