Nintendo Power Called Street Fighter II: The World Warrior the Best SNES Game of 1992

It’s always interesting to look back to see what games were winning “Best of the Year” awards in past decades. Sometimes, the results are obvious — it’s no surprise, for instance, that Super Mario 64 was sweeping the awards in 1996. But some of these will catch you off guard (like how Battletoads won seven times in the 1991 Nintendo Power awards).

So I found some things I wasn’t expecting in Issue 44 of Nintendo Power, dated January of 1993.

For example, I found it a little bit surprising that Nintendo Power called Street Fighter II: The World Warrior the best Super NES game of 1992. Keep in mind that this was the same year that The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past landed in North America (which would be Nintendo Power‘s second pick that year).

Then again, both of the games mentioned above have left enormous legacies in their wake. And when this issue came out, Street Fighter II was more popular with Nintendo Power readers than A Link to the Past. In the monthly survey for their November issue (Issue 42), Street Fighter II scored 34,824 points, knocking A Link to the Past from its pedestal. (If you want to know more about how this scoring system works, I did a pretty exhaustive breakdown.)

Plus, Street Fighter II was newer, having come out in the United States in July of 1992. In fact, A Link to the Past actually came out in 1991 in Japan (it hit the United States in April of 1992). So, while people were clearly still in love with A Link to the Past, finally getting a home console port of Street Fighter II (which had been in arcades since early 1991) might have simply felt more exciting.

Other surprises of that year include Super Mario Kart way down at #6, Out of This World (the SNES port of the masterpiece Another World) at #8, and Sunsoft’s Road Runner’s Death Valley Rally at #10.

I’ll leave you with some scans from that issue so you can check them out for yourself.