Building comparison
head to head
PongvsStreet Fighter
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is execution, and it is a single point.
Pong
Execution · Competitive PvP
The original reflex duel - paddle precision with a thin layer of placement prediction.
Street Fighter
Execution · Competitive PvP
Wrestling crude controls to land specials while outguessing a human opponent.
Pong leans Execution (Competitive PvP); Street Fighter leans Execution (Competitive PvP).
PongStreet Fighter
Axis by axis
Execution6 vs 7
Street Fighter leans a little harder on execution, though the gap is small.
Pong
Paddle positioning and return angles are pure motor skill
Street Fighter
Notoriously stiff inputs make landing specials the real fight
Reads4 vs 5
Street Fighter leans a little harder on reads, though the gap is small.
Pong
Against a human, anticipating placement adds a thin prediction layer
Street Fighter
Human versus rounds still reward bait and punish
Variance0 vs 1
Street Fighter leans a little harder on variance, though the gap is small.
Pong
Fully deterministic ball physics
Street Fighter
Nothing hidden between two visible fighters
Optimization1 vs 2
Street Fighter leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Pong
Angle strategy is shallow and quickly exhausted
Street Fighter
Tiny moveset leaves little system to solve
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.