head to head

Shadow of the Colossus cover artvsZelda II: The Adventure of Link cover art

Shadow of the ColossusvsZelda II: The Adventure of Link

Shadow of the Colossus leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery); Zelda II: The Adventure of Link leans Execution (Practiced Mastery).

EXECUTION6 /10READS1 /10VARIANCE1 /10OPTIMIZATION7 /10
Shadow of the ColossusZelda II: The Adventure of Link

Axis by axis

Execution6 vs 7

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link leans harder on execution: Precise sword spacing, shield stabs, brutal platforming

Reads1 vs 1

Even - both lean on reads about the same.

Variance1 vs 1

Even - both lean on variance about the same.

Optimization7 vs 6

Shadow of the Colossus leans harder on optimization: Each colossus is a solvable climbing puzzle.

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

Shadow of the Colossus

full breakdown

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link