head to head
vs
Pico Park 2vsShovel Knight
Pico Park 2 leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Shovel Knight leans Execution (Practiced Mastery).
Pico Park 2Shovel Knight
Axis by axis
Execution6 vs 6
Even - both lean on execution about the same.
Reads2 vs 1
Pico Park 2 leans harder on reads: Partner reads are co-op social coordination, not adversarial
Variance2 vs 1
Pico Park 2 leans harder on variance: Puzzle solutions are fixed per level
Optimization4 vs 4
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.