head to head
vs
Metal SlugvsNine Sols
Metal Slug leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Nine Sols leans Execution (Pure Mechanics).
Metal SlugNine Sols
Axis by axis
Execution8 vs 9
Nine Sols leans harder on execution: Sekiro-style parry timing is the entire combat test
Reads0 vs 1
Nine Sols leans harder on reads: Bosses follow learnable scripts
Variance1 vs 1
Even - both lean on variance about the same.
Optimization6 vs 6
Even - both lean on optimization about the same.
Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.