Building comparison
head to head
Not a HerovsSuper Contra
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is reads, and it is a single point.
Not a Hero
Execution · Practiced Mastery
Twitchy cover-shooter rooms that reward drilled execution and memorised routes.
Super Contra
Execution · Practiced Mastery
Memorising spawn patterns then executing them flawlessly under one-hit-death rules.
Not a Hero leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Super Contra leans Execution (Practiced Mastery).
Not a HeroSuper Contra
Axis by axis
Execution8 vs 8
Same score on execution - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Not a Hero
Slide-cancels, snap cover and reload timing decide every room
Super Contra
One-hit deaths demand precise dodging and constant accurate fire
Reads1 vs 0
Not a Hero leans a little harder on reads, though the gap is small.
Not a Hero
Enemies follow fixed behaviours, nothing adapts to you
Super Contra
Alien waves follow fixed spawn scripts
Variance2 vs 1
Not a Hero leans a little harder on variance, though the gap is small.
Not a Hero
Minor enemy spawn jitter, levels otherwise deterministic
Super Contra
Nothing random once spawn patterns are memorised
Optimization6 vs 6
Same score on optimization - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Not a Hero
Learning room layouts and routing kills enables full-clear runs
Super Contra
Memorising spawns and weapon routes is half the run
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.