Building comparison
head to head
Mario Bros.vsYar's Revenge
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is reads, and it is a single point.
Mario Bros.
Execution · Pure Mechanics
An arcade test of jump timing and enemy-flipping precision on a single screen.
Yar's Revenge
Execution · Pure Mechanics
A remake of the classic Atari shoot-em-up.
Mario Bros. leans Execution (Pure Mechanics); Yar's Revenge leans Execution (Pure Mechanics).
Mario Bros.Yar's Revenge
Axis by axis
Execution7 vs 7
Same score on execution - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Mario Bros.
Precise jumps and bump timing under crowding enemies decide survival
Yar's Revenge
precise dodging and shooting reflexes
Reads1 vs 0
Mario Bros. leans a little harder on reads, though the gap is small.
Mario Bros.
Versus mode adds light human interference, enemies are scripted
Yar's Revenge
fixed enemy patterns, not adaptive
Variance2 vs 2
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Mario Bros.
Enemy spawns vary slightly but patterns are quickly learned
Yar's Revenge
minor randomness in enemy fire
Optimization4 vs 3
Mario Bros. leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Mario Bros.
POW block usage and enemy routing have known best lines
Yar's Revenge
minimal systems beyond scoring
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.