Sandbox / Sonic the Hedgehog - Classic Era Villains

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As Sonic the Hedgehog is a series with a huge cast, it's best to split the character pages up for easier reading. Luckily, Sonic Generations separates the games into three distinct "eras": "Classic", "Dreamcast", and "Modern".

This page is for the villainous characters that joined the cast in the "Classic Era", beginning with Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis.

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Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik

^{Click here to see Eggman's classic design.} 

"I know, I say that every time, but this time, really, nothing will stop me!"

Debut: Sonic the Hedgehog

Voiced by: Casey Rankin (Sonic CD JP/PAL, laughs), Mark "Sterling" Crew (Sonic CD US, laughs), Masaharu Sato (SegaSonic the Hedgehog), Chikao Ohtsuka (Japanese, 1998-2015), Kotaro Nakamura (Japanese 2016-Present), Deem Bristow (English, 1999-2004), Mike Pollock (English, 2005-present), Jim Carrey (2019 film)

The Big Bad of the series. The portly scientist whose one desire is to rule over everyone and everything using his technology. Eggman doesn't have a significant background, but he did seemingly look up to his grandfather, Gerald Robotnik. Although other sources claim he used to be a kind doctor before a freak accident warped his personality. Eggman's plans almost never change, and he's always willing to pull out all of the stops to accomplish his goal.

Eggman may possess a high IQ, but his personality is far from mature. He wants things his way, and is very temperamental when denied as such. However, despite his immaturity, he's every bit as clever as he claims to be, able to create almost anything for his goals, and possesses quite a bit of cunning and planning to carry them out. If there's one thing that stands out about the doctor, however, it's his ego, which may only be rivaled by his long-time nemesis, Sonic the Hedgehog.

• Ace Pilot: Considering the number of Humongous Mechas he's piloted over the years and the number of times he's shot down Tails's plane, he fits this to a T.
• Acrofatic: Eggman is very athletic and fast, despite his rotund appearance.
• Aesop Amnesia: From Sonic Adventure through Sonic Unleashed, he never seemed to learn that Evil Is Not a Toy. He seems to have recently learned in Sonic Colors.
  • In Sonic Generations, he finally manages to harness the power of a Cosmic Horror without losing control of it at any point. Though it did help that the Time Eater was out of commission when he came upon it.
  • And again in Sonic Lost World, he manages to take control of the Deadly Six, a group of six powerful Zeti and keep them in line with the Cacophonic Conch and he only loses control of them because Sonic impulsively kicks the conch out of his hand. It seems he's getting better with experience.
  • He finally seems to have learned his lesson come Sonic Forces: he had the foresight to have the means to instantly dispose of Infinite at a moment's notice, showing he actually considered the prospect that giving a psychotic lunatic like Infinite something as powerful as the Phantom Ruby could backfire. Ironically, Infinite doesn't turn on him, but it comes in handy for a You Have Failed Me after one screw-up too many from the Jackal.
• Affably Evil: Despite really wanting to Take Over the World (and occasionally going to some extreme lengths to achieve this goal), Eggman's a fairly pleasant fellow who treats his enemies with respect. Well, most of the time.
  • In Sonic Colors, he takes Sonic's advice regarding threatening him directly rather than going through a bunch of terrible amusement-park-related puns on the way — for which Sonic then thanks him.
  • In Sonic Lost World, he saves Tails' life from rogue Cubot, even though it isn't necessary for his master plan, and seems to genuinely respect Tails. He's a complicated guy.
  • In Sonic Adventure 2, it gets discovered that he doesn't really want to kill Sonic, despite how he attempted to for interfering in his plans, and later gets along with the heroes after teaming up with them.
• American Kirby Is Hardcore: In Japan, he was always the Affably Evil egg-themed Eggman with silly animations and a happy disposition, but for most of his American history, he was sinister and considered a huge threat. Nowadays, he seems to be a strange mix of the two personalities.
• Animal Motif: While not part of his current design, his "classic" design was meant to resemble a walrus, with his mustache representing whiskers and the two yellow triangles on his suit representing tusks. He is the Eggman, he is the walrus.
• Antagonist Title: The puzzle game Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine gives him top billing. Despite this, he is not playable in it and he gets less screentime than in other Sonic titles.
• Anti-Villain: In Sonic Heroes, as it is heavily implied that he regretted the outcome of Metal Sonic revolting against him.
• Appropriated Appellation: After years of calling him Robotnik, Sega's localizers introduced the name "Eggman" to the west as a mocking nickname in Sonic Adventure. In later English games, the Doc just calls himself Eggman with no issue, and his planned Egopolis is "Eggmanland".
• Arch-Enemy: To pretty much the entire cast, but to Sonic in particular. They've been going at it long before any other character showed up.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In Sonic Lost World. When the Deadly Six fail to beat Sonic, he angrily lists the things he's done for them.
  Eggman: I hone your abilities. I equip you with the most powerful mechs I can create! I even give you a giant sandwich! And you still disappoint me!
• Art Evolution: Eggman has been redesigned more than any other character in the entire series, even Sonic himself! Bonus points for his retro design reappearing in Generations.
• Badass Biker: Exclusively uses Bike and Wheel type gears in Sonic Riders. He even has a snappy looking biker outfit◊ for when he rides complete with a Scarf of Asskicking.
• Badass Boast: "As long as I can still strangle a Zeti, my hands are fine."
• Badass Bookworm: Read about Chaos, the Flames of Disaster, Dark Gaia, and Villainy 101.
• Bad Liar: Claiming that his amusement park was created to make up for his past transgressions and is in no way secretly covering up an evil scheme.
• Bald of Evil: He is bald, and he is evil, so....
• Batman Gambit: He's pulled off quite a few over the years.
  • In Sonic Unleashed. He built a fleet in outer space to lure Sonic there so he could drain the energy of the Chaos Emeralds to power his cannon and shatter the earth, freeing Dark Gaia.
  • In Sonic Lost World, after the Deadly Six turn his Badniks against him, he immediately devises a plan to turn things back in his favor by using Sonic to defeat the Zeti and allow him to use a giant robot to finish off his nemesis.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Eggman may be childish, egotistical, and goofy, but his brilliance and capacity for destruction are very real. Sonic and others usually tend to view him as nothing more than just a petty, harmless goofball, but they're underestimating him, and sometimes discover that the hard way.
• Big Bad: The most prominent and consistent villain of the series. Even if he loses his status depending on the game, Eggman always manages to bounce back into this role eventually.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With Eggman Nega in the Sonic Rush series, with his past self in Sonic Generations, with the Phantom Ruby itself in Sonic Mania, and with Infinite in Sonic Forces.
• Big Bad Ensemble: In most recent games, Eggman is part of a villainous team, paired up with some sort of Eldritch Abomination, or part of a Big Bad Duumvirate with alternate versions of himself.
• Big Bad Wannabe: In a similar vein to Bowser in his RPG appearances, Eggman is reduced to this trope whenever he's not the main threat. Subverted in Sonic Generations, Sonic Lost World, and Sonic Forces.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Zigzagged throughout Forces. On the one hand, he chooses to imprison Sonic on the Death Egg for six months rather than finish him off, which allows Sonic to eventually break out and stop him. Zavok mentions that Eggman wanted to show Sonic his completed empire before jettisoning him out into space. (In other words, they wanted to rub Sonic's failure in his face, then kill him.) On the other hand, he chews Infinite out for deeming Sonic Not Worth Killing and allowing him to live, knowing that Sonic will remain a threat to their operations as long as he's still alive.
• Broken Pedestal: The reason he became a scientist is because he admired his grandfather and wanted to be a great scientist like him. Yeah....
• Canon Discontinuity: Attempted but averted in the case of his real name. Whoever runs the Sonic Channel seems dissatisfied with the adoption of it, as Eggman's real name is listed as "unknown", as well as in Sonic 4 Episode II. However, it has since been confirmed that yes, his given name remains and will continue to be Ivo Robotnik — there just isn't much of a reason for him to go by it anymore.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Eggman makes absolutely no pretense about the evil he does and he even revels in it, especially in Generations, Adventure, and Forces.
• Catchphrase: Eggman is well known for having a certain phrase that he repeats over and over again in his boss fights.
  • Sonic Adventure: "Get a load of THIS!" and "No Way! I Can't Believe This!"
  • Shadow the Hedgehog: "You know what they say! The MORE the MERRIER!"^note He only spams this phrase in one of his boss fights, but it's so cheesy as to become Memetic Mutation.
  • Sonic Rush: "Get ready to be schooled!"
  • Sonic Unleashed: "You little... you little-!!"
  • Sonic Generations: "Time for a change of pace!"
• Cheshire Cat Grin: His emblem and himself have this.
• The Chessmaster: Despite Eggman's ego and childish personality, he has shown on occasion that he has the capacity to plan ahead.
  • He obtains almost all the Chaos Emeralds in Sonic Adventure by showing up where the various characters are and often surprising them by just taking the emeralds from them. Also see Batman Gambit above for more instances where he is this trope.
  • In Sonic Adventure 2, he discovers that the heroes have two Chaos Emeralds, but correctly deduces that one of them must be fake due to Eggman having the other six and puts forth a plan to get the last emerald out of their hands. The result is that he nearly kills Sonic after launching him from the Space Colony ARK. And even after he's defeated by a grieving Tails, he still manages to make off with the real emerald anyway.
  • In Sonic Unleashed. Prior to the game, he kidnapped Professor Pickle for his research on Dark Gaia and concocted a scheme to awaken the beast. He set up a massive fleet in outer space to lure Sonic, knowing full well that Sonic would plow through his defenses as Super Sonic. He then begged for mercy once it looked like Sonic foiled his plans again... only to trap him in a device that drained him of all of his power, forcefully taking him out of Super Sonic form and using the Chaos Emeralds' energy to power his cannon and shatter the earth, awakening Dark Gaia. When his plan doesn't go the way he liked due to awakening Dark Gaia too early, he immediately comes up with a plan B: draw all the Dark Gaia monsters to his base and put Dark Gaia back together to harness its energy to create Eggmanland.
  • In Sonic Colors. Despite foolishly leaving the key in the elevator and allowing Sonic and Tails to infiltrate his Interstellar Amusement Park, Eggman tries his best to distract Sonic and keeps him in the dark about his plan to build a Mind Control Cannon. Though he fails to stop Sonic from destroying all his generators, Eggman still had enough energy to power his machine. In fact, the only reason his plan didn't work was because Sonic's fight with the first boss caused its arm to get stuck in the cannon, causing it to backfire when he activated it.
  • In Sonic Lost World. Prior to the game, he traveled to the Lost Hex, encountered the Deadly Six, and used the Cacophonic Conch to keep them under his thumb and use their abilities for his plans. His plans inevitably fall apart when Sonic kicks the conch away, but even then he's still showing remarkable competence. His backup plan was to team up with Sonic and Tails, knowing that they would eventually defeat the Six, and later faked his death so he could shut down the Extractor and power up his mech using the world's energy. To put this into perspective, despite his plans unraveling completely, he managed to claw his way back to the title of Big Bad and Final Boss with nothing but determination and cunning. Nice to see you back, Eggman.
• Classic Villain: Representing Ambition, Pride, and occasionally Wrath.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: There's no one he won't use, betray, or turn against others to get what he wants.
• Comic Trio: Forms one with Orbot and Cubot. He's the Schemer, Cubot is The Fool, and Orbot is the Only Sane Man.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Subverted. Several games suggest that he does actually make a ton of money using his inventions in legitimate enterprises; however, he uses that money exclusively to fund his goal of world domination.
• Cynicism Catalyst: We have no idea what he was like beforehand, but it's very explicit that his grandfather's death was the moment he became evil.
• Deface of the Moon: He blows up half the moon in Sonic Adventure 2. It's still like that; we're just seeing the good side.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • In Tails and the Music Maker, he only gets a brief cameo appearance as a background setpiece on page 3 and doesn't directly interact with Tails.
  • In Sonic and the Secret Rings, he only appears as a minor role in the form of King Shahryar, who isn't even evil — the driving villain of the game is Erazor Djinn in his stead.
• Depending on the Writer: Eggman tends to switch between a pragmatic villain who wants to keep the world intact so that he can rule it and a crazed madman who is content to trigger near-apocalyptic events in order to rule over what little remains. He also tends to go back and forth between being a master manipulator and schemer or a comically inept planner.
• Despotism Justifies the Means: On multiple occasions, he doesn't seem to care what condition the world is in as long as he's the one ruling it. For example, in Sonic the Hedgehog CD, the Bad Future portions of the levels are post-apocalyptic ruins, and in Sonic Lost World, when he makes his move after Sonic defeats the Deadly Six, he states outright that while it's a shame that the Six have largely destroyed the world below, at least there's still enough left of it for him to conquer. And, of course, the opening of Sonic Unleashed has him use a Wave-Motion Gun to crack the planet open.
  • This gets taken up to eleven in Sonic Forces, where he's plotting to completely annihilate Sonic, all his friends, and possibly everyone else who isn't on his side by dropping an artificial star on them in order to retain control of the world.
• The Determinator: You do have to give him credit, for no matter the setbacks, he'll always try to defeat Sonic.
• Didn't Think This Through: He wants to conquer the world, but in Sonic Adventure 2, he didn't seem to realized that if Sonic hadn't thwarted his plan, the world hadn't surrendered to him, and the cannon wasn't rigged to initiate a Colony Drop instead of firing, he might have destroyed the world.
• Ditzy Genius: He has an IQ of 300, but is simultaneously very childish, and to be blunt, he's really bad at scheming.
• The Dragon: Unwittingly plays this role to Shadow in Sonic Adventure 2.
• Dub Name Change: From "Eggman" to "Ivo Robotnik"^note Technically vice versa since the first game was released in Japan over a month after the US, but "Eggman" can be seen in some English-language previews, showing that the Japanese name indeed predates "Robotnik" in development. Eventually, due to a consolidation of continuity after Sonic Adventure, it was decided to universally name him "Robotnik" as his given name, with "Eggman" as the nickname that everyone actually uses.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The early backstory given to western audiences in the Sonic the Hedgehog Promo Comic said that he was originally a friend of Sonic the Hedgehog named Dr. Ovi Kintobor, who was turned into the evil Dr. Ivo Robotnik by accident due to his R.O.C.C. machine (which would have harnessed the Chaos Emeralds' power to rid the world of all evil) malfunctioning and bathing him in pure evil energy. This information was derived from an internal Sonic Bible in the U.S. and was reused for Stay Sonic and Sonic the Comic in the U.K. This aspect of him never showed up in the games proper, and made entirely irrelevant once Sonic Adventure established a unified canon going forward where Eggman was a clear-cut villain out of the starting gate.
• Egopolis: Eggman wants to create Eggmanland, a city bearing his likeness. In Sonic Unleashed, he succeeds at this.
• Emperor Scientist: The apparent Robotnik/Eggman Empire.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He has a large and deep respect for Gerald Robotnik, his grandfather. Being his hero, it was why Eggman got into the sciences in the first place. In fact, it's implied that Eggman's desire for world conquest is in part retribution for the world (or at least GUN) turning their back on the man who did so much for humanity and having him unjustly arrested.
  Eggman: As a child, I looked up to my grandfather because of all the great things he accomplished in his life. He was my hero, and I wanted to be a great scientist like him.
• Even Evil Has Standards: A mix between this and Pragmatic Villainy, but he's frequently downgraded to assisting the heroes, lest an even crazier person tries to destroy the planet. In Shadow the Hedgehog, he's genuinely horrified when he learns that Gerald Robotnik supposedly sold out his home planet to Black Doom for the sake of research. He didn't and Gerald built the Eclipse Cannon to deal with Black Doom when the Black Arms made their move.
  • In Sonic Rush Adventure, he freaks out when Eggman Nega activates the Egg Wizard's Planet Buster Laser in a last-ditch effort to defeat Sonic and Blaze.
  • In Sonic Unleashed, when Chip states that Eggman might be starving Professor Pickle when he had him imprisoned, Tails remarks to Chip that Eggman's most likely going to be feeding him while imprisoned, as "even he isn't that cruel." Of course, that's not saying that the food is actually edible, but still. When they arrive and meet him in person, he has cucumber sandwiches which were implied to have been delivered on request and are apparently perfectly-edible, he won't eat them due to the cucumber slices being the wrong size.
  • In Sonic Lost World, after activating his machine that's designed to sap life energy, he makes sure that it reaches a small threshold before turning it off since he only wants to borrow some of it. Later, he's appalled at how the Deadly Six wish to outright destroy the world instead of conquering it.
  • Sadly, he may have discarded his standards as of Sonic Forces, where he's showing signs of being an Omnicidal Maniac.
    • The Twitter Takeover promoting the launch of the game however, shows that he still has some morals such as discouraging the audience from eating Mean Beans and upon receiving a question for Shadow asking about Maria, he tries to avoid asking it.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Discussed in Sonic Forces, where he's absolutely shocked when Sonic and the Avatar successfully escape from the supposedly inescapable Null Space:
  Eggman What!? It can't be! It's impossible to get out of the Phantom Ruby's null space!
  Sonic: Maybe by myself, but I had a little help from my friend. Something you wouldn't understand, since you don't have any friends!
• Evil Counterpart: To Tails in several ways, especially in Sonic Adventure 2.
• Evil Genius: What did you expect?
• Evil Is Bigger: He stands at an impressive 6'1", which is far taller than Sonic and most of his friends. Only Vector comes close at 5'10", and Big the Cat surpasses him at 6'6".
• Evil Is Hammy: Especially in Japanese and with Mike Pollock.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: In many of the 3D games from Sonic Adventure through Sonic Unleashed, he's displaced by the evil he's unsealed as the Final Boss. By Sonic Generations, Evil is a Toy.
  • And back again in Sonic Lost World, though ironically it was Sonic's fault in that case. Regardless of this trope, he still manages to be the game's final boss.
  • In Sonic Forces, the "good" Doctor completely averts this, with Infinite and the Phantom Ruby being under his control the entire time.
• Evil Is Petty: He gets on this from time to time.
  • In Sonic Adventure, one of the DLC features him as a petty thief who goes around stealing shoes of all things.
  • In Sonic Shuffle, Eggman has no real reason to be in Maginaryworld, but he messes with Sonic and friends anyway. One of his evil schemes? "Sonicola", in which he shakes a can of soda and jams it into a vending machine. As pokecapn and crew find out, it is possible for this to fail. He also appears in several Mini-Events (if he does, it usually means he will rob your Ring count).
• Evil Versus Oblivion: He wants to conquer the world, not destroy it, and will team up with the heroes to save their planet from being destroyed. (He seems to have become the Oblivion as of Sonic Forces.)
• Evil Virtues: Hard worker and a lifelong admiration of his grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik. The Sonic Heroes manual also states Eggman is a wannabe feminist with a hidden romantic side, though we never see it in action, and it's undermined by some misogynistic remarks he makes to Blaze in Sonic Rush. On that note, judging by two Freeze-Frame Bonus moments in Sonic Unleashed, Eggman is also a fan of the Sega Dreamcast, carrying it with him all the way to Sonic's battle with Dark Gaia.
• Failure Is the Only Option: He never succeeds at any of his plans, either due to Sonic getting in the way, or because whatever force he's using spirals out of his control. Eggman Nega in Sonic Rivals reveals that he will never succeed, and that his failures ruin the Robotnik name.
• Fatal Flaw: His Pride. Although he's a technological genius and sometimes a master planner, he always suffers defeat by Sonic due to his inability to acknowledge that he can never defeat him through brute force.
• Fat Bastard: Is grossly obese and endorses animal cruelty.
• Fat Idiot: Inverted: Eggman, though bumbling and slightly unstable, is a technological genius.
• Flaw Exploitation: Utilizes Knuckles' gullibility in his plans constantly. Has also gained the occasional advantage due to playing on Sonic's overconfidence.
• Flight: He can fly using certain devices such as a JetPack or vehicles such as the Egg-O-Matic.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Notably, outside of one instance in Sonic 06 and another in Sonic Mania Adventures, his eyes are never seen.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric.
• Freudian Excuse: Sonic Adventure 2 strongly implies that he's motivated by a deep hatred of humanity, brought about by the way the government exploited, betrayed, and brutally murdered his family. His desire for world domination is partially driven by revenge and partially as a twisted way of rehabilitating his grandfather's legacy: both by "improving" the world by controlling it with an iron fist, and by proving once and for all that he's the greatest scientist who ever lived. It goes a long way to explaining his Despotism Justifies the Means approach, and why he generally has no desire to benefit anyone other than himself.
• Future Me Scares Me: "Wow. Will I really get that crazy?"
• Gadgeteer Genius: He's capable of building entire robot armies and armadas of airships in what can't be more than a few weeks or months. His creations also appear to have well-nigh-unlimited power, fuel, and ammunition.
• Galactic Conqueror: Nearly mind-controlled the entire universe using the Wisps' Hyper Go-on energy.
• Game-Over Man: While not explicitly appearing on the Game Over screen, the Mega Drive game endings depict Eggman taunting you if you missed some Chaos Emeralds. (In Knuckles' Sonic 3 & Knuckles quest, this role is filled by Mecha Sonic.) Played straight in SegaSonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Spinball, where you'll hear his digitized laugh whenever you lose a life.
• Gasshole: According to Sonic in Sonic Colors due to a mistranslation by Tails after interpreting the Wisps stating that "Baldy Nosehair" uses burps as part of his plan.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: Most boss fights with Eggman involve him piloting a robot and running away from Sonic.
• Genius Bruiser: On several occasions, he's demonstrated speed on par with Sonic and strength on par with Knuckles. He still prefers to let his machines do the fighting, though.
• Goggles Do Nothing: In his Sonic Adventure tenure.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: In '06, his shades are shown to house a heads-up display.
• The Good Guys Always Win: Eggman may occasionally get the upper hand, but he has never earned a real victory against Sonic and co. — at least not until Sonic Forces, and it's implied he didn't even truly earn that.
• Gonk: Looks rather cartoonish compared to other humans in the series.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: His earliest profiles give this as his Achilles' Heel. He's brilliant through and through, but he's prone to "childish fits of rage". Even when portrayed as calmer and more rational than his current self, his Classic self in Generations suffers this all the same.
• Hypocrite: In Shadow the Hedgehog, he accuses Shadow of being an Ungrateful Bastard for trying to kill him because his grandfather created him. Which is funny, since Eggman himself is the one trying to conquer the world that his grandfather tried to make peace in (however, it could most likely be an excuse for Shadow to let him live).
• Hidden Heart of Gold: It's buried very, very deep, but he does have a human side to him. He will always team up with Sonic to stop a villain worse than he is, he legitimately seems disappointed that his saintly grandfather tried to destroy the planet, and he unhesitatingly saves Tails' life in Sonic Lost World, despite having considered killing a bunch of innocents shortly beforehand. He's a very complicated individual.
• Hijacking Cthulhu: This has been a running theme with Dr. Eggman since Sonic Adventure. It wasn't until Sonic Generations that he actually succeeded without it backfiring.
• Humongous Mecha: Has piloted many over the years.
• Hyperaffixation: His weapons, vehicles, and a good amount of his Mecha-Mooks will inevitably have "Egg" in their name.
• "I Am" Song: Aptly titled 'E.G.G.M.A.N.'
  "I am the Eggman! It's what I am, I am the Eggman, I got the master plan!"
• Image Song: "E.G.G.M.A.N.". More recently, he's had a Leitmotif used in three successive games — Sonic 06, Sonic Unleashed, and Sonic Colors.
• Improbably High I.Q.: 300, if the background materials are to be believed. It's even more improbably high than Tails, and nearly twice as high as what would be considered a super genius in the real world.
• Informed Attribute: He's apparently a feminist, but he doesn't seem to act like it. It's been suggested that this was a mistranslation from the Japanese manual and it should have said "womanizer", but the Japanese Sonic Heroes manual doesn't really describe his character at all.
• In-Series Nickname: How the "Eggman" moniker was adapted for the English audiences, starting with Sonic Adventure. It was supposed to be in mockery, but for some reason, it's all he goes by these days, even when referring to himself. Nowadays, "Robotnik" is mostly used for Eggman's extended family (grandfather Gerald Robotnik, and cousin Maria Robotnik) and Eggman's companies (Robotnik Corp).
• In Their Own Image: By the time of Forces, he plans to destroy the world and rebuild it from the ashes in his image.
  Infinite: "We move forward with the plan?"
  Eggman: "Of course! When it's complete, the Resistance will be erased. The world will be nothing but ashes, from which a glorious Eggman Empire will rise!"
• It's All About Me: Not only does he paste his own face onto almost all of his creations, he wants the entire world to admire him and his brilliance.
• JetPack: Sonic Lost World shows that he possesses one.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: On very, very rare occasions. Despite the evil, greedy, and selfish jerk Eggman really is, he loves his grandfather Gerald Robotnik and was actually upset that he would destroy the world he lives in (granted, this is pretty subverted, as Eggman actually threatened to destroy it himself if people didn't bend to his will). He even saved Tails at one point.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Even when he acts like he is willing to save even his enemies, all he really cares about is himself and his own power at the end.
• Knight of Cerebus: In Sonic Adventure 2, he was portrayed as surprisingly serious. At least until Shadow takes over. He introduced himself by causing genocide on an army. He also came close to destroying Sonic, and blew up half of the moon just to test his weapon. However, he certainly still had humorous quirks, despite that. In 06, he's once again this. His plan of unleashing the Flames of Disaster upon the world established him as this, though in this game he ends up getting upstaged by a far crazier villain.
• Lampshade Hanging: Not by himself, but the lyrics of his boss theme in the Japanese soundtrack of Sonic the Hedgehog CD references his Bald of Evil as well as one of his more defining traits of being an Evil Genius.

• Laughably Evil: Most games after Sonic 06 were this, as his plans weren't as diabolical.
• Leitmotif: Has multiple, such as "Theme of Dr. Eggman" in the first Sonic Adventure and "E.G.G.M.A.N." in Sonic Adventure 2.
• Lethal Chef: In Sonic Unleashed, Professor Pickle complained about the food he served, and neither Sonic or Chip enjoy eating anything from Eggmanland.
  • In Sonic Colors, Tails apparently paid an ill-advised visit to the Bucket O' Sushi food stall between cut-scenes. His only comment on the experience? "His cruelty knows no bounds."
• Let's Get Dangerous!: In Sonic Adventure, during the Grand Finale for Tails's campaign, Eggman drops his usual Large Ham personality in favor of a more calm, composed, surprisingly frightening demeanor in the moments before he fights Tails in his giant robot.
• Mad Scientist: Of course. Though, compared to his grandfather Gerald (after Maria died), and his descendant Eggman Nega, Eggman is arguably the least insane of the three.
• Malevolent Mugshot: Eggman must be proud of his work, because he stencils his cartoon mug on all of his inventions. The Death Egg even sported a giant mustache. There seems to be some history behind this. The Space Colony ARK in Adventure 2 bears a similar visage when the Eclipse Cannon is revealed, but there's no way Eggman contributed to that, since his grandfather was the last person to set foot on the station.
• The Man Behind the Man:
  • He and Eggman Nega pull this off in Sonic Rush Adventure, being the ones who created Captain Whisker and his crew to steal the Jeweled Scepter.
  • He pulls it off again in Sonic Generations, teaming up with Classic Eggman to use the Time Eater to erase their previous defeats at Sonic's hands.
• Manchild: His idea of Eggmanland is an amusement park.
• Manipulative Bastard: He has manipulated Knuckles repeatedly (though by the fourth time or so, it might be more Knuckles' fault) and even tricked Tails into revealing he had a fake Chaos Emerald. Also, he tricked Sonic into getting in the center of his ray to unseal Dark Gaia.
• Meaningful Name: Besides "Eggman" aptly describing his appearance, his full name Ivo Robotnik is meant to be this; the first name 'Ivo' was picked because of the phonetic similarity to the word 'evil' (according to former Sega of America employee Dean Sitton, his intention was that the name would have been pronounced "ee-vo" rather than "eye-vo"). In addition, Ivo is the reverse of Ovi, which is the genitive singular form of the Latin word ovum, meaning egg. The term robotnik is derived from the Czech words for "work" and "forced labor" and an older Slavic term for "slave." Given he imprisons animals inside capsules and his killer robots on a regular basis, his name thus makes him out to be an "Evil Slave-Driver".
• Misanthrope Supreme: He's mostly indifferent to the fact that many of his plans cause untold amounts of casualties and suffering. This is mostly linked to his narcissism, however, and he stops short of desiring the complete destruction of humanity. At least until Sonic Forces.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: It's still unknown whether he got his doctorate in evil science or good science.
• Motifs: Eggs. It's in his name, and every one of his creations' names.
• Mysterious Past: He seems to have popped out of nowhere to terrorize the world. Most of what we know about his past is second-hand through his grandfather, and even then mostly through implication.
• Never My Fault: He never learns from his mistakes and always blames others for his failures. A good example of this is in Sonic Lost World, where he blames Sonic for the situation they're in. While it's true that Sonic kicked the conch anyway, he had no way of knowing what it was for, and it's still Eggman's fault for abusing the Zeti in the first place.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In Sonic 2006, every time Silver attempts to kill Sonic, Eggman kidnaps Elise. In a way, he actually saved the world, as Sonic being killed in front of Elise would have had far worse ramifications, as the Final Story revealed.
• Noble Demon: On a good day, he can show respect for his enemies, admiration for his family, and a desire to make the world a better place through his rule. He just puts all of that second to his desire to conquer the world.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: Particularly in the anime, although it carries over in the succeeding games.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: His earliest design was a caricature of US President Theodore Roosevelt.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Yes, he's a Ditzy Genius who never seems to learn that Evil Is Not a Toy. But it's made clear time and time again throughout the series, especially in Sonic Forces, that if Sonic wasn't his adversary, he'd be ruling the world right now. It's even lampshaded in Forces; Knuckles remarks that he'd normally laugh off any of Eggman's schemes, but Eggman's already taken over most of the world.
• Obviously Evil: His morbidly obese physique, gaudy villainous mustache, his ego-driven habit of putting his face on anything he owns, and his aforementioned meaningful name go hand-in-hand with his Card-Carrying Villain stature.
• Oh, Crap!: Has multiple every time Sonic shows up and is about to defeat him.
• Omnicidal Maniac: He may have devolved into this in Sonic Forces, or he could specifically be trying to wipe out all his enemies in one fell swoop, though he does mention wanting to rebuild the world in his image. It's hard to tell, but it's certain that he very well might have destroyed the world in Sonic Adventure 2 if Sonic hadn't thwarted his plan, the world hadn't surrendered to him, and the cannon wasn't rigged to initiate a Colony Drop instead of firing.
  Eggman: "The world will be nothing but ashes, from which a glorious Eggman Empire will rise!"
• Only Known By His Nickname: In Japan, Ivo Robotnik isn't acknowledged as his full name; he's always simply been called "Eggman", and the official Japanese website, Sonic Channel, says that his real name is unknown. His last name definitely seems to be Robotnik, however.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Eggman's default setting is Large Ham, but it's when he stops being a Large Ham, that lets you know he is pissed. See Tranquil Fury below. Also, he wants to conquer the world, not destroy it, and will team up with the heroes to save their planet from being destroyed. But there are a few times where he attempts to destroy the world himself.
• Opaque Lenses: Eggman's blue pince-nez glasses.
• Paper-Thin Disguise:
  • Wears these in Sonic Shuffle.
  • Sonic accuses King Sharyar of doing this in Sonic and the Secret Rings, only to find out it's not Eggman. Then again, Sonic did this to almost everyone in the Sonic Storybook Series, but starts to get used to it eventually, only briefly confusing the blacksmith for Tails and then only stating that Gawain reminds him of Knuckles and not even mentioning Percival's resemblance to Blaze.
  • He also tried this in Sonic Free Riders, disguising himself as King Doc in an attempt to steal the contestants' racing data for his own Extreme Gear. Needless to say, none of the characters fall for it.
• Person of Mass Destruction: In all of Eggman's schemes, he always manages to cause horrendous collateral damage, either directly or indirectly due to whatever Cosmic Horror spirals out of his control.
• Pride: As shown in Sonic Lost World, he is capable of planning around Sonic being able to defeat other threats to his plans. However, he seems to have a constant inability to accept Sonic always being able to defeat him, which results in him always getting defeated.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Despite being an Evil Genius and Sonic's Arch-Enemy, Eggman is very childish and immature. He's prone to temper tantrums when he loses or things don't go his way, and several of his bases are Amusement Parks of Doom.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: His outfit.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: In most of the American/European non-game media, he is depicted with red eyes and black irises. In the games, though, he has normal blue eyes hidden behind his glasses.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Is the red oni to Tails and Sonic.
• Reed Richards Is Useless: Although in his case it's more "Reed Richards is a Jerk." His technology has the potential to revolutionize the world many times over, but he has absolutely no interest in using it for the benefit of others. His only concern is world domination.
• Robot Master: Creates tons of robots and mechs.
• Scarf of Asskicking: Wears one in the Sonic Riders series.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Manages this every once in a while, usually with a massive, toothy grin.
• Sinister Shades: The above-mentioned glasses.
• Super-Speed: Eggman is very athletic and can outrun Sonic, despite his rotund appearance. In Sonic Riders, one of his turbo boost moves has him carrying his board and running on foot at a very fast pace.
• Super-Strength: In Sonic Riders, he is classified as a Power character and he can punch large obstacles out of the way.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He looks a lot like his grandfather Gerald, and his descendant Eggman Nega looks exactly like him, sans the white mustache.
• Stout Strength: On and off, he's shown to be stronger than he appears, smacking a giant robot's hand away with his stomach, and punching a(n albeit small) defense turret off the wall with his bare hands. Sonic Lost World has him punch through a wall of solid ice without so much as a (visible) scratch. He's also defined as a Power class in Sonic Riders, being able to punch out walls, cars, and even trains along the track.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: In Adventure when it comes to his alias. Eggman is an insulting nickname Sonic gave him, and he eventually adopted it as an alias come Adventure 2.

• Take Over the World: What he wants to do in most installments/adaptations. By Sonic Forces, he succeeds.
• Team Rocket Wins: Eggman has never earned a long-term victory against Sonic, but there have been rare occasions where he got the upper hand. In Sonic Adventure 2, he nearly succeeded in killing Sonic by launching him into a pod out into space and blowing it up, only for Sonic to somehow use Chaos Control to escape. In the opening of Sonic Unleashed, he actually manages to defeat Super Sonic, steal the Chaos Emeralds from him, and tear the planet apart, launching Sonic out into space after the fact. This changes in Sonic Forces, where Eggman has actually conquered 99% of the world.
• Terrible Trio: He forms one with Orbot and Cubot.
• Token Human: In continuities where all the other characters are either anthropomorphic animals, robots, or otherworldly beings at least.
• Took a Level in Badass: In Sonic Adventure 2 in his plots, going so far as to take hostages. Even partly lampshaded by our boy in blue.
  Sonic: (smugly) "You've turned into a big-time villain, doctor!"
  • In Sonic Unleashed, he captured Sonic in his super form and drained his Emerald energy to power a machine that detonates the planet!!! Meanwhile, in Sonic Colors, he creates a gargantuan space station that chains multiple planets together so as to capture aliens to power his machinery (with not a single treacherous Eldritch Abomination in sight).
  • He goes through another level in Sonic Generations, where he, yet again, gets ahold of an Eldritch Abomination. Only this time, he manages to keep it under control without it betraying him!
    • Another way of putting it is that Eggman, despite becoming a more comical villain, had become capable of a Class X Apocalypse How in Sonic Unleashed, then a Class X-2 in Sonic Colors, and finally a Class Z in Sonic Generations. And he's trying for another Class X-2 in Sonic Forces.
  • Sonic Lost World has him gain control of six very powerful Zeti and take measures to prevent their betrayal. His control over them is so great, he only loses control thanks to Sonic. And that's not even mentioning him punching through a screen of ice and devising a plan to use Sonic to defeat the Deadly Six and regain his status as the Big Bad.
  • Sonic Forces sees his biggest level-up yet! From the very beginning of the game, Eggman has gained some kind of power that has allowed him to take over 99% of the world, with only small pockets of resistance fighting back. Which he plans to eliminate in one fell swoop with his latest creation.
• Trademark Favorite Food: EGGman has a lot of egg-themed robots and vehicles. This obsession is so strong that his most powerful weapon was the Death EGG.
• Tranquil Fury: Eggman is a Large Ham by default, but there are a few times he will drop the Large Ham part in favor of being dead serious.
  • In Sonic Adventure, after Chaos 6 is defeated and his Egg Carrier crashes, he tries to fire a missile at Station Square in a desperate attempt to salvage something from having his plans completely fall apart in the last few hours. The missile, unfortunately, is a dud and Eggman has to detonate it manually, but Tails beats him to it and disables it. Eggman, though extremely pissed, barely raises his voice as he threatens to make Tails pay before summoning his Egg Walker.
  • And again in Sonic Lost World. When Zavok and Zazz taunt Eggman about how the energy from the Extractor is making them stronger, Eggman threatens to destroy everything they love in the most chilling voice possible before smashing the ice wall they were speaking from.
• Unexplained Recovery: Sonic Lost World makes no effort to explain how he escaped from being trapped in the White Space at the end of Sonic Generations.
• Unwitting Pawn: In Sonic Adventure 2, he's manipulated by Shadow into carrying out Gerald's revenge.
• Vague Age: Unlike most of the heroes, Eggman's age has never been stated. He's supposedly in his fifties, though. He'd have to be to remember his grandfather.
• Vehicular Assault: Being a mad scientist for a penchant for machines, this is Eggman's go-to tactic of choice, pulling out all kinds of different and quirky machines and mechas to battle Sonic and his friends. His Classic Eggmobile in particular is extremely versatile, pulling out a new gimmick each time you face him.
• Villain Decay: Starting with Sonic Adventure and continuing throughout most games since, Eggman has been consistently overthrown as the main antagonist by a kind of all-powerful villain, due to his own evil schemes frequently involving awakening said power to harness it to take over the world. Starting with Sonic Colors, however, it appears he's recovering and has begun to reclaim his mantle as the series villain. Sonic Generations sees him return to form greater than before, and Sonic Forces shows him outright defying this trope entirely.
• Villain Respect: As much as he hates Sonic, he does seem to respect him to a degree. Best shown in Sonic Adventure 2, where, when he believes that Sonic has died, he utters a respectful farewell to him.
  Eggman: Farewell, Sonic... my admirable adversary!
• Villainous Friendship: With Shadow, to an extent, each treating the other with respect, and Shadow outright stating he doesn't want to fight him, something he almost never does. It's made very clear that this is merely on the outside, as the two will clash whenever they feel like it.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The little known details about his planned Eggman Empire apparently involve scientists as the high-class citizens, indicating that it is essentially the scientist version of Outer Heaven. If it is true that his world domination plans stemmed from the perceived injustice of Gerald Robotnik's arrest, that might give him an understandable reason for desiring this. His desire to rule also appears to have come from illusions that doing so would help his grandfather's vision of making the world a better place. He went from that to complete megalomaniac in about 10 years.
• Would Hurt a Child: Most of his enemies are in their teens, with a few being young kids. Most darkly emphasized in the 8-bit (Master System / Game Gear) version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, where the bad ending (not getting all the Chaos Emeralds) implies, at the very least, he absconded with Tails and Sonic will never see him again, if not out-and-out killed the young fox. And in Sonic Forces, this is upgraded to "Would Utterly Obliterate Several Children".

Metal Sonic

"Sonic... I was created for the sole purpose of destroying you. But I can never seem to defeat you! That is why, I transformed my own body with my own hands."

Debut: Sonic CD

A recurring robotic replica of Sonic, designed to not only match but exceed his speed and power in every way, later gaining the ability to analyze and imitate the data of any lifeform he sees. Despite constant defeat, he is a stubbornly persistent recurring foe of Sonic who, while initially just another mindless badnik, slowly gained a vengeful, egotistical personality over time, which prompts him to disobey his creator on a few occasions in the past if it serves his needs.

Voiced by Jun'ichi Kanemaru (Japanese, games), Ryan Drummond (English, 2004)

• A God Am I: In Heroes.
  Metal Overlord: "See me as I am, no longer afraid of anything! I shall become the ultimate overlord, ruling as the world's most supreme being!"
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: It's generally assumed that Robotnik made an upgrade to Metal that made him go mad with power and ego in Heroes. To elaborate, Metal deluded himself into believing he was the real Sonic, and that Sonic was his "loathsome copy"!
• All Your Powers Combined: As part of his DNA copying in Heroes. He gets the speed, power, and flight of Team Sonic, as well as Shadow's Chaos powers (particularly Chaos Control) and Chaos' shapeshifting abilities (via Froggy and Chocola), with his lines implying that he successfully copied all pertinent data from the rest of the cast.
  Metal Madness (to Team Chaotix): "You're all useless now that I've copied all your data."
• Always Someone Better: Sonic ends up being this to him, which drives him absolutely nuts.
• Amplifier Artifact:
  • The gem he finds during Episode Metal, which enhances his powers significantly and lets him fire lightning blasts from his hands.
  • In Sonic Mania, the Plus update changed the final phase of the fight into Eggman throwing the Phantom Ruby at him, causing Metal Sonic to transform into a Humongous Mecha resembling Metal Sonic Kai.
• Arch-Enemy: His literal sole purpose is to kill Sonic and replace him as the only Sonic around.
• Art Evolution: The original design is more simplistic and puppet-like, while his post-Sonic Adventure 2 design gave him a little more detail and played with his proportions a little.
• Ax-Crazy: Depending on the game.
• Badass Automaton: One of Eggman's best (if not the best) robots, capable of both matching and in some regards exceeding Sonic.
• Badass Boast: Lets out plenty of these during the fight with Metal Madness.
• Badass Longcoat: Neo Metal Sonic sports one in Heroes.
• Batman Gambit: The entire plot of Sonic Heroes was one big Batman Gambit. He issued a challenge to Team Sonic while impersonating Eggman just to copy their data and defeat them. What makes it so unique is that he was only after Team Sonic. Team Dark, Team Rose, and Team Chaotix got involved by themselves, but it still worked in his favor.
• Big Bad: In Sonic Heroes.
• Bishōnen Line: His "Neo" form in Sonic Heroes is distinctly more humanoid than his Sonic CD look.
• Bootstrapped Leitmotif: Stardust Speedway Bad Future from Sonic CD, originally intended to be a generic boss theme specific to the titular zone's titular Bad Future, became iconic with Metal Sonic as his own Ensemble Dark Horse status grew. Every boss fight with him from Generations onward uses the same theme or a remix of it (more frequently the JP/EU version, though the NA version does occasionally get reused as well).
• Breakout Villain: He went from a boss battle in Sonic the Hedgehog CD and just in a long line of robotic ripoffs of Sonic, to the most iconic villain in the franchise next to Eggman thanks to fandom popularity.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Arguably the only reason Eggman hasn't scrapped him for his repeated disloyalty. His stubbornness and cunning make him the most competent minion he has.
• Card-Carrying Villain: In Sonic Heroes, due to his massive ego.
• Characterization Marches On: Initially, Metal was just a well-constructed but otherwise mindless knockoff of Sonic. Then Sonic Heroes gave him a personality, revealing him to be a cold-blooded, domineering egomaniac. Even after Eggman's subsequent reprogramming of him after his defeat, Sonic Free Riders shows that he still has enough personality to willingly go behind Eggman's back and study the other racers in disguise, all just to challenge Sonic to a one-on-one race. Metal Sonic also talked in Heroes, but any later appearances and adaptations featuring the characters make him silent; Cubot and Orbot talk for him in Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
• Chest Blaster: His Plasma Pulse Attack in Knuckles' Chaotix. Metal Overlord can fire cyrstals from the hole on his chest.
• Cool Plane: Pilots one in Sonic the Hedgehog 4.
• Conjoined Eyes: Being based on Sonic, he follows the hedgehog design scheme.
• Costume Copycat: Disguised himself as Eggman for the majority of Sonic Heroes. The real Eggman gave orders to Team Chaotix during that time in order to free himself.
  • Also repeated in Sonic Free Riders, where he disguised himself as a blue E-10000 in order to copy everyone's data and prove himself the best user of Extreme Gear.
• Crippling Overspecialization: He was created to exceed Sonic's speed, which he does very well due to having a jet engine sticking out of his torso. However, since this causes him to outright fly, he often has trouble stopping.
  • In addition, that kind of speed puts a huge strain on his insides — Metal Sonic is prone to overheating after traveling faster than Sonic for too long, and he then has to spend time to cool down. In Sonic Generations, this is his one biggest weakness.
• A Day in the Limelight: A mini-Episode of Sonic 4 focuses on his return after his defeat in Sonic CD. He's even the playable character.
• Determinator: His resolve is almost as strong as Sonic's. No matter how long it takes or how many defeats he suffers, he will defeat Sonic. To quote his only line of dialogue from Generations:
  "I WILL BATTLE YOU AS MANY TIMES AS IT IS NECESSARY."
• Disney Villain Death: Subverted. He falls several thousand feet from the sky when defeated as Metal Overlord, but he survives.
• The Dragon: To Eggman when Orbot and Cubot aren't filling the role.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Despite being programmed to serve Eggman, his drive to defeat Sonic tends to override his loyalty to Eggman. This is especially shown in Sonic Free Riders, where he goes behind Eggman's back and disguises himself as a blue E-10000 to copy everyone's racing data.
• Dragon Ascendant: In Heroes, he locks Eggman in a room and decides to conquer the world for himself. Unfortunately, he's defeated and—
• Demoted to Dragon: In appearances post-Heroes.
• Evil Counterpart: To Sonic, of course.
• Evil Knockoff: Provides the trope image. However, in Heroes, his desire to prove himself to be better than Sonic had progressed to the point that he thought he was the real deal.
  Metal Overlord: "Guooooo! Why?! I had it all! I am the ultimate overlord, Metal Sonic. I am the real Sonic!"
• Evil Is Petty: His entire plan and motive in Sonic Heroes evolved out of his desire for revenge on Sonic for losing to him so many times.
• Evil Sounds Deep: In his Sonic Heroes appearance. Surprisingly, it's just Ryan Drummond's Sonic voice in monotone, with the pitch deepened and with a synthesized reverberation added. Hear it unaltered.
  • The same applies in Japanese for Jun'ichi Kanemaru, although the vocal manipulation differs somewhat from the English version.
• Eviler than Thou: He tends to be a greater and more serious threat than his creator.
• Failure Is the Only Option: No matter how hard he tries, he can never defeat Sonic.
  Sonic: Give it up, man! I've beaten you in every race, every fight, and even that time you turned into that stupid dragon thing!
• Finger Firearms: He can fire his claws like missiles as Metal Madness. If it hits a character, he or she is trapped in a cyrstal dome. If all three characters are trapped, they lose a life.
• Finger Wag: Gives one◊ to the player in Sonic Mania before the Advancing Wall of Doom begins chasing after Sonic and Tails.
• Flight: Thanks to a jet engine on his back.
• Fire-Breathing Weapon: Metal Madness's right hand is a flamethrower that he uses against Team Rose and Team Dark.
• Fragile Speedster: He was designed to be faster and stronger than Sonic, both of which he gets down, but he's prone to overheating after attacking and can be neutralized by flying into a wall.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: Metal Overlord has some sharp and scary-looking wings.
• The Heavy
• Heroic Sacrifice: Also happens in Sonic Rivals 2. He rips out his own power source to allow Shadow to use it to transport them both out of the Ifrit's dimension.
• High-Altitude Battle: The fight with Metal Overlord in Heroes.
• Humongous Mecha: His Metal Madness and Metal Overlord forms. As well as his Mega Metal Sonic/Metal Sonic Kai from from Knuckles Chaotix.
• I Just Want to Be You: Implied to be his beef with Sonic, although it overlaps heavily with There Can Only Be One, as Metal's goal of defeating Sonic and proving his own self-worth is his sole purpose for existing.
• Image Song: Metal Sonic has many themes, which fit him extremely well:
  • From the Genesis era, there's "Metal Sonic" from the Sega Virtual Tunes, about his purpose and personality.
  • "What I'm Made Of" from Sonic Heroes depicts his motives in the game.
  • "Never Let It Go," his theme from Sonic the Fighters.
  • From Sonic CD, both of Stardust Speedway's Bad Future themes from the Japanese and American soundtracks serve as his themes. In Sonic Mania, the Japanese version was remixed for his boss fight, while Sonic Forces remixes the American version.
  • Sonic 4: Episode 2 has a unique song that plays when Sonic faces off against him. This theme was later used as his All-Star theme in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Heavily implied to have this. He was created with the sole purpose of defeating Sonic, but no matter how hard he tried, he could never pull it off, even when he found that Amplifier Artifact in Sonic 4. By Sonic Heroes, his inferiority complex and obsession with defeating Sonic had grown so out of control that it drove him completely insane and caused him to copy the powers of Sonic and his friends and attempt to Take Over the World just to prove he's better than Sonic.
• The Juggernaut: Metal Overlord. It's saying something that it took 12 characters to put him down. Nine of them had to distract him so Team Sonic could use their super powers. Then the three of them had to finish him off.
  • In his debut appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog CD, Sonic can't even harm him due to his electrified force field, and Metal can effortlessly smash through obstacles that Sonic has to work around. Sonic has to rely on a combo of the raceway's closing gate and Eggman's instant kill laser to bring him down.
• Kick the Dog: Your first clue that he's bad news is a hologram recording in Palmtree Panic of Metal Sonic stepping on a squirrel for no reason.
• Killer Robot: He's a killer clone of Sonic, and will literally do this if you fail his race in either "Sonic CD" or "Generations".
• Kneel Before Zod: Demands that everyone bows to him in Sonic Heroes.
  Metal Sonic: "All living things kneel before your master!"
• Knight of Cerebus: For Sonic Heroes, the game was pretty lighthearted until the last story. Also, he's portrayed as one of the darkest villains in the franchise.
• Large Ham: He chews the scenery with almost every one of his lines in Heroes, including the portions where he was disguised as Eggman. "All living things, KNEEL BEFORE YOUR MASTER!"
• Leitmotif: Tends to have the Bad Future Stardust Speedway tracks play in his fights.
• Loophole Abuse: Metal Sonic has only one main directive: defeat Sonic. If something will bring him closer to that goal, he will do it... whether ordered to or not. This has resulted in him disobeying his creator multiple times, even backstabbing him on one occasion.
• Macross Missile Massacre: Metal Madness and Metal Overlord can fire missiles from the spikes on his back.
• No Mouth: In his normal and Neo forms, although he was sometimes drawn with a crude pasted-on smirk on his muzzle in artwork for the Genesis Sonic games. Subverted with his Metal Madness and Metal Overlord forms.
• Ominous Visual Glitch: In the official music video for his theme in Sonic Forces, Metal Sonic is shown to have the same red glitchy aura as Infinite, even using his energy cubes.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Implied, but not outright stated. During the Final Battle with him in Sonic Heroes, he mentions wanting to rule a robot kingdom, slightly implying he wanted to destroy all organic life.
• One-Winged Angel: Metal Overlord in Sonic Heroes, and even earlier he did this to become Mega Metal Sonic in Knuckles Chaotix.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Metal Madness and Metal Overlord resemble western dragons.
• Out of Focus: He was fairly prominent in the 90's, being the secondary antagonist of Sonic CD and starring in a few spin-off games. After Sonic Adventure, he was mostly relegated to cameo appearances, Sonic Heroes being the only real exception. He's slowly been making a comeback after the second Episode of Sonic 4, however, and stars as one of the villains of Sonic Forces.
• Overdrive: The V. Maximum Overdrive Attack, as its name would suggest, is stated to be rather taxing on Metal's systems — enough so that sustained use could potentially destroy him.
• Person of Mass Destruction: His Neo Metal Sonic and Metal Overlord forms. In Knuckles Chaotix, the bad ending depicts Metal Sonic burning down a city during the credits.
• Power Copying: His main superpower, used to copy the abilities of everyone in Sonic Heroes. And he does it again in Sonic Free Riders, diguising himself as a blue E-100000 to copy everyone's Extreme Gear data.
• Psycho Electro: A Robotic Psychopath with electric powers.
• Rage Quit: In Sonic Free Riders. After challenging Sonic to a race and, predictably, losing spectacularly, Metal runs off in a rage.
• Ramming Always Works: His V. Max Overdrive attack, where he overclocks his systems to make himself hazardous to touch and zoom across the stage.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Along with the black sclera, it really makes him look imposing.
• The Resenter: To Sonic.
• Ridiculously Human Robots: Depends on the game, but this is most evident in Heroes. He's almost indistinguishable from a reploid in terms of cognitive ability and emotional expression, as well as the capacity to go completely insane.

• Robotic Psychopath: The most aggressive and violent automaton in the series — yes, even surpassing Omega.
• Sanity Slippage: Shown in Sonic Heroes. He was created for the sole purpose of defeating Sonic, but each defeat caused his hate and resentment towards Sonic to build until it reached critical mass. It eventually all goes to hell, driving him mad with power and ego and causing himself to believe that he was the real Sonic.
• Satellite Character: A downplayed example. Metal does have a personality and motive separate from his creator, but he is, for the most part, treated as Eggman's attack dog when it comes to keeping Sonic at bay. He very rarely strikes out on his own as an antagonist, mostly due to him being programmed to be loyal to Eggman.
• "Second Law" My Ass!: Pulled this one out in Sonic Heroes; Fed up with Dr. Eggman's failures, he threw the doctor into a room and took over the Eggman Empire himself to go about his own plans.
• Shock and Awe: Most of his attacks, such as the V. Max Overdrive Attack and the Ring Spark Field, deal with electricity. Neo Metal Sonic can fire lightning from his hands, and as shown in Sonic the Hedgehog 4, he's still capable of this to some degree.
• Smug Snake: He may not be the real Sonic like he claims to be, but at least he's got all of Sonic's ego.
• Some Kind of Force Field: To make up for his lack of special moves in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, Metal Sonic is given the Black Shield ability, which makes him completely indestructible.
• Spikes of Villainy: Neo Metal Sonic wears a spiked belt. His Metal Overlord form has spikes on his back. And they aren't just for show.
• The Starscream: In Sonic Heroes, although by his defeat, Eggman reprogrammed him to ensure this would never happen again — although that may not have been foolproof, since Sonic Free Riders shows he still has hints of free will, going behind Eggman's back to copy the racers' data, and promptly challenge Sonic to a new race.
• Super-Speed: Naturally. He is a robot of Sonic, after all. Eggman built him to be even faster than Sonic, and was quite successful.
• There Can Only Be One: It's never outright stated, but it's pretty clear he wants to be the only blue hedgehog around.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: To Sonic. He takes it up to eleven in Sonic Heroes, where he's not only obsessed with defeating Sonic, but believes that he is the real Sonic.
• This Was His True Form: While he didn't actually die in Heroes, after he's defeated, he shrinks from his Neo Metal Sonic form into the Sonic CD appearance we're all more familiar with.
• Villainous Breakdown: When defeated in Sonic Heroes.
  Metal Overlord: "Guooooo! Why?! I had it all! I am the ultimate overlord, Metal Sonic. I am the real Sonic!"
• Villain Protagonist: In Episode Metal.
• The Voiceless: In all appearances barring Heroes (where he's Suddenly Speaking after receiving an upgrade). He also speaks in Sonic Free Riders while disguised as a blue E-10000.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: He gained this ability circa Sonic Heroes, at least the ability to superficially imitate them in appearance. He gets the ability to outright morph, T-1000 style by copying Chocola Chao and Froggy's data (who had the DNA of Chaos in them), and Sonic Free Riders shows that he can still pull this off to some degree.
• Walking Spoiler: Metal Sonic served as this for a while, in the wake of his role in Sonic Heroes, although it's greatly diminished over time.
• We Can Rebuild Him: Claims to have done this to himself before the events of Heroes to defeat Sonic.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Read the above.
• Xanatos Gambit: His Batman Gambit to Team Sonic can be seen as this. If Team Sonic answers his challenge, he can copy their data; if they don't, he can conquer the world with his Egg Fleet. Either way, he wins.
• X-Ray Sparks: In Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, he shows a skeleton when electrified.

Mecha Sonic

Debut: Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Often confused with Metal Sonic, Mecha Sonic is Sonic's other robotic replica(s). Unlike Metal Sonic, Mecha Sonic is notable for having a drastic redesign in every major appearance: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Master System), Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Mega Drive), and Sonic (3) & Knuckles. Lack of a solid background means no one can seem to decide if this is one recurring resilient robot that keeps getting rebuilt, or really entirely separate robots with the same designation. The 16-bit incarnations of Mecha Sonic recently made a surprise modern appearance in the Sonic Dimensions DLC of LEGO Dimensions, treated as two different characters. Not to be outdone, the original 8-bit incarnation of Mecha Sonic, reidentified as Silver Sonic, made an appearance alongside Metal Sonic in Sonic Mania.

• Art Evolution: The Sonic 2 designs were bulkier silver constructs that arguably resemble Sonic more than Metal Sonic. Sonic 3 & Knuckles did away with this, giving the robot a sleeker dark purple design.
• Big Bad: Of Knuckles's story in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Robotnik is presumably elsewhere most of the time, or Mecha Sonic is serving as his Dragon.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, he seems to enlist the aid of an Eggrobo as his ally to try to defeat Knuckles in his story. By the time Knuckles reaches Sky Sanctuary, Mecha Sonic (presumably accidentally) destroys the Eggrobo by air-dashing right into his mobile, missing the trapped Knuckles.
• The Cameo: Mecha Sonic Model No.29 only briefly appears in the Sonic the Fighters introduction, where it transforms into a rocket and launches, never to be seen again.
  • A nameless Sonic robot with yet another design had a cameo in Sonic Adventure, alongside Metal Sonic. This proved to the last the series would ever see of a not-Metal Sonic robot for years (with the exception of Sonic The Hedgehog Pocket Adventure reusing the 16-bit Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Mecha Sonic for one boss fight). Until Sonic Mania, where the 8-bit Sonic the Hedgehog 2 incarnation briefly appears during the fight with Metal Sonic.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Barring a cameo appearance in Sonic Adventure, Mecha Sonic vanished completely after the Classic Era, until Sonic Mania.
• The Dragon: The penultimate boss just before the Death Egg Zone in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Notably, this is after Metal Sonic had been established as a character.
• Dub Name Change: With the exception of Sonic the Fighters (which is labeled "Mecha Sonic Model No.29" in-game and "Rocket Metal" (Sonic) in unused fighter data), "Mecha Sonic" is nearly always the name of the robot in Japanese strategy guides. In western game media, each version of Mecha Sonic is instead given a unique name to help differentiate, at least at some point:
  • The Mecha Sonic from the 8-bit Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is originally known as the "Silver Sonic" in the Master System and International Game Gear manuals.
  • The Mecha Sonic from the 16-bit Sonic the Hedgehog 2 initially remained as Mecha Sonic on the old Story recap section of the International Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode I website, but has been currently renamed "Robo Sonic" in the Sonic Dimensions DLC of LEGO Dimensions. On occasion, it is also erroneously mistaken for its 8-bit counterpart, likely due to the shared game title, and the fact the 16-bit robot did not have an official English name for a long while.
  • The Mecha Sonic from Sonic 3 & Knuckles actually had three alternate names - "Metal Sonic" on the back of the North American Sonic & Knuckles box (causing much confusion), "Robotic Sonic" in a mail-in Sega of America walkthrough, and the "Evil Sonic" in a Sonic the Comic Q Zone (mini-walkthroughs for Sega games). Unlike the above, this Mecha Sonic managed to keep his Japanese name in both the International Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode I website and the Sonic Dimensions DLC of LEGO Dimensions.
• Evil Knockoff: Arguably more so than Metal Sonic, due to him having a variation of Sonic's Spin Attack and Spin Dash move, though Metal Sonic himself got these added to his own skill set eventually.
• Flat Character: Unlike his more famous counterpart, Mecha Sonic appears to be completely nondescript in personality; in the 16-bit Sonic the Hedgehog 2, he is even presented as a mere mindless drone to Eggman.
• Flight: Capable of this in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 via rocket boots, but they're ditched in Sonic 3 & Knuckles in favor of being made much more agile, with fast zero gravity flight.
• Hidden Weapons: In his 8-bit Sonic the Hedgehog 2 encounter, he has an extendable grappling arm built into his body.
• Macross Missile Massacre: Mecha Sonic can fire the spikes on his back at Sonic during the fight on the Death Egg.
• Megaton Punch: As mentioned in Curb-Stomp Battle, he almost knocked out Sonic with one punch!
• Nostalgia Level: In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, during the Sky Sanctuary Zone, he provides this for the first boss from Sonic 1 and the eighth from Sonic 2, and then finally for his own previous incarnation at the end.
• One-Winged Angel: His Super Mode form in the end of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, where he absorbs the power of the Master Emerald, granting him even faster speed, as well as a energy blast attack and the ability to launch dummy rings.
  • Clipped-Wing Angel: However, using the energy blast will eventually drain his power, leaving him vulnerable while he goes to the Master Emerald to recharge.
  • The last phase of his fight provides a straighter example of this. After taking enough damage, Mecha Sonic returns to the Master Emerald one last time, but instead of continuing his assault as he's done previously, he simply floats around above you, periodically attacking with dummy rings. While he's able to continue on without stopping to recharge now, he experiences frequent power failures where he reverts to his normal form and drops out the sky for a brief moment.
• Power Floats: Gains this in his Super form.
• Robot Me: Shares this trait with Metal Sonic.
• Rocket Boots: In Sonic the Hedgehog 2, but only used in the 8-bit version and during his entrance animation in the 16-bit version.
• Rollerblade Good: He achieves his super speed by the wheels in his heels in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
• Super Mode: At the end of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, he gains one by absorbing the power of the Master Emerald.
• Super-Speed: While his 16-bit Sonic the Hedgehog 2 encounter is sluggish, he is surprisingly fast in the 8-bit Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and ups the ante in his Sonic 3 & Knuckles encounters.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Metal Sonic, though Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog CD had overlapping development periods.
• Took a Level in Badass: Considerably in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. In Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the robot was a clunky, sluggish drone that could be taken down in less than ten seconds. In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, it received a considerable upgrade, getting a sleeker design, as well as super speed both on the ground and in-flight, a devastating air-dash move, the ability to slide backwards, and is much more durable, managing to survive his encounter with Sonic during the game, and later taking on Knuckles.
• Transforming Mecha: Shows up solely to do this at the beginning of Sonic the Fighters, then mysteriously leaves the game.

Fang the Sniper / Nack the Weasel

Debut: Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble

Debuted as "Fang the Sniper" in Japan and "Nack the Weasel" in North America and Europe (although this decision was soon revoked in subsequent appearances). He's a treasure hunter out for cash whose only main appearance was in Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble. He made a few cameos, mostly in spinoffs.

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• The Bus Came Back: He makes an appearance as a boss fight in the second act of Mirage Saloon of Sonic Mania (well, it's Heavy Magician impersonating him anyway).
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Hasn't been seen in the game series in years, although he made a cameo on a wanted poster in Sonic Generations (which lists both names together, suggesting that Nack is his real name and Fang is his alias similar to the situation with Robotnik and Eggman). Fang eventually showed up again in Sonic Mania, albeit as an illusion used by Heavy Magician.
• Combat Pragmatist: Heavily relies on dirty tactics in all of the games he appears in:
  • His first fight in Triple Trouble has him attempting to activate a flame trap. In his fourth fight, he fires a heat-seeking missile at you.
  • In Sonic the Fighters one of his attacks is stomping on the opponents foot, which leaves them open for another attack.
• Cool Bike: His airbike, the Marvelous Queen.
• Dimensional Traveler: He's actually from the same dimension that the Special Stages are set in.
• Dirty Coward: Oh boy, where to start. He runs away from you every time you defeat him in his debut appearance for one thing.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: His Popgun. It was originally going to be a full-on revolver with bullets.
• Fangs Are Evil: Why else do you think his name is Fang?
• Fighting Clown: One wonders why he choose a cork gun of all things instead of actual firepower.
• Four-Fingered Hands: He's depicted with this in most media he appears in, odd considering how nobody else in the series has this trait. Common fan theories attribute this to either Yubitsume due to his presumed criminal past or how he's from another dimension.
• The Gunslinger: In a sense considering how he doesn't use actual firearms despite his moniker, although he does sport a cowboy-ish look at the very least.
• Greed: A treasure hunter who's only in it for the money. The only reason why he wants the Chaos Emeralds in Triple Trouble is not for their power but because they would fetch him a hefty profit.
• Harmless Villain: In Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble, he serves as the boss of the special stages but is not particularly effective:
  • In his first boss fight, he presses a button to set a flame trap on you but then accidentally unleashes it on himself somehow.
  • In his second boss fight, he bounces around on a spring but his panicking facial expressions indicate he has little control over his ride. The spring bounces low to the ground, making it easy to jump on top of him.
  • In his third boss fight, he cackles villainously as he flies around in his airbike, which gets smacked into the sky after just three hits.
  • In his fourth boss fight, he once again cackles villainously as he sends a heat-seeking missile to hurt you. After about fifteen seconds, the heat-seeking missile changes targets and hits him instead, ending the bossfight.
  • In his final boss fight, he attempts ramming you from above with the drill of his airbike. After a few attempts, the drill gets him stuck into the ground, allowing you to push him down further, all while he has a panicked facial expression.
  • Towards the finale, he reappears again prepared to fight you... and then promptly runs away in terror when Eggman approaches.
  • When Fang shows up, he is usually sleeping.
  • When he runs away, he has a tendency of tripping over his own two feet before picking himself up and continuing to run.
• Improbable Weapon User: His signature weapon in Sonic the Fighters is a cork gun.
• Informed Species: Fang's official profile on Sega of America's Sonic Central website once called him a "wolf weasel", which was apparently earlier stated on the English fan site Concept: "Mobius" and in turn was traced back to the Japanese fan site Sonic Dimension. However, that turned out to be a mistranslation; "wolf jerboa" would be more accurate. Character Designer TOUMA indeed confirmed that Fang was conceptually based on a jerboa (explaining his features, tail shape and bounce, and number of fingers), and clarified that the weasel part was a change made overseas. It's currently unknown where the wolf half comes from, but Sonic Dimension based its data on official Japanese sources, so it's generally believed to be accurate as well.
• Nonstandard Character Design: He's portrayed with Four-Fingered Hands in most media he appears in rather than the usual five, likely because jerboas have four toes on each foot.
• Prehensile Tail: One of his moves in Sonic the Fighters has him somehow grabbing the opponent and throwing them with his tail.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: Well, toy revolvers if that's your thing. He was originally supposed to have an actual revolver in his debut appearance but it was scrapped later in development.
• Token Evil Teammate: In the story of Sonic the Fighters, each of the game's Chaos Emeralds are guarded by one of Sonic's friends with the exception of Fang, who stole his emerald from one of those guards.

Witchcart

Debut: Tails Skypatrol

The main villain of Tails Skypatrol, which is her sole appearance. Her goal is to take over an island with her three henchmen and turn anyone who opposes her into crystals. She rides in a mine cart and attacks with magic sparks.

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• Ambiguously Human: She certainly looks like a cartoon human, and this presumably makes her the only human character besides Eggman to appear in the pre-Sonic Adventure games.
• Big Bad: Of Tails Skypatrol. Eggman is completely absent from the game and she's the driving threat in his stead.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Her name is just Witchcart, and no real name was given to her in the games.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: She is given no characterization at all beyond "Evil witch who wants to take over an island and turn people into crystals".
• Haunted Castle: Her lair is the final level of the game, DarkCastle Area.
• Meaningful Name: She's a witch who rides in a cart.
• Mecha-Mooks: She has a modest army of machines at her command along with her henchmen and the obstacles set up to counter Tails.
• Minecart Madness: Villainous example, since a cart is Witchcart's ride of choice.
• Offstage Villainy: We don't get to see her turning anyone into crystals.
• Outside-Genre Foe: Witchcart is more like a villain out of a fairy tale than the supervillain level threat Eggman posed; she was the first antagonist in the series to directly use magic instead of just robots to accomplish her goals, predating the more significant use of this kind of threat with Chaos in Sonic Adventure. Most notable is that her use of magic does not involve the use of the Chaos Emeralds, which are completely absent from Tails Skypatrol.
• Punny Name: Her name is a portmanteau of Witchcraft and Cart.
• Sinister Schnoz: Has one on loan from the Wicked Witch of the West.
• Taken for Granite: What she threatens Tails with — she claims to have the ability to turn people into crystal. In-game, the only magical prowess she displays is shooting magic sparks at Tails.
• Terrible Trio: Her minions.
• Token Human: Before Sonic Adventure, she was the only human (or human-like) character that appeared in the games besides Eggman.
• Villain of the Week: A minor oneshot villain who had the merit of being in one of the very few games in the franchise where Eggman is completely absent. Tails defeated her, and she was never seen in the games again.
• Witch Classic: She wears black clothes and a pointy hat, uses magic as her primary method of attack, and has three henchmen.
• Wicked Witch: The very picture of one.

Battle Kukku Empire

Debut: Tails Adventure

The main villains of Tails Adventure.

• Great Battle Kukku XV (GBK): He is the evil ruler of the imperial Battle Kukku Army, and led his forces to Cocoa Island in the hopes of seizing the legendary Chaos Emeralds and using their power to Take Over the World.
• Battle Kukku XVI / "Speedy": Son of the Great Battle Kukku and heir to the position of the Battle Kukku Army's leader.
• Doctor Fukurokov: A scientist who works for the Battle Kukku Army.

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• Beard of Evil: Dr. Fukurokov sports a truly immense one, about the size of his entire body.
• Big Bad: Of Tails Adventure.
• Combat Stilettos: Strangely, GBK has high-heeled shoes.
• Eggshell Clothing: Speedy appears to be wearing one as part of his uniform.
• Evil Laugh: GBK lets out a good one at the beginning of the fight with him.
• Evil Overlord: GBK is described in the manual as a maniacal dictator.
• Mad Bomber: GBK attacks by tossing bombs.
• Mad Scientist: Fukurokov's evil, and is the scientific head of the Kukku Army.
• Meaningful Name: Fukurou is Japanese for owl.
• Ominous Owl: Well, not really ominous, but Fukurokov's still evil.
• Overlord Jr.: Speedy is the son of Great Battle Kukku XV, and one of the main villains of the game.
• Recurring Boss: Speedy's faced twice; once in a race on Polly Mountain, and later as the penultimate boss in the Battle Fortress.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Fukurokov wears a pair very similar to those of Dr. Eggman.
• Super-Strength: GBK can easily Neck Lift Tails if he gets too close and hurl him across the room.
• Verbal Tic: While GBK has no dialogue in-game, the Japanese manual says that he often ends his sentences by crowing like a rooster.
• Villain of the Week: A one-shot villainous group who only appears in Tails Adventure, and another rare case where the major villain isn't Dr. Eggman (who is absent from the game).

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