Shigeru Miyamoto is set to follow in the footsteps of Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Harold Pinter, as the next recipient of the BAFTA Fellowship.

Since the release of Donkey Kong in 1981, the fantastic works of Shigeru Miyamoto have thawed the icy hearts of cynical games journalists like ourselves and won over many millions of gamers across the world with loveable characters, incredibly creative level design, and arguably the knack for infecting everything he laid his hands on with "that Nintendo charm" like King Midas. Except more charming.

BAFTA have revealed that the great man will be honoured at the BAFTA Awards on March 19th 2010 with a BAFTA Fellowship Award, a prestigious gong previously awarded to recipients such Alfred Hitchcock, Will Wright and Nolan Bushnell. Filled with gratitude as always, Miyamoto-san had this to say in response to the announcement:

"I am very grateful to be able to receive such an honorable award from the British Academy. Our video games cannot be created by one person; since Donkey Kong until the most recent New Super Mario Bros. Wii, I have been working closely with a number of friends for three decades in order to develop fun and enjoyable games. I would like to receive this honorable award on behalf of all of these dependable colleagues."

Shigeru Miyamoto's most recent achievement is the sublime New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which was awarded a 10/10 score by our own Tom Phillips. 2010 sees the father of modern day gaming attempting to top his previous outstanding efforts with both Super Mario Galaxy 2 and The Legend of Zelda promising explosively brilliant new experiences before the year is out.

Mr. Miyamoto, we salute you.