Building comparison
head to head
Half-Life 2vsNew Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe asks more than Half-Life 2, and the gap is execution.
Half-Life 2
Execution · Pure Mechanics
Landmark FPS built on physics puzzles and tight gunplay.
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
Execution · Pure Mechanics
A classic 2D Mario platformer rewarding tight jump execution above all.
Half-Life 2 leans Execution (Pure Mechanics); New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe leans Execution (Pure Mechanics).
Half-Life 2New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
Axis by axis
Execution6 vs 8
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe leans clearly harder on execution.
Half-Life 2
Gravity gun and shooting demand precision.
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
precise jump and platforming execution
Reads1 vs 0
Half-Life 2 leans a little harder on reads, though the gap is small.
Half-Life 2
Combine AI scripted, non-adaptive.
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
fixed enemy patterns, no adaptation
Variance1 vs 1
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Half-Life 2
Almost no randomness.
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
minor enemy placement randomness
Optimization3 vs 3
Same score on optimization - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Half-Life 2
Linear progression with no builds.
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
level routing for speed/collectibles
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.