Sonic the Hedgehog is apparently Britain’s favourite computer game character, beating Mario by about 3% of the vote. The vote is a nice mix of oldies and newbies, with four of the top five featuring in games from the 80s and early 90s (Lara Croft was third). The other old school characters in the top 10 were Link (Zelda) and Blanka (Street Fighter).

Unfortunately there’s no indication in the story about when the survey was conducted, or among who. If it was a general poll of gamers, then it really shows how far more recent games have to go before dislodging the classics. If it was done among people in the industry, well in all fairness they would have been around longer, and so the likes of Sonic and Mario could have dominated their formative years in computing.

EDIT because I hit “publish” instead of “save”: I would have liked a bit more detail on the survey itself; they story just says “among gamers”. Was it a web poll? How many gamers? How old were they? Regardless, the poll shows how far more recent creations have to go before they dislodge the old favourites.

I had neither a Sega nor a Nintendo in my youth, so my vote might well have gone to Guybrush Threepwood.

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