head to head
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is reads, and it is a single point.

Execution · Pure Mechanics
Hitting braking points and managing weight transfer lap after deterministic lap.

Execution · Pure Mechanics
A 3D platformer whose joy lives in tight movement and capture-driven traversal.
Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed leans Execution (Pure Mechanics); Super Mario Odyssey leans Execution (Pure Mechanics).
Same score on execution - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed
Braking points and weight transfer control define lap times
Super Mario Odyssey
Precise platforming and capture-move tech ceiling.
Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed leans a little harder on reads, though the gap is small.
Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed
AI drivers follow racing lines, humans rarely adapt deeply
Super Mario Odyssey
No adaptive opponents whatsoever.
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed
Deterministic physics - the track never changes
Super Mario Odyssey
Almost no randomness in level design.
Super Mario Odyssey leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed
Car setup tuning and line study underpin pace
Super Mario Odyssey
Moon routes and movement tech learnable.
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.