head to head

Katana ZERO cover artvsSuper Mario 64: Shindou Pak Taiou Version cover art

Katana ZEROvsSuper Mario 64: Shindou Pak Taiou Version

Katana ZERO leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Super Mario 64: Shindou Pak Taiou Version leans Execution (Practiced Mastery).

EXECUTION8 /10READS0 /10VARIANCE1 /10OPTIMIZATION6 /10
Katana ZEROSuper Mario 64: Shindou Pak Taiou Version

Axis by axis

Execution8 vs 7

Katana ZERO leans harder on execution: One-hit-death slashing and deflects demand precision

Reads0 vs 0

Even - both lean on reads about the same.

Variance1 vs 1

Even - both lean on variance about the same.

Optimization6 vs 7

Super Mario 64: Shindou Pak Taiou Version leans harder on optimization: Star routing and movement optimization fuel the speedrun ceiling

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

Katana ZERO

full breakdown

Super Mario 64: Shindou Pak Taiou Version