Sonic edges by Mario as UK’s favorite mascot
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 6:59pm by Derek
He’s the fastest thing alive, and apparently, he’s also the favorite.
Or so say the Brits, at least.
SEGA’s Sonic the Hedgehog edged by Nintendo’s Super Mario as the United Kingdom’s favorite video games mascot. The speedy blue blur beat the iconic Italian plumber by a three percent margin of votes.
More than 500 UK gamers were polled to mark the launch of this week’s London Games Festival.
Four of the top 10 were Nintendo mascots — Donkey Kong, Link and Pikachu were also on the list.
The full top-ten list includes, in order: Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario, Lara Croft, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Link, Max Payne, Pikachu, Niko Belic (Grand Theft Auto) and Blanka (Street Fighter).
October 21st, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Wow: Blanka made the list but not Sub-Zero? What’s with that?
Wow - Snake didn’t make the list either.
Where’s the love for Kirby?
Pac Mac? Shouldn’t that be Pac-Man?
Lara Croft, yet Samus is denied - what’s up with that as well?
Man, I wish I knew how these people thought when they chose to rank the characters…Mario always deserves the number 1 slot, IMO.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Thanks, Joltman. Subliminal advertising on my part?
October 21st, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Max Payne made the list?
Wowzers.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Did you know that until the Wii, the UK was one of the only nations in the world where Nintendo never won a console race?
October 21st, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Proof that the real Sonic fanbase is in the UK (as opposed to the whiny, “OMG SONIC KISSED A HUMAN!” fanbase we have here).
October 21st, 2008 at 7:36 pm
I’m from the UK and i voted in this, but i can assure you i DIDNT vote for sonic, mario is much more of an iconic character
the voting process was not a well thought up one, on your screen you had 2 pannels and a character would appear on each one of the two, you then had to choose between the 2 ‘who is more iconic?’ and sonic was paired with ryu from street fighter, now i think everyone will agree when i say sonic is more well know than ryu. as for mario, he was paired up with pikachu, which is a more well known character than solid snake, picachu is a face of an entire franchise and is known well worldwide. therefore the ratio between mario:pikachu is much more equal than sonic:snake
if you understood any of that, well done you.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:41 pm
The UK has always been SEGA’s #1 fan so that could be why he’s on top. That, or they’ve just been sticking to Sonic’s stellar DS outings.
Blanka so high on the list brings a tear to my eye. Finally, the little green electric man from brazil is getting the respect he deserves.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:22 pm
I don’t get it. Blanka is cool and all, but he’s hardly an ideal mascot of Street Fighter, much less Capcom, much less videogames in general.
October 21st, 2008 at 10:25 pm
BLANKA?
What the heck? Why not Guile? Why not anybody?
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:03 am
500 people (who I can only presume must be family members of Sega employees) do not represent the whole of the UK.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:06 am
Honorable mention: The bird from Joust.
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:12 am
Why wasn’t I there?!? Why did nobody inform me of a games festival in london?! *cries*
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:34 am
Stop crying about OTHER peoples opinions, fanBoys. lol !
The UK has different tastes, get over it.
I thought Mario would be Number 1 worldwide, but number 2 is still great. Pac-Man deserves to be on ANY top list of game icons, no question, however, Blanka and Laura Croft are surprising when the likes of Samus, Snake and Master Chief were not even on the list.
Great to see that not all the world has the same opinions and tastes!
S E G A !!!
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:27 pm
@-_Q:
After the horrid Street Fighter movie, NO ONE respects Guile anymore.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:35 pm
@joltman
After the horrid Street Fighter movie, NO ONE respects ANY STREET FIGHTER CHARACTER anymore.
fixx’d.