Despite the lack of a top-notch game for what could be years, today reveal that the blue hedgehog is still Britain's number one games hero.

A new poll was taken to mark the start of the London Games Festival, with over 5,000 games players asked their opinion on the best-ever star character. 10,000 people are expected to participate in the various events that will comprise the festival.

Back to the survey, and Sonic was unsurprisingly followed by Mario, with no doubt encouraged by Lara Croft's position at three. Fourth is Donkey Kong and fifth is Pac-Man.

The bottom half of the list is topped by Link, then there's Max Payne, Pikachu, Niko Belic and last is Blanka.

Who is your favourite game-star?

By Luke Guttridge