The Many Diabolical Machines of Dr. Robotnik

Very recently I fixed a small injustice in my life, by spending what most would class as an extortionate amount of money on a small figure my five year old self was denied, not because my parents didn’t buy it for me, but because it simply didn’t exist.

This one.

It’s Dr. Ivo Robotnik, the eponymous villain of the Sonic the Hedgehog series of games. More importantly, it’s the Dr. Robotnik before SEGA redesigned him in 1999 as “Dr. Eggman”. In other words, it’s the Dr. Robotnik I grew up with.

Before the 1999 redesign (left), and after (right).

Actually, that’s not entirely true. The Robotnik I grew up with was the incompetent banana-headed one from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, who for some reason was the version SEGA wanted proliferated throughout the UK (note the McDonalds toys, box art, etc.). This design was even adopted in the absolutely brilliant Sonic the Comic series, which was the UK’s answer to the US’s Archie’s Sonic comic – except, unlike the quirky “wacky” cartoon, the comic version was utterly terrifying.

Okay, so he started out in the comic looking like he did in the games… (Image copyright © SEGA and Egmont Fleetway)

…and then he got worse. (Image copyright © SEGA and Egmont Fleetway)

It always bugged me how the comics and TV series never really followed the design in the actual games, you know, the source material. Even Sonic 2’s box art gave him a beard and deep, bottomless black eyes in what must be one of my all-time video game box covers (see image on the right).

So another grown man buys himself toys, big whoop! The internet is full of man-children. Aha, but how many man-children have their own blog to rant about pointless, inconsequential things?¹

I’m a big fan of fictional villains, in fact I really do believe that the strength of a story can be measured by its villain – whether the audience hate/root for them, how much of a threat they pose and how much character they have can reflect the story the villain is in, in positive or negative lights (from this you can tell that romantic comedies and dramas don’t have much clout with me!).

Either way, one of the reasons I used to play the Sonic games was just to see what the insidious Robotnik came up with next. In fact, he genuinely used to scare me – I was five at the time. Fifteen years on, just after the 20th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog², I’d like to wax lyrical on some of the worst and best of his inventions – or, at, least, the ones from the original games, before these new fangled 3D graphics “ruined” everything (hint: they didn’t, but the good 3D Sonic games are few and far between!). Having just seen Wreck-it Ralph, a movie about a video game villain that actually features Robotnik in a couple of cameos, I can appreciate how nobody has wished the Eggman a happy anniversary either. So here it is!

The Rules

There’s a few ground rules to this list and the selection:

• No metal doppelgängers of Sonic – there are at least three metal duplicates of Sonic that Robotnik has built: Metal Sonic, Silver Sonic and Mecha Sonic. I’ve excluded them as I’m focusing on machines that Robotnik has personally piloted.
• No automatons – in some of the games Robotnik sends mini-bosses to foil Sonic, more advanced badniks that have attack patterns. I’ve excluded them because, again, let’s focus on the ones Robotnik built to drive around in.
• No giant mechs – there are two of these, the infamous one at the end of Sonic 2 and a truly massive one at the end of Sonic & Knuckles. Although being things that Robotnik has piloted, they’re a bit too good to be included on this list, and it goes without saying that they’re some of the best. I’m thinking about the smaller scale machines, the ones that he plugs his Egg-o-matic into. Besides, they can be quite difficult and I’m too lazy to capture footage of them!
• No 3D games (or Sonic CD) – the choices have been based specifically around Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, as they’re the ones I grew up with. Besides, most of the 3D games suck and I just don’t like Sonic CD (sorry, I know it’s supposed to be a fan favourite, but I never got on with it).

The Worst

Here are the machines that are downright terrible, blatantly flawed or are just a bit phoned in. Robotnik probably rushed these ones without giving them much thought.

Drill Car (Sonic 2)

When your enemy is “the fastest thing alive”, it’s probably not a good idea to devise a vehicle that’s basically an off-roader with a spike on the front. If I was going after a cheetah, I wouldn’t buy a Land Rover and tie some stakes to the front, especially if I knew that the particular cheetah I was chasing could jump over the car. Not only is the car quite slow, but the turning circle must be pretty bad as the car has to do it off-screen³. As a last desperate measure, the car can fire its one weapon at Sonic as a projectile (either that or the thing is so badly built that the thing flies off by itself). Unfortunately, once avoided this leaves the car utterly defenceless, meaning it’s pretty much Dr. Robotnik driving a normal car back and forth along the same stretch.

What the doctor really need to do was modify the car in a way that would really inconvenience Sonic, by covering the one weak spot (his head). He could do this by simply attaching a roof to the car.

Wrecking Ball (Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic 4, etc.)

Okay, I admit I’m picking on the machines that would appear at the end of the first level of the various games, and I get that they’re supposed to be easy when compared to machines that appear later – however, taking this from the perspective that in the Sonic universe these are the first ideas Robtonik had when devising ways to stop Sonic, they are just plain shoddy.

One of the most iconic of Robotnik’s vehicles is the classic wrecking ball attachment for his Egg-o-matic. It’s not a bad idea in of itself, smashing the blue rodent into paste using a massive heavy ball of death sounds both fun and effective. What makes this particular plan ineffective is Robotnik’s unfortunate tendency to use the vehicle near two conveniently floating platforms that Sonic can use to both hide under and as a stepping stone to jumping on his face. Location is key to a good killing machine (as we’ll see with some of the downright inspired best machines), so positioning yourself near something that can be used to get to you is a no-no.

Even worse, Mecha Sonic brings the machine back for an outing towards the end of Sonic & Knuckles. This is a terrible idea because, at this point in the classic Mega Drive series, Sonic can jump higher and has a new attack he can use at any point to increase his range, meaning that he doesn’t even have to use the two random platforms nearby. I can’t help but wonder if it was one of Robotnik’s instructions:

Robotnik: “You must pilot this device between two floating platforms!”

Mecha Sonic: “WITH ALL DUE RESPECT YOUR CORPULENT EXCELLENCY, WHY WOULD WE GIVE SONIC-”

Robotnik: “Don’t argue with me, just get out there and do it!“

Robotnik even thought to bring the wrecking ball back one last time in (the pretty dire) Sonic 4 (Episode I). It hadn’t changed, except when the Eggman realises that he’s losing and why he ditched the wrecking ball in the first place, he gets pissed off, begins spinning 360 degrees and slamming the ball on to the ground. Even after all this time, he still hasn’t fathomed to just not use it near those two platforms.

I’m fairly certain the wrecking ball appears in numerous other instalments, because it’s a recognisable icon of the franchise (and rightly so. Even if it is terrible).

Bomb Dropper (Sonic the Hedgehog)

I’ll admit, this is inspired in its simplicity – just drop spiky bombs on the little blue bastard! Where this one falls over is, again, the terrible location Robotnik chooses to have the fight.

You see, in some lapse of sense, Robotnik decides to drop bombs in a place where Sonic has access to devices he can use to fling the bombs back. I can sort of see the logic behind it, the area is so cluttered that it is a little bit cumbersome to navigate around, but it would be far more difficult for Sonic to fight back if he was standing in an open area free of see-saws (or anything, really).

On top of this, Robotnik doesn’t just drop the bombs randomly, but he drops them directly on to the see-saws. He’s self-defeating. Might as well have a little arm hanging from the back of the Egg-o-matic to trigger the see-saws for Sonic as well while you’re at it, fat man.

Lava Sub (Sonic & Knuckles)

The lava sub is a particularly memorable boss fight, not only it follows shortly after Sonic finds the terrifying Death Egg’s crash site, but also because it takes place inside a friggin’ volcano, surrounded by lava. Not only does the sub use the lava to its advantage, but it’s covered in spikes and fires spiked balls from the spout on its top. The thing is practically Sonic-proof.

Aha, he must be learning about this whole “location is key” thing! Hold that thought. There is, as ever, one flaw: when the lava sub emerges, it causes the lava to subside. This means the platforms that Sonic is using to not burn to death slide towards the sub and get minced on the rotating spikes on its top. That’s intentional, and downright genius. Only problem? The rotating spike dynamic conflicts with the spiked ball launcher.

The spiked balls collide directly with the sub. This is the only way to destroy the vehicle: jump from platform to platform while avoiding the spiked balls. This boss relies on Robotnik defeating himself (again). If Robotnik simply turned off the spiked ball launcher, he’d be good to go – Sonic wouldn’t be able to attack him, and it would only be a matter of time before he runs out of steam (even the player would have to concede at some point!⁴).

The worst part must be when the sub is defeated, there are multiple explosions all over its surface and it sinks into the lava. How would you feel if you’re in a small metal box and lava starts pouring in?

Labyrinth (Sonic the Hedgehog)

I’ve included this one as it’s just laziness on Robotnik’s part. There’s no device or gimmick, Robotnik appears and leads Sonic on a chase through a tight vertical corridor of traps as water floods in from below.

In reality, I always dread this boss as it can be quite difficult if you lack finesse and lose your rings. However, I’m looking at this from the in-universe perspective. What Robotnik’s basically done is find a difficult stretch of the Labyrinth Zone and used himself as bait to lead Sonic into it. Here are the problems with this:

• Sonic would have to go that way anyway, it’s the only way out.
• As it’s the only way out, Robotnik doesn’t even have to be there – he’s needlessly putting himself in danger.
• He didn’t build any of the traps, which is just bloody lazy. These are ancient traps that were already there!

You want to know how to make this “trap” better? Just built a wall at the top of the shaft, and let the little blue bugger drown. A steel girder would do the trick, and you have plenty of those!

Difficult boss, and it says a lot that Robotnik had little to do with it.

Oh, and Sonic 4 Episode 1 recycled this boss, which says everything, really.

Fake Bubble Robotnik Thing (Sonic 2, Sonic and Knuckles, Sonic 4)

I…I don’t get it.

Robotnik has these little pods all around him that spin around and act as a shield, which is cool – I get that bit (it also looked like a pretty cool semi-3D effect on a 16-Bit console). When you hit his vehicle, one of the pods detaches and inflates into a small bouncing balloon with an image of Robotnik in his Egg-o-matic on it. Are these supposed to really make Sonic think they’re Robotnik? They pop really easily, too.

A better tactic would be to not have the pods turn into little balloons, keep them as solid pods in your shield and just keep driving towards Sonic. To prove a point, if you played this boss as Knuckles (using the revolutionary Sonic & Knuckles lock-on cartridge technology – hey, it was great at the time!), it was about four times as hard simply on account of the fact that Knuckles cannot jump as high as Sonic. This means that he can’t reach Robotnik, and it also means that he can’t physically jump over him when Robotnik charges at him. It’s quite rewarding to beat this boss as Knuckles, just because it’s really difficult⁵!

Once the pods are all gone, Robotnik resorts to a laser that fires from the front of his Egg-o-matic (I always thought that was a light!). This is pretty random, and works quite well when he devises a laser-firing flying tower machine at the end of Sonic 3. Probably the most effective part of the vehicle, come to think of it.

For some reason this machine keeps coming back in various forms – Mecha Sonic pilots it in Sonic and Knuckles (just after using the wrecking ball, see above) and Robotnik wheels it out again in Sonic 4. Important note about the latter incarnation – there’s a “desperation” mode where the Egg-o-matic drives backwards at top speed and Robotnik lobs bombs at Sonic. It’s far more effective than the pod-shield-balloon thing!

Watch the Worst in Action!

The Best

The most inspired vehicles, making the most of their surroundings or simply using some dastardly underhanded mechanic to make it difficult for Sonic to win.

Chemical Dropper (Sonic 2)

The Chemical Plant Zone is remembered by fans new and old as being a complete bastard of a level. A “seasoned veteran” such as myself takes pride in not being perturbed by the second level of Sonic 2, and being able to complete it with little difficulty. To get to that point, you have to start somewhere, and I remember a time where many panicked deaths were had due to bottomless pits, poisonous magenta water⁶ and that bloody boss fight.

Robotnik starts by picking a great location – a flat area, but only the middle bit is safe. Either side of the safe zone, the platform tilts every few seconds. If you’re standing on it, you’re dumped into the chemical and instant death due to bottomless pit. It’s a claustrophobic sensation.

Then, he decides that he’s going to dump a vat of chemicals on Sonic’s head. Even worse, if the initial chemical dump doesn’t hit you, the splash-back probably will. It all hurts, and when Sonic gets hurt he’s pushed backwards…usually on to one of the tilting platforms.

The one respite is that it takes Robotnik a few seconds to refill his chemical tank. This gives ample time to leap on to his head (you can actually just keep bouncing up and down on it and defeat Robotnik in less than ten seconds, but when you’re ten years old and playing it for the first time you don’t know this). Just imagine if it was a constant stream of chemical being pumped at Sonic…it would be horrible.

Crusher (Sonic the Hedgehog)

There are a few things that kill Sonic instantly regardless of whether he’s carrying rings – drowning is one, being crushed to death is another. So it’s pretty insidious to devise a machine that consists exclusively of things that crush you.

It’s a bit of a cheat, as this is the final boss of Sonic the Hedgehog – I’ve included it as, compared to other final boss fights in the series, this is pretty low-key (i.e. it’s not a giant mech shaped like Robotnik). Sure, you can find safety on the edges of the area, but how are you going to attack Robotnik without venturing out where the crushing pistons are? To top it off, you’ve got no rings and there are laser balls between the potential crushing to add an extra layer of danger.

If Robotnik wasn’t such a sport, he’d hide behind a laser barrier and watch as Sonic fruitlessly attacks the pistons (they only get destroyed while he’s riding them). Actually, if you want to make the boss un-winnable, try hitting Robotnik again after the last required hit – the boss will reset and you’ll then have to hit it successfully another 255 times (it’s un-winnable because there’s a ten minute time limit).

Sonic 4 would use a thematically similar boss, except there are crushing pillars that go vertical and horizontal, which is just cruel. Dick move, SEGA (it’s not fun!).

The Grabber (Sonic 3)

Again, another final boss, but only technically – if you locked Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles together, Sonic was spared this fight (but Knuckles would have to fight it – it’s easier as he can glide).

Robotnik’s not f*cking around with this one: Sonic can’t hit him on top as usual because it’s covered in massive spikes, and the death mechanism is Robotnik grabbing Sonic with massive robot arms and slamming him into the floor. This boss will pound your arse into the floor, and this is one occasion where Sonic’s massive jump doesn’t help at all. You’re required to hit Robotnik precisely, in the small window on the front. Between the spikes and the giant arms. Yikes.

It’s genuinely a moment of relief when you’re playing the uber game Sonic 3 & Knuckles, get to the end of the Sonic 3 section and realise that you don’t have to fight this thing.

An updated version of the Grabber appeared in the Nintendo DS version of Sonic Generations. I’ve seen videos of it, it looks far too easy (and the music is wrong!</obsessive>).

Egg Golem (Sonic & Knuckles)

After a level inside a pyramid where you have to keep pulling levers to keep the lights on to stop ghosts from eating your face, pushing auto-resetting switches to open doors and navigating vertical corridors as sand pours in and threatens to crush you against the ceiling, a boss fight against Robotnik in a brightly lit room comes as a relief; at least, once you figure out it’s him – at first your response is “HOLY SHIT IT’S A GIANT WALKING STATUE WITH LASER EYES!”.

The Eggman has commandeered one of the pyramid’s statues and mechanised it to walk threateningly towards you while firing lasers. If you fail to take the offensive, he will eventually walk Sonic into the wall opposite, crushing him to death.

Although not particularly difficult to beat, it looks pretty damn cool and works in terms of simplicity. Robotnik would reuse the idea of mechanising an existing giant statue in the almost unplayable Sonic 3D (nice music, though!).

Icer (Sonic 3)

Sonic doesn’t have a lot of luck with water – in its natural liquid state, he just flails around in it and drowns. He doesn’t fare much better against water when it’s solidified, either – during the utterly delightful Icecap Zone you encounter snow blowers that encase Sonic in ice if he touches the gas they release. It you don’t break out quick enough (or get broken out, if Tails is around) Sonic takes a hit and his rings go everywhere.

Robotnik takes the inspired approach of strapping several of these snow blowers to his Egg-o-matic and just going at Sonic. It’s surprisingly effective, with just a few hits it can strip Sonic of all his rings and leave him as naked as a babe in the snow.

You have to be glad that all the characters were silent in these early games – I’m not sure it would look quite as good with Robotnik inevitably making ice puns that would make Joel Schumacher-era Mr. Freeze cringe.

Oil Sub (Sonic 2)

Sonic 2 had a vaguely environmental message; when you weren’t guiding Sonic through lush green areas overrun with sharp pointy robots, you were trashing chemical plants, unsafe mines, oversized robot cities and, memorably, an oil refinery. It’s pretty poignant to drown the blue blur in regular water or purple chemical, but an animal drowning in thick black oil hits a nerve that’s a little bit too close to real life for a game about an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog with red trainers who runs fast.

That aside, the boss battle is pretty bad too. Robotnik spends most of it hidden under the oil, only popping up for…air? To gloat? Either way, if he didn’t deem it worthy to surface, the boss fight would be impossible! Once back under the black gold, he send a few pointed centipedes at Sonic, and then tries to zap Sonic with a laser gun. The laser gun is particularly annoying as it ducks up and down, leaving you only a few seconds to work out if you need to jump or duck out of the way. Tense stuff!

There is a trick, depending on what you consider to be “cheating”. You can hide under one of the platforms and just keep jumping on the thick, viscous oil. Robotnik will continue blindly attacking above the platforms while you’re out of harm’s way. You don’t think of this tactic when you’re ten, though.

Lava Sub (Sonic 2)

There’s a few recurring themes in this list: a) I like Sonic 2, and b) Robotnik made a lot of submarines. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice that we’ve already had a lava submarine! Well Robotnik had a better design the first time around i.e. this one wasn’t self-defeating.

Like the oil submarine, the lava one’s strength is in the way it spends a lot of time hiding under hedgehog-proof lava. It flings a widespread napalm across the platforms, which even spreads before flickering out. Then the submarine pops up so Robotnik can look you in the eyes as he shoots a plume of flame at you.

I’m going to overlook how, once defeated, Robotnik is once again ducking under the lava with a gaping hole in the top of his vehicle. Perhaps he’s fireproof?

Gravity! (Sonic & Knuckles)

When you’ve went to the trouble of building an intergalactic space station of death shaped like your own face, you can make the rules. That includes the rules of gravity. The Death Egg Zone in S&K introduces a unique level dynamic, in that the gravity keeps switching in the opposite direction; large parts of the level are spent running across the ceiling upside-down.

Robotnik capitalises on controlling gravity in the encounter before unveiling his enormous mech. Manning a control panel, he operates a globular machine that spits out spiked turtle things that themselves spit spikes. Sonic can’t attack the globe because it’s protected by a bumper, but he can nip into the lift chutes on either side of the area and change gravity. With some good timing, you can hurt the globe using its own projectiles against it…which sounds a bit shit.

However, it’s more difficult than it sounds due to the globe constantly moving and the erratic movement of the turtles. Add to that the fact that the level timer kills Sonic at ten minutes, and it takes about four to seven minutes to play the level. This boss fight is purposely designed to suck up time, so when you face the final big mech you run out of it and have to fight the final boss with no rings! That’s just insidious.

The scariest part is that this machine implies that Robotnik knows that Sonic dies when the timer reaches ten minutes. That’s some fourth-wall breaking meta shit right there.

Watch the Best in Action!

Honourable Mentions

These final selections are just a few odd ones that struck me as being incredibly efficient despite their simplicity.

The SPIKE (Sonic the Hedgehog)

This must have taken Robotnik literally five minutes to build. A single sharp spike that appears from the bottom of his regular, un-modded Egg-o-matic and then retracts. Designed to subject the annoying blue sod to an unexpected trepanning, the spike also doubles as a mechanism to pick up blocks (by stabbing them).

Combined with a location that consists of a platform made of blocks (GENIUS!), a careful player will quickly find the floor disappearing around Sonic. Too brash a player will leap into the SPIKE.

Brilliantly simple. Simply brilliant.

I’m really glad you can’t hear Robotnik makes puns like “get the POINT?”.

Cannonade (Sonic 3)

I’m surprised he never tried this sooner. Robotnik locates a high wall and then elevates himself up further still, immediately putting Sonic at a disadvantage. Sitting within a control seat, Eggman fires big cannonballs from the wall, some of which roll back! It’s a relaxing way to utterly demolish your hated enemy.

It takes careful timing and rhythm to attack Robotnik between cannonballs, which is a bit of a problem when you’re ten as you have neither. I just remember having a lot of problems with this when I was a sprog.

This boss fight is the first in a series of two or three, depending if you’re playing Sonic 3 by itself or connected to Sonic & Knuckles; if you play Sonic 3 by itself, the third boss in the sequence is the Grabber (see above).

Honourable Mentions in Action, Out-takes and Bonus Footage

So long, and thanks for all the eggs!

I can think of many other of the dastardly machines worth highlighting, but then where’s the fun in that? Hopefully I’ve piqued your interest with this chocolate box selection. The original Sonic games are available in many modern collections or online download services, why not give ’em a go?

Happy birthday, Dr. R. Here’s hoping to many more eggs-cellent machines.

I could watch this all day (image pinched from some Tumblr ages ago, sorry if this is yours).

Post by Sean Patrick Payne+ | February 25, 2013 at 12:17 am | Articles, Video Games, Villains | 3 comments

Tags: boss fights, Dr. Eggman, Dr. Robotnik, impractical death machines, Sonic the Hedgehog