’90s Video Game Face-Off: The Winner Revealed

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Earlier this week, as part of ’90s week at IGN, we asked for your help in choosing the greatest video game from that wonderful decade, whether it be Final Fantasy VII, Super Mario 64, Sonic the Hedgehog, or something completely different. Now, after nearly 2 million votes and countless heart-wrenching 1v1 battles with such behemoths as Goldeneye 007 vs. Metal Gear Solid and Super Metroid vs. Resident Evil 2, the ultimate ’90s video game has been chosen.

So, which game from the ’90s claimed the top spot and rose above the other 162 games that competed in this face-off? Drumroll please…

While it may not be a surprising outcome, it’s a welcome one nonetheless as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been crowned our winner. Tears of the Kingdom may now be our choice for the best Zelda game of all time, but there is no denying the importance of Ocarina of Time and that it reigns supreme in this battle of ’90s video games.

“Not only did it redefine action/adventure games, but it completely changed the way the industry thought about 3D combat and exploration,” we said of Ocarina of Time in our list of the top 100 games of all time. “An epic tale that introduced new characters, new lore, and an ever-expanding timeline theory, this version of Zelda took what was great about its predecessors and expanded on those themes and ideas exponentially.”

Ocarina of Time was a clear winner with a win percentage of 86.5%, but Super Mario 64 gave it a good fight with a win percentage of 79.9%. Much like Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64 changed what we thought was possible with video games and ushered us into the spectacular world of 3D.

The Mario train continued as Super Mario World placed third with a win percentage of 78.7%. We went back to Zelda with A Link to the Past for fourth place and Goldeneye 007 gave us a reprieve from Nintendo’s biggest heroes as it rounded out the top five.

Final Fantasy 7 and Metal Gear Solid followed in sixth and seventh place, respectively, and Mario Kart 64, Super Metroid, and Super Mario Kart fought valiantly enough to secure spots in the top 10.

If we look at the top 10, Nintendo accounts for eight of the games (four from N64 and four from SNES!) and PlayStation snagged two spots. Our first PC game – Half-Life – doesn’t show up until 16, and our first SEGA game – Sonic the Hedgehog – placed 21st.

SEGA did have the unfortunate honor, however, of have the game that placed last in our Face-Off in Seaman. Yes, the bizarre game that let players use a microphone to interact and care for a fish with a human face on it placd 163rd with a win percentage of only 9.9%.

Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine followed Seaman, and Kid Chameleon, Vectorman, Ultima Online, X-COM: UFO Defense, Comix Zone, Actraiser, The Elder Scrolls: Arena, and Planescape: Torment. A lot of these games are actually quite well regarded, but they just didn’t hold up against the test of time as well as others for IGN’s readers. Furthermore, some of these are earlier entries in beloved franchises like The Elder Scrolls and X-COM, and those newer entries stand stronger in 2023.

Are you wondering where your favorite ’90s game landed, like maybe Pokemon Red and Blue? (They placed 17th!) For all the rankings, you can check out the full list of where all 163 ’90s games that competed in this Face-Off ended up.

For more, check out all our other ’90s week content, including our look at how the PlayStation changed everything, the best movies from the 90s, how the 90s gave us the golden era of television, how the Dreamcast killed Sega’s hardware reign, and some forgotten gems from the PS1 launch.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.