head to head
vs
Metroid FusionvsSpace Station Silicon Valley
Metroid Fusion leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Space Station Silicon Valley leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery).
Metroid FusionSpace Station Silicon Valley
Axis by axis
Execution6 vs 5
Metroid Fusion leans harder on execution: demanding bosses for a 2D Metroid
Reads0 vs 0
Even - both lean on reads about the same.
Variance2 vs 2
Even - both lean on variance about the same.
Optimization6 vs 7
Space Station Silicon Valley leans harder on optimization: Matching animal abilities to level objectives is the core puzzle
Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.