head to head
vs
Mega Man 2vsSuper Mario Bros.
Mega Man 2 leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Super Mario Bros. leans Execution (Pure Mechanics).
Mega Man 2Super Mario Bros.
Axis by axis
Execution8 vs 8
Even - both lean on execution about the same.
Reads0 vs 0
Even - both lean on reads about the same.
Variance1 vs 0
Mega Man 2 leans harder on variance: deterministic once stage layouts known
Optimization6 vs 5
Mega Man 2 leans harder on optimization: weapon-weakness ordering is the classic solve
Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.