Building comparison
head to head
Hollow KnightvsMike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is reads, and it is a single point.
Hollow Knight
Execution · Practiced Mastery
A precision metroidvania about learning fixed boss patterns and tight platforming.
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Execution · Practiced Mastery
NES boxing game built entirely on memorizing opponent tells and executing split-second counters.
Hollow Knight leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! leans Execution (Practiced Mastery).
Hollow KnightMike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
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.
Hollow Knight
Precise platforming and pogo timing dominate hard content.
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Frame-tight dodges and counters, brutal at Tyson
Reads1 vs 0
Hollow Knight leans a little harder on reads, though the gap is small.
Hollow Knight
Bosses run scripted attack pools; not adaptive.
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Every boxer follows fixed tells and patterns
Variance1 vs 1
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Hollow Knight
Negligible; world layout is fixed.
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Almost fully deterministic once patterns are known
Optimization6 vs 7
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Hollow Knight
Charm builds and boss routes are fully learnable.
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Memorizing each opponent's pattern is half the 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.