head to head

Orcs & Elves cover artvsPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door cover art

Orcs & ElvesvsPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Orcs & Elves leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).

EXECUTION2 /10READS1 /10VARIANCE3 /10OPTIMIZATION7 /10
Orcs & ElvesPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Axis by axis

Execution2 vs 3

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door leans harder on execution: Action commands and stylish moves

Reads1 vs 2

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door leans harder on reads: Scripted enemy AI

Variance3 vs 3

Even - both lean on variance about the same.

Optimization7 vs 7

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.

full breakdown

Orcs & Elves

full breakdown

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door