Building comparison
head to head
Ghosts 'n GoblinsvsTrackMania United Forever
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is variance, and it is a single point.
Ghosts 'n Goblins
Execution · Pure Mechanics
Capcom's infamously punishing arcade platformer that makes you beat it twice for the real ending.
TrackMania United Forever
Execution · Practiced Mastery
Pure time-trial racing testing relentless execution of an ever-more-optimised line.
Ghosts 'n Goblins leans Execution (Pure Mechanics); TrackMania United Forever leans Execution (Practiced Mastery).
Ghosts 'n GoblinsTrackMania United Forever
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.
Ghosts 'n Goblins
Committed jumps and pixel-precise throws, no mercy
TrackMania United Forever
Frame-perfect lines over hundreds of restarts are everything
Reads0 vs 0
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Ghosts 'n Goblins
Enemy spawns are scripted
TrackMania United Forever
Time trials against ghosts - no one adapts to you
Variance1 vs 0
Ghosts 'n Goblins leans a little harder on variance, though the gap is small.
Ghosts 'n Goblins
Red Arremer movement adds slight noise
TrackMania United Forever
Deterministic physics with literally nothing hidden
Optimization6 vs 7
TrackMania United Forever leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Ghosts 'n Goblins
Weapon choice and route memorisation are mandatory
TrackMania United Forever
Finding the theoretical fastest line is the meta-game
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.