head to head

Shovel Knight cover artvsSpyro the Dragon cover art

Shovel KnightvsSpyro the Dragon

Shovel Knight leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Spyro the Dragon leans Execution (Practiced Mastery).

EXECUTION6 /10READS1 /10VARIANCE1 /10OPTIMIZATION4 /10
Shovel KnightSpyro the Dragon

Axis by axis

Execution6 vs 5

Shovel Knight leans harder on execution: Pogo combat and platforming need timing

Reads1 vs 0

Shovel Knight leans harder on reads: Scripted boss patterns, not reads

Variance1 vs 1

Even - both lean on variance about the same.

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.

full breakdown

Shovel Knight

full breakdown

Spyro the Dragon