Building comparison
head to head
Mortal KombatvsPokkén Tournament
Neither is harder. They score identically on all four axes, so the difference between them is in kind, not degree.
Mortal Kombat
Reads · Competitive PvP
The 2011 reboot that returned Mortal Kombat to brutal 2D fighting fundamentals.
Pokkén Tournament
Reads · Competitive PvP
Pokémon fighting game built on a rock-paper-scissors attack triangle across dual phases.
Mortal Kombat leans Reads (Competitive PvP); Pokkén Tournament leans Reads (Competitive PvP).
Mortal KombatPokkén Tournament
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.
Mortal Kombat
Combo execution and punish timing
Pokkén Tournament
Combos and phase-shift punishes need clean hands
Reads8 vs 8
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Mortal Kombat
Human opponents adapt; conditioning and counter-guessing rule
Pokkén Tournament
Triangle attack system is live mind-gaming
Variance1 vs 1
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Mortal Kombat
Near-deterministic systems
Pokkén Tournament
Deterministic outside support timing
Optimization5 vs 5
Same score on optimization - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Mortal Kombat
Frame data and matchup study converge to known answers
Pokkén Tournament
Frame data and matchup study reward labbing
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.