head to head
vs
Sonic the Hedgehog 3vsSuper Mario Bros.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Super Mario Bros. leans Execution (Pure Mechanics).
Sonic the Hedgehog 3Super Mario Bros.
Axis by axis
Execution7 vs 8
Super Mario Bros. leans harder on execution: Perfect inputs trivialise momentum jumps over fixed hazards
Reads0 vs 0
Even - both lean on reads about the same.
Variance1 vs 0
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 leans harder on variance: Levels never change between runs
Optimization5 vs 5
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.