Shigeru Miyamoto has created some of the best-known characters

Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario the famous plumber who stars in Nintendo's most popular titles, became the first to enter the awards' Hall of Fame.

In a taped message, Mr Miyamoto said he was "honoured" by the accolade.

Nintendo also won the most prizes, including top publisher, although PlayStation's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was named Ultimate Game of 2003.

Competition beater

In the recorded acceptance speech, Mr Miyamoto said he had enjoyed "every minute" of his work in what he described as an "amazing" computer and games industry.

"I would like to thank all the game fans and game media in Europe who are helping to energise the video games industry," said Mr Miyamoto.

"For more than 20 years I have been fortunate enough to work with very talented people with amazing foresight from the early Donkey Kong days to our most recent, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!."

AWARDS RESULTS PS2 game: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City GameCube game: Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Handheld game: Advance Wars 2 Xbox game: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic PC game: CM4 Online game: Battlefield 1942 MTV film to game: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Best of British: CM4 Publisher: Nintendo Retailer: GAME Hardware: GameBoy Advance SP Unsung hero game: Viewtiful Joe Editor's game award: Pro Evolution Soccer 3 Most wanted for Xmas: Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Most anticipated for 2004: Half-Life 2 Ultimate game: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

The Japanese games company also beat Sony's popular Eye Toy: Play and Xbox Live to take the prize of hardware of the year, with its handheld GameBoy Advance SP.

The award which recognised the best game from a film went to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, which beat finalists Enter the Matrix and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Ultimate game of the year winner, Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, also took the PlayStation title of the year.

Unsurprisingly, PC game Half-Life 2 was voted the most anticipated title for 2004.

The game's release was delayed from Christmas 2003 to the first half of next year because some of its source code was stolen.