Building comparison
head to head
Donkey KongvsSuper Mario Bros.
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is variance, and it is a single point.
Donkey Kong
Execution · Practiced Mastery
The 1981 arcade classic of climbing girders and dodging barrels.
Super Mario Bros.
Execution · Pure Mechanics
Pure jump timing over fully fixed, memorisable levels.
Donkey Kong leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Super Mario Bros. leans Execution (Pure Mechanics).
Donkey KongSuper Mario Bros.
Axis by axis
Execution8 vs 8
Same score on execution - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Donkey Kong
Frame-tight jumps over barrels under arcade pressure
Super Mario Bros.
Perfect inputs trivialise momentum jumps over fixed hazards
Reads0 vs 0
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Donkey Kong
Fixed arcade patterns, nothing adapts
Super Mario Bros.
Goombas walk left forever - nothing to predict
Variance1 vs 0
Donkey Kong leans a little harder on variance, though the gap is small.
Donkey Kong
Barrel bounces add slight unpredictability
Super Mario Bros.
Every level is identical on every run
Optimization6 vs 5
Donkey Kong leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Donkey Kong
Stage patterns and score routes fully learnable
Super Mario Bros.
Level memorisation and warp routing are fully solvable
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.