Doctor Eggman

Dr. Eggman (Ivo Robotnik)
'Sonic the Hedgehog series character
File:Eggman pose 29.jpg Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik, as seen in Sonic Chronicles
First game	Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
Created by	Naoto Ōshima

Doctor Ivo Robotnik, also known by his alias Doctor Eggman, is a video game character and main antagonist of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. He is a rotund scientist with an IQ of 300, and the de facto archenemy of Sonic the Hedgehog. His character designer is Naoto Ōshima, and he has gone through several appearance changes throughout the series.

Concept and inspiration

File:Oldrobotnik.jpg

Doctor Robotnik's original design.

In April 1990, Sega petitioned its research and development department, AM8, to create a character who would replace Alex Kidd as the company's mascot, as well as compete against Nintendo's flagship character, Mario. A caricature of Theodore Roosevelt was among the proposed designs, and combined with the idea of an egg-shaped character, it eventually became the basis of the visual design for Dr. Robotnik/"Eggman". In creating the "bad guy" for the Sonic series, the development team wanted a character who was "the opposite of Sonic;" a character who represented "machinery" and "development" to play on the then-growing debate between developers and environmentalists. The character was also designed to be easy for children to draw.

The original English instruction manual for his 1991 debut game Sonic the Hedgehog described the character's full name as "Doctor Ivo Robotnik" while the Japanese version's instruction manual for the same game called him "Doctor Eggman". Then in 1999's Sonic Adventure, the character was called both "Doctor Robotnik" and "Doctor Eggman" in the English version. Yuji Naka has explained that "Robotnik" is the character's real name while "Eggman" is a "common name taken after his shape." Despite this, the Japanese Sonic Channel profile listed his full name as unknown.

Characteristics

Doctor Eggman is described as being a certifiable genius with an IQ of 300. His fondness for machines has also made him a renowned authority on robotics. Ultimately, Eggman's goal is to conquer the world and create his ultimate utopia, Eggmanland (alternatively known as the Eggman Empire or Robotnikland). He selfishly never gives up on this matter, and does not care for others' opinions. He considers those who would interrupt his plans a prime threat. His abominable laughter and maniacal declarations contrast his self-professed softer side, as a romanticist, feminist, and gentleman. Despite his intelligence, Eggman can be terribly immature, prone to childish emotional fits when he is not getting his way. Although Sonic has always ruined his evil plans, Eggman begrudgingly holds a secret respect for his determination.

Actor portrayal

A great number of voice actors have portrayed Dr. Eggman in his post-1998 game appearances, as well as in other media. In the Japanese game releases, Eggman is voiced by Chikao Ōtsuka. From 1999-2004, Deem Bristow provided the English dub for Eggman; 4Kids employee Mike Pollock assumed the role following Bristow's death from a heart attack in 2005. The first video game to star Pollock was Shadow the Hedgehog, in which all of the regular voice actors were replaced with the 4Kids cast.

The only person besides Ōtsuka to portray Eggman in a Japanese production is Junpei Takiguchi, who provided Eggman's voice for the direct-to-video film Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie. Edwin Neal later provided the English dub.

The television incarnations of Doctor Eggman (or "Ivo Robotnik" as he is often known) has been voiced by three different actors. In Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Robotnik is voiced by British blues singer Long John Baldry, who coincidentally died the same year as Deem Bristow from a severe chest infection. Robotnik was voiced by Jim Cummings in the ABC Saturday morning Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon, and by Gary Chalk (who also voiced Grounder in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog) in Sonic Underground. Eggman is also voiced by Pollock in the English dub of Sonic X.

In video games

File:Robotnik-boss.png

In many Sonic video games, Dr. Robotnik will oppose the player directly as an end-level boss (seen here piloting his grabber device in Launch Base Zone Act 2, the final boss of Sonic 3)

In the majority of video games set in the Sonic the Hedgehog universe, Eggman has served as the main antagonist. Most of the Sonic video games that were released before 1998, the year in which Sonic Adventure was released in Japan, featured Eggman as the final boss the player fights at the end of the game. Eggman also appears as the boss who the player must confront at the end of almost every level in most of the 2D Sonic games, and in Sonic 3D. In each game in which he makes multiple appearances as a boss, Eggman fights the player using a different machine each time he appears. In most of the 2D Sonic games, the player had to hit Eggman eight times when he appeared as a boss in order to defeat him and move on to the next level or next boss. Since the release of Sonic Adventure, and in most of the three-dimensional Sonic games since 1998, Eggman may serve as a boss at one or more points in the game, although he usually does not serve as the final boss. Many of the final bosses in Sonic games that were released after 1997 were former allies of Eggman who then betrayed him or ended their service with him, while others were a third party that had no connection with Eggman whatsoever. Eggman has often formed temporary alliances with Sonic and others to help them defeat the final bosses in the Sonic video games released after 1997.

Dr. Eggman debuted in the 1991 Genesis platform game Sonic the Hedgehog, where he attempted to collect the six Chaos Emeralds and hoped to turn all of the helpless animals inhabiting South Island into robots. He returned in the immediate sequel, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, where he once again sought the Chaos Emeralds, of which there were now seven. In this game, Eggman sought to collect the emeralds to fuel his ultimate weapon, a space station known as the Death Egg (an obvious homage to the Death Star), which has reappeared in several other titles in the series. In 1993's Sonic CD, Eggman, along with his latest creation, Metal Sonic, travels to Little Planet in search of magical stones that have the power to control the passage of time. In Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, following the events in Sonic 2, Eggman's Death Egg crash-lands onto Angel Island. While repairing the space station, Eggman meets Knuckles the Echidna, whom he tricks into believing that Sonic is trying to steal the Chaos Emeralds; in truth, Eggman intends to use the emeralds to repair the Death Egg.

Other two-dimensional games released before 1998 that Eggman appears in include Sonic Chaos, Sonic Triple Trouble, Sonic Blast, and Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure, as well as the 8-bit renditions of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

In Sonic Adventure (later released as Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut for the GameCube), Eggman learns of the legendary beast, Chaos, and seeks out the Master Emerald. Upon finding it, he shatters it, freeing Chaos in the process. Eggman's goal is to control Chaos and obtain the Chaos Emeralds, which he can feed to Chaos so that it transforms into its most powerful form, using its destructive powers to conquer the world.

Sonic Adventure 2 marks Eggman's first appearance as a playable character in a main series game. Eggman revives the anti-hero Shadow the Hedgehog from dormancy. Shadow, knowing Eggman's desire to rule the world, agrees to help him by using the Eclipse Cannon aboard Space Colony ARK. In the last story, Eggman aids Sonic in trying to stop a fail-safe put in place by his grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, which would set the colony on a crash course with Earth. In Sonic Heroes, Eggman is captured by his own creation, Metal Sonic, who disguises himself as Eggman as part of a larger evil plan.

In Shadow the Hedgehog, Eggman is an opportunist who tries to gather the Chaos Emeralds in the middle of the alien invasion. He ends up sending his robots to help stop the alien menace in the end. As Shadow interrogates Eggman for information regarding his past, he is met with taunts from Eggman, who claims that Shadow is one of his androids. During Shadow's fight with Black Doom, Eggman admits that he was lying.

In the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog game, Dr. Eggman (who had a realistic human appearance) kidnaps the princess of Soleanna, who harbors the Flames of Disaster within her, in order to control time. Once again, he is forced to assist the heroes during the last act, much like previous games. Eggman also appears in Sonic and the Secret Rings as Shahryār of Persia. Here, his physical appearance has been changed back to his Adventure look. Eggman appeared in Sonic Rush and Sonic Rush Adventure, where he is once again a main villain, alongside a parralel version of himself called Eggman Nega. He is also a playable character in the Sonic RPG, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood.

In Sonic Unleashed, Dr. Eggman is one of the two main villains in the game, along with Dark Gaia. Eggman tricks Super Sonic into a trap and uses his energy to power a giant laser cannon, which fires into the Earth and shatters it into pieces, freeing the beast contained within; Dark Gaia. He spends most of the game collecting Dark Gaia's power as well as fighting Sonic with various machines, and much like the original games, flies off in his Egg Mobile when defeated. Unlike many previous games, Eggman actually assumes control of his plans at the end of Sonic Unleashed by creating Eggmanland and makes no effort to join forces with Sonic to stop his own plans once they have spiraled out of control. Still, Eggman suffers a defeat when he gives Dark Gaia a single order and is shot into the atmosphere by the creature.

In Sonic Spinball, a pinball-themed game, Dr. Robotnik seizes Mount Mobius and turns it into a mechanical base, setting up an elaborate pinball mechanism to keep the Chaos Emeralds safe. Robotnik has also appeared in "2.5D" isometric platformers; in Sonic Labyrinth, he secretly replaces Sonic's famous red shoes with the new "Slow-Down Boots," which take away his ability to jump or run fast, and in Sonic 3D Blast, he turns innocent Flickies into robots in yet another search for the Chaos Emeralds. Dr. Eggman is also a playable character in such games as Sonic Drift, Sonic R, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Riders and its sequel Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood and Sega Superstars Tennis. Eggman appears as a playable character in the crossover game Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Dr. Eggman made a cameo appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as a trophy. He is set to appear in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games.

The only game as of yet to feature Dr. Robotnik as the central character is the 1993 game Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, a Puyo Puyo clone in which Robotnik, along with numerous bounty hunters seen in the first episode of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, attempts to rid all the fun and music on the planet Mobius by kidnapping the citizens of one insignificant town and turning them into robots. Despite the fact that he is the title character, he is still the villain.

With the exception of the little known Sonic Eraser, Tails Adventure and Tails' Skypatrol (if one considers the latter two games in the Sonic series), Sonic and the Black Knight is the only game in the Sonic franchise to not feature Eggman at all.

In other media

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Robotnik as portrayed in the animated series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

There have been several animated television series featuring Eggman. Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was the first, and featured Long John Baldry as the voice of Robotnik. The cartoon had little history for Robotnik, whom, while still the series' main antagonist, was merely a comical villain who sought to rule Mobius. Broadcast alongside Adventures was Sonic the Hedgehog, which featured Robotnik as a fierce dictator who has already conquered most of the planet Mobius. This incarnation was voiced by Jim Cummings. Sonic Underground also featured Robotnik in this same light, this time voiced by Gary Chalk, who previously voiced Grounder in the Adventures series.

In the two-episode OVA film Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, Eggman tells Sonic that he has been banished from Eggmanland by a metallic doppelgänger of himself. It is later revealed that the mecha was piloted by Eggman himself, in a scheme to lure Sonic into his base and copy his DNA for his new Hyper Metal Sonic robot. Eggman was voiced by Junpei Takiguchi in the Japanese version, and by Edwin Neal in the English dub.

In Sonic X Doctor Eggman, along with other Sonic characters, are accidentally transported from their own world, to Earth. This incarnation is voiced by Chikao Ōtsuka in the Japanese version, and by Mike Pollock in the English dub.

When the first Sonic the Hedgehog title was released in 1991, Sega published a comic book designed to promote the game. The 14-page story, written by Francis Mao, included a non-canon origin for both Sonic the Hedgehog and Eggman. Originally a benevolent scientist named Dr. Ovi Kintobor (an anagram of "Ivo Robotnik"), Dr. Kintobar starts out as a friend to Sonic, even helping to develop the hedgehog's super-speed. Kintobor later tries to eliminate all the evil in the world by absorbing it into the Chaos Emeralds, but the experiment goes awry, instead shocking the Doctor with "10,000 volts of pure evil energy." Though inaccurate in regards to the games, a similar origin story later found its way into the now-defunct UK-based Sonic the Comic, which was published from 1993 through 2002, as well as many UK-published books such as Stay Sonic. Kintobor appears in Sonic the Comic as a computer program designed to assist Sonic and the Freedom Fighters.

That same year, Archie Comics began publishing its Sonic the Hedgehog comic book. The series is faithful to (and in a sense, a continuation of) ABC's Sonic the Hedgehog animated cartoon; As well as a mad scientist, Robotnik is a portrayed as a dictator who took control of Sonic's hometown during a coup d'etat. After his uncle is taken prisoner by Robotnik's henchmen, Sonic the Hedgehog joins forces with a band of Freedom Fighters who oppose Robotnik's reign. In recent years, the plot of the comic has changed to incorporate elements from the video games, with Robotnik being replaced by his more traditional video game counterpart. Originally a one-off villain, "Eggman" first appeared as a separate version of Robotnik from a parallel universe. After defeating Sonic and his friends, Robotnik "roboticized" them into half-organic, half-metal cyborgs. However, the Freedom Fighters retained their free will and used their newfound strength to demolish Robotnik's army. Realizing he was ruined, Robotnik went insane and roboticized himself, becoming Robo-Robotnik. This incarnation later changed his name to "Eggman", replacing Robotnik as the main antagonist of the books.

Cultural impact

In science

A potential macrocycle inhibitor of Sonic hedgehog was discovered by a Harvard University research team was named "Robotnikinin" after the Dr. Robotnik character. The researchers felt that after Sonic hedgehog was named after the Sega video game character, they should "adhere to the convention" in naming the inhibiting compound after the character's archenemy.

In music

The band Intercontinental Music Lab included a song about Dr. Robotnik on their 2008 album, Superheroes of Science.

The power metal band Powerglove wrote a song called "So Sexy Robotnik" based on the boss theme from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and features snips from various other level tunes from the same game. It appears as the first track on their 2007 album "Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man".

Merchandising

Over the years, Dr. Eggman has had a variety of merchandise, going from collectable pins and plush toys to specialized notebooks and clocks.

Critical reception

The character has been well-received, going on to become one of the most well-known villains in gaming. GameDaily ranked him number one on their list of Top 25 Evil Masterminds of All Time article, stating "Out of all the evil masterminds in video games, none are more despicable, more cunning, or more menacing". IGN listed him at number nine above Mario-series villain Bowser in their "Top 10 Most Memorable Villains" article, calling him "PETA's videogame public enemy number one", and has also commented that his character is a "pretty clever riff on Teddy Roosevelt" that has added to the attraction of the series. He was featured at number three in a "Reader's Choice" edition of GameSpot's "Top Ten Video Game Villains" article, which noted a massive complaint by fans at his exclusion from the original list. Eggman was also named the 15th most diabolical video game villain of all time by PC World. Game Informer notes that in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, "Eggman's villain ego shows some amusing tarnish after constant defeat at the hands of Sonic."

See also

• List of recurring characters from Sonic the Hedgehog (games)

External links

• Sonic Central official character profiles
• Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik Concept: "Mobius"