Sonic Voted Top Gaming Icon... Ever

Sonic The Hedgehog has been voted as the most loved gaming character of all time by members of the public in the UK in a poll designed to comemmorate and promote London Games Festival.

Obviously a good portion of British gamers haven't had the chance to play Sonic the Hedgehog on 360, which is enough to ruin anybody's perception of the mascot. Still, there was his recent RPG outing The Dark Brotherhood which we actually thought was pretty good.

The rest of the list pans out in a way which is in places what you'd imagine and in others downright confusing - Mario in second, Lara Croft third and Donkey Kong fourth.

Later down the list some strange characters appear, such as Max Payne, Niko Bellic and Street Fighter's Blanka.

Here's the full list, and some hilarious PR-machine photos of a man in a Sonic suit running around London:
1. Sonic the Hedgehog (24 per cent)
2. Super Mario (21 per cent)
3. Lara Croft (Tomb Raider) (16 per cent)
4. Donkey Kong (11 per cent)
5. Pac Man (10 per cent)
6. Link (The Legend of Zelda) (5 per cent)
7. Max Payne (4 per cent)
8. Pikachu (Pokemon) (3 per cent)
9. Niko Belic (Grand Theft Auto series) (2 per cent)
10. Blanka (Street Fighter) (1 per cent)
--Other (3 per cent)