Voted for my beloved Zelda but Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario Bros and Pac-Man also get my honorable mention above the other excellent games here for "Game of the Decade."

Not hard for me, Super Mario Bros 3.
I’ve played the game semi-regularly since its release, the only pre-16-but era game I can say that about.

A bunch of great picks on this list, though.

Yeah, it's SMB3.

Which at it's time could've been considered the pinnacle of gaming and platformers as a genre back then.
Only stuff like Zelda and Tetris early on could compare to I'd say

I'm voting Super Mario Bros 3 since it's my favorite, but Super Mario Bros 1 and The Legend of Zelda are probably more important as far as setting the rules and the bar for all future games

Yeah, Nintendo were very clearly the number 1 developer of the decade. 6 game of the years is just insane.

Do y'all think they can match that for the 90s? I think they'll just fall short but still end up with 4 or 5

Super Mario Bros 3 is easily the best game of the 1980s.

SMB. Cuz legacy.

Tight race for the third spot

If we're picking a Game of the Decade based on which title had the most cultural impact, I think the only honest answer is the original Super Mario Bros. Wouldn't have been a Super Mario Bros. 3 (the candidate currently leading in our poll) without it, and for that matter console gaming itself may never have recovered from the doldrums of the early '80s either for that matter without it. It also sold more than twice as many copies as Super Mario Bros. 3.

But if instead we're just picking our favorite game from the '80s -- which is what it looks like people are actually doing (i.e. picking Super Mario Bros. 3 because it was more fun to play) -- then in that case I have a definite three '80s faves. They are:

1) The Guardian Legend
2) A Mind Forever Voyaging
3) Leather Goddesses of Phobos

None are nominated and there is no "other" option in this poll.

There was a game from 1987 I should have voted for instead, called Faxanadu (often mispronounced as Facks-Ana-Du, it’s actually Fa-Zana-Du since it is named for Famicom and Xanadu). But I forgot it wasn’t a game from 1990 or 1991, because I associate it with the mid-late NES period when I was a little older and the games were getting more complex. But no, this one first came out way back in 1987.

In 1985, Nihon Falcom released Xanadu, and they licensed the IP to Hudson Soft to develop a spin-off called Faxanadu. It is a side scrolling action game much like Castlevania, but one I like better. Rather than progressing horizontally, as is the cast in most of these games, the world main progression was upward in a location called “The World Tree” which was a land under invasion from the metal-minded dwarves from the opposing mountain. For a modern reference, it’s the same kind of world as Xenoblade Chronicles where you work your way up a biological Bionis type world, cross over on a branch (a branch of the tree in Faxanadu, a Sword in Xenoblade) and then make your way to the more mechanical and stone dwarf mountain that is a bit like Mechonis. I suspect Faxanadu was an inspiration for the world of Xenoblade Chronicles since Tetsuya Takahashi (creator of Xenogears, Xenosaga, and Xenoblade) was no doubt familiar with the game, as it came out near the time he broke into the video game industry, and the company he first worked for was none other than Nihon Falcom.

Also the game contains some of my favourite music from the NES.