The Power Charts were a regular feature in Nintendo Power magazine starting with the first issue in mid-1988. Initially, every month there was a list of NES games ranked in order, aka the Top 30. Several months after the introduction of the Super NES, it was reduced to a top 20 for all three Nintendo systems at the time (NES, SNES, Gameboy). That change occurred in January 1992. The SNES charts were published for 7 years, although for the final two they were reduced to a top 10.
Only 15 games reached #1 over those 84 months, with Zelda: A Link To The Past leading the way for 19 of those months.
I found it strange that they continued the SNES charts into 1998, when only one game was released for the system. The NES charts ended the same month the final game was released (in 1994). It just seems like they went a year too long, especially when you look at how little changes there were in those final charts.
How were the charts compiled? The old issues with the top 30 show exactly how it worked. There were three separate rankings for players, pros, and dealers; when the the points were added up for those categories which gave us the final rankings. Issue 50 explains the process clearly:
"Each month we collect information from three sources to find the Top 20. The Players' Picks come from the Player's Poll cards sent in each month, the Dealers' Picks are based on retail sales reports, and the Pros' Picks are collected from game evaluators at Nintendo. All three sets of votes are set at equal weight, then averaged to find the point total a game receives."
The old issues (before 1992) where that additional data was displayed were nice, because it let you see how much of each game's total was in each category. It also allowed for some double checking. Unfortunately, once the SNES charts were introduced they didn't show all three categories. Only on a few occasions did they mention how a certain game was doing in a certain category. So because of that, there's no way to know if any of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System charts had errors in them. After 1994 (the third year), they stopped publishing the total amount of points altogether.
Total Points Ranking 1992-1998
Each Month's SNES Power Chart
- Vol. 32 (January 1992)
- Vol. 33 (February 1992)
- Vol. 34 (March 1992)
- Vol. 35 (April 1992)
- Vol. 36 (May 1992)
- Vol. 37 (June 1992)
- Vol. 38 (July 1992)
- Vol. 39 (August 1992)
- Vol. 40 (September 1992)
- Vol. 41 (October 1992)
- Vol. 42 (November 1992)
- Vol. 43 (December 1992)
- Vol. 44 (January 1993)
- Vol. 45 (February 1993)
- Vol. 46 (March 1993)
- Vol. 47 (April 1993)
- Vol. 48 (May 1993)
- Vol. 49 (June 1993)
- Vol. 50 (July 1993)
- Vol. 51 (August 1993)
- Vol. 52 (September 1993)
- Vol. 53 (October 1993)
- Vol. 54 (November 1993)
- Vol. 55 (December 1993)
- Vol. 56 (January 1994)
- Vol. 57 (February 1994)
- Vol. 58 (March 1994)
- Vol. 59 (April 1994)
- Vol. 60 (May 1994)
- Vol. 61 (June 1994)
- Vol. 62 (July 1994)
- Vol. 63 (August 1994)
- Vol. 64 (September 1994)
- Vol. 65 (October 1994)
- Vol. 66 (November 1994)
- Vol. 67 (December 1994)
- Vol. 68 (January 1995)
- Vol. 69 (February 1995)
- Vol. 70 (March 1995)
- Vol. 71 (April 1995)
- Vol. 72 (May 1995)
- Vol. 73 (June 1995)
- Vol. 74 (July 1995)
- Vol. 75 (August 1995)
- Vol. 76 (September 1995)
- Vol. 77 (October 1995)
- Vol. 78 (November 1995)
- Vol. 79 (December 1995)
- Vol. 80 (January 1996)
- Vol. 81 (February 1996)
- Vol. 82 (March 1996)
- Vol. 83 (April 1996)
- Vol. 84 (May 1996)
- Vol. 85 (June 1996)
- Vol. 86 (July 1996)
- Vol. 87 (August 1996)
- Vol. 88 (September 1996)
- Vol. 89 (October 1996)
- Vol. 90 (November 1996)
- Vol. 91 (December 1996)
- Vol. 92 (January 1997)
- Vol. 93 (February 1997)
- Vol. 94 (March 1997)
- Vol. 95 (April 1997)
- Vol. 96 (May 1997)
- Vol. 97 (June 1997)
- Vol. 98 (July 1997)
- Vol. 99 (August 1997)
- Vol. 100 (September 1997)
- Vol. 101 (October 1997)
- Vol. 102 (November 1997)
- Vol. 103 (December 1997)
- Vol. 104 (January 1998)
- Vol. 105 (February 1998)
- Vol. 106 (March 1998)
- Vol. 107 (April 1998)
- Vol. 108 (May 1998)
- Vol. 109 (June 1998)
- Vol. 110 (July 1998)
- Vol. 111 (August 1998)
- Vol. 112 (September 1998)
- Vol. 113 (October 1998)
- Vol. 114 (November 1998)
- Vol. 115 (December 1998)
