Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik is a character created by the Japanese game designer Naoto Ohshima . He is the main antagonist of Sega 's Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Eggman is a mad scientist who seeks to steal the mystical Chaos Emeralds , defeat Sonic the Hedgehog , and conquer the world . Eggman and his "Badnik" brand of military robots serve as bosses and enemies in the Sonic platform games . His distinctive characteristics include his red-black-yellow clothing, baldness, pince-nez sunglasses , and large mustache .
176-659: Eggman made a cameo appearance in the 1991 TeraDrive game Puzzle Construction before his full debut in the Sega Genesis game Sonic the Hedgehog later that year. Ohshima designed Eggman as one of several pitches for a mascot character to compete with Nintendo 's Mario . Although Sonic was selected, Sonic Team thought the Eggman design was excellent and retooled him as the antagonist. Sega of America renamed him Robotnik for Sonic 's Western release; subsequent games reconciled
352-487: A boss who the player must confront at the end of almost every level in most of the 2D Sonic games and in Sonic 3D Blast . In each game where he makes multiple appearances as a boss, Eggman fights the player using a different machine each time he appears. In most of the 2D Sonic games, the player has to hit Robotnik eight times in order to defeat him. In most 3D Sonic games since 1998's Sonic Adventure , Eggman may serve as
528-506: A dot matrix . Naka's prototype was a platform game with a fast-moving character rolling in a ball through a long, winding tube, and this concept was fleshed out with Ohshima's character designs and levels by Yasuhara. Yasuhara originally intended to work on the game for three months due to the delay of his planned move to the United States by the outbreak of the Gulf War , but was engrossed in
704-526: A rabbit able to grasp objects with prehensile ears, showed promise but was too complex for the Genesis hardware. The team narrowed its search to animals that could roll into a ball, their idea for an attacking move, and considered armadillos and hedgehogs . The hedgehog character, proposed by Naoto Ohshima , prevailed. Ohshima went on vacation to New York, taking sketches with him. He went to Central Park and asked locals for their opinions on them, and Sonic
880-613: A 65% share of the European console market. Sonic the Hedgehog set a Sega software sales record with 2.8 million cartridges sold by March 1992, including 1.8 million copies in the United States and another 1 million in Europe and Japan. The game went on to sell 3.7 million units by October 1992, and 4.5 million copies worldwide by November 1992. By 1997, the game had sold over 14 million copies worldwide, and earned over $ 400 million ( $ 890 million adjusted for inflation), higher than
1056-525: A bad performance and poor implementation of the original music and gameplay. As a response to the poor reception and claims that the system could not handle the original game, Simon "Stealth" Thomley, who later assisted with the development of the 2013 mobile port, released an unofficial, proof-of-concept version of Sonic the Hedgehog for the system. The unofficial version contains a complete Green Hill Zone and two bonus stages, as well as Tails and Knuckles as playable characters. A remastered mobile port
1232-483: A being known as the Time Eater; after somehow converting it into a robotic form, he attempts to use its time powers to reverse all of his past defeats at the hands of Sonic. By using the Time Eater, however, he causes rifts in time to open, bringing Sonic, Tails and himself to meet their classic counterparts. Eggman works together with his past self, Classic Eggman, to attempt to vanquish Sonic once and for all. They serve as
1408-473: A boss at one or more points in the game, although he usually does not serve as the final boss. Many of the final bosses in these more recent games are former allies of Eggman who then betrayed him, while others are a third party with no connection to Eggman whatsoever. Dr. Eggman (referred to by his full name Dr. Ivo Robotnik in the Western instruction manual) debuted in the 1991 Sega Genesis platform game Sonic
1584-525: A brief appearance to establish a shared universe setting, to make a point, or to offer homage . Balzac often employed this practice, as in his Comédie humaine . Sometimes a cameo features a historical person who "drops in" on fictional characters in a historical novel , as when Benjamin Franklin shares a beer with Phillipe Charboneau in The Bastard by John Jakes . A cameo appearance can be made by
1760-461: A couple of cameos. She had two cameos in Will & Grace and she even had a few in the 1990s. Actor Edward Norton appeared as himself in the satirical film The Dictator (2012) starring Sacha Baron Cohen . The mangaka Shotaro Ishinomori made many cameos in his Kamen Rider series. The animated series Adventures of Tintin featured its author Hergé in all the episodes. Stephen King
1936-471: A day on the project for several months. Due to the need to demonstrate the Genesis' technological prowess, the game underwent extensive testing and redesign, which took over six months. According to Naka, the game had the fastest-ever character speed in a video game and a rotation effect in the bonus stages that had been considered impossible on the console. The team intended to add a two-player mode displayed via split-screen , but Naka's programming knowledge
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#17330661684822112-407: A few names in black text on a black background, identifiable only by looking at the code. Naka stated that level design was a major challenge: he created maps much wider than normal and tried to ensure players would not get lost. It took him around eight months to develop Green Hill Zone as he kept restarting from scratch. He stated that he found the process "very interesting". Naka also stated that
2288-417: A film about Tony Wilson , has a cameo by the real Tony Wilson and many other notable people. In the film Apollo 13 , James Lovell (the real commander of that flight) and his wife Marilyn appeared next to the actors playing them ( Tom Hanks and Kathleen Quinlan respectively), and Chuck Yeager , whose story is told in the early part of the film, appears in a cameo in the airfield bar. Domino Harvey made
2464-649: A floating planetoid called the Lost Hex (similar to the Little Planet) as part of a scheme to use an energy extractor to harness some of the world's energy in Sonic Lost World . Along the way, he takes control of the villainous Deadly Six and tortures them into subservience. When Sonic severs Eggman's influence over them, the Deadly Six use their ability to manipulate magnetic fields to turn Eggman's robots against him. He
2640-510: A force of Ancient Robots to attack him, with his A.I. transporting him to Cyber Space as a means of keeping him safe. Within Cyber Space, the A.I. takes the form of a holographic projection of a young girl, whom he dubs Sage. Eggman tasks Sage with finding a way out of the digital realm while he explores. However, while doing so, Sage also takes it upon herself to dissuade Sonic from freeing his friends, whom she imprisoned after they all arrived on
2816-404: A form of health , and a simple control scheme, with jumping and attacking controlled by a single button. Development began in 1990 when Sega ordered its developers to create a game featuring a mascot for the company. The developers chose a blue hedgehog designed by Naoto Ohshima after he won an internal character design contest, and named themselves Sonic Team to match their character. It uses
2992-687: A hedgehog is. According to Mark Cerny , who worked in Tokyo as an intermediary between the Japanese and American Sega offices, the American staff felt the character was "unsalvageable". They made plans to educate Sonic Team on character design with the work of Will Vinton , the creator of the California Raisins . They proposed a full-scale recreation of the character, but compromised with Sonic Team to simply make design changes for western audiences. The antagonist
3168-619: A larger focus on exploration, with no vertical loops, and Sonic cannot re-collect his rings after being hit. The game has a different soundtrack composed by Yuzo Koshiro , which includes adaptations of music from the original version. It was the final game released for the Master System in North America. The Master System version was re-released for Wii 's Virtual Console service in North America and Europe in August 2008. The Game Gear version
3344-483: A novel technique that allows Sonic's sprite to roll along curved scenery which was based on a concept by Oshima from 1989. Sonic the Hedgehog , designed for fast gameplay, was influenced by games by Super Mario series creator Shigeru Miyamoto . The music was composed by Masato Nakamura , bassist of the J-pop band Dreams Come True . Sonic the Hedgehog received positive reviews for its visuals, audio and gameplay and
3520-505: A number of her former cast members, including the villain ( Arte Johnson ), Johnny Brown , Judy Carne , Henry Gibson , Gary Owens and Joanne Worley . Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) features cameos by dozens of actors from Hollywood's golden age. The Player (1992) features cameos from 65 Hollywood actors. Run for Your Wife (2012) is filled with cameos from 80 of Britain's film and TV stars from
3696-499: A playable character in all of the Mario & Sonic titles, and as one of the two main villains (alongside Bowser ) in the Story Mode of Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics for Nintendo DS , London 2012 Olympics for Nintendo 3DS , and Tokyo 2020 Olympics for Nintendo Switch . Eggman also appears in the crossover title Lego Dimensions , with Mike Pollock reprising his role as part of
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#17330661684823872-652: A playable character in an upgraded version of Origins . Sonic the Hedgehog has been available for all three major seventh-generation video game consoles . It was part of the Wii Virtual Console at the service's 2006 introduction, and was released for the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network shortly afterwards. The game was released for the iPod Classic , iPod video , and video-capable iPod Nano models in 2007 and for Apple's iOS in April 2009. Sonic
4048-413: A rage. In Sonic Colors , Eggman is again the main antagonist. He initially claims to seek forgiveness for his past transgressions, and attempts to make amends by opening up an interstellar theme park , chaining together several planets to be used as attractions within the main planet's orbit. However, it becomes clear that the park is merely a front for Eggman's true intentions, which involve harnessing
4224-604: A renowned authority on robotics. Ultimately, his goal is to conquer the world and create his ultimate "utopia", the Eggman Empire (alternatively known as the Robotnik Empire, Eggmanland, Robotnikland, or Robotropolis). He selfishly never gives up on this matter and does not care for others' opinions, and considers those who would interrupt his plans a prime threat. His abominable laughter and maniacal declarations contrast with his self-professed softer side, describing himself as
4400-589: A rival to Nintendo's mascot Mario . For the next three years, programmers and designers at Sega worked on a brand character to rival Mario. In 1990, Sega ordered its in-house development studio to develop a game featuring a mascot for the company. Sega's president Hayao Nakayama wanted a character as iconic as Mickey Mouse . The team developed ideas for characters, an engine , and gameplay mechanics . Development emphasized speed, so Sega considered fast creatures such as kangaroos and squirrels and eliminated designs not associated with fast animals. One idea,
4576-467: A robot frees the animal, but is not necessary to complete the game. The player must also avoid touching spikes, falling into bottomless pits, being crushed by moving walls or platforms, and drowning, which may be prevented by breathing air bubbles from vents. Sonic's main means of attack is the spin attack, in which he curls into a ball and spins his body, damaging enemies and certain obstacles upon collision. This may be performed by jumping or rolling. At
4752-564: A romanticist, feminist , and gentleman. Although Sonic has always ruined his evil plans, Eggman begrudgingly holds a secret respect for his determination. Additionally, while he is normally enemies with Sonic and his friends, Eggman has worked alongside them to combat greater threats, such as the Space Colony ARK crashing into the Earth in Sonic Adventure 2 , or against rival villains, such as
4928-611: A short appearance as a street thug who confronts Pee-wee in the back alley in Pee-wee's Big Adventure , and a visitor at the fair in Blackpool who gets a skeleton thrown at him in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children . Director Martin Scorsese appears in the background of his films as a bystander or an unseen character . In Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967), he played one of
5104-619: A short appearance in the credits of Domino , while the real Erin Brockovich had a cameo as a waitress named Julia in the eponymous movie (where her role is played by the actress Julia Roberts ). Sophie Wilson had a cameo as a barmaid in Micro Men , which shows her work for Acorn Computers . In a flashback sequence in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas , Raoul Duke (played by Johnny Depp ) runs into
5280-555: A signal on Angel Island, revealed to be a gem with mysterious reality-warping powers, the Phantom Ruby. Robotnik's elite Egg-Robo squad, the "Hard Boiled Heavies", is mutated by it and transports Team Sonic to zones they visited in the past. Robotnik uses the Phantom Ruby to once again turn the Little Planet from Sonic CD into a high-tech base via time travel once more, but Team Sonic undoes his plans. If all seven Emeralds are gathered,
5456-461: A spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate . The only game to feature Robotnik as the central character is the 1993 puzzle game Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine , in which Robotnik's Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog's version, along with his numerous Badnik bounty hunters seen in the first episode of the same show, attempts to get rid of all the fun and music on the planet Mobius by kidnapping
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5632-434: A successful franchise , and adaptations into other media. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was released in 1992. Sonic the Hedgehog is a 2D side-scrolling platform game . The gameplay centers on Sonic the Hedgehog's ability to run at high speed through levels that include springs, slopes, bottomless pits and vertical loops . The levels are populated with robot enemies, inside which Dr. Robotnik has trapped animals; destroying
5808-408: A time attack mode and the unlockable option to play as Tails or Knuckles ; it additionally features a heavily expanded debug mode , which allows for use of unused elements and elements from more recent games (such as the characters' super forms ). The iOS version was updated in 2016, adding compatibility with Apple TV . A Nintendo 3DS version, 3D Sonic the Hedgehog , was released as part of
5984-567: Is a 1991 platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Genesis/Mega Drive . It was released in North America on June 23 and in PAL regions and Japan the following month. Players control Sonic the Hedgehog , who can run at near supersonic speeds; Sonic sets out on a quest to defeat Dr. Robotnik , a scientist who has imprisoned animals in robots and seeks the powerful Chaos Emeralds . The gameplay involves collecting rings as
6160-610: Is able to re-launch the Death Egg, but it fails to enter orbit before Sonic sends it crashing back down into the Lava Reef Zone. Robotnik later reveals his true plan to Knuckles after stealing the Master Emerald during a fight between Sonic and Knuckles, and gets the Death Egg into space once again in Sonic & Knuckles . With help from a now-allied Knuckles, Sonic is able to chase the mad scientist into space and completely destroy
6336-486: Is also a playable character in the Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood RPG . Eggman is the villain of the murder mystery game The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog . Cameo appearance A cameo appearance , also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo ( / ˈ k æ m i oʊ / ), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of
6512-541: Is famous for making short cameo appearances in almost every movie based on his novels. An Adventure in Space and Time , a drama about how Doctor Who began, features many actors from the show's past , including two past companions in a party scene, another as a mother calling her children in for dinner and a fourth in a car park at the BBC as a guard. In the movie adaptation of Les Miserables , Colm Wilkinson , who originated
6688-494: Is followed by another new character, Amy Rose , only for Metal Sonic to kidnap her. Fighting Robotnik and recovering the Time Stones, Sonic eventually beats his robotic doppelgänger and rescues Amy, later defeating Robotnik for the last time. In the bad ending, Robotnik is seen flying away with a Time Stone, but is shot down by a rock thrown by Sonic; however, a time paradox reverts the Little Planet back to its mechanized state. In
6864-532: Is hit without holding any rings, he loses a life. Shields and temporary invincibility can be collected to provide additional layers of protection, but certain hazards, such as drowning, being crushed, falling into bottomless pits, or running out of time, kill Sonic regardless of rings or other protection. The game is split into six principal zones , followed by a short Final Zone. Each main zone has its own visual style, and while some enemies appear throughout, each zone has unique enemies and obstacles. Each main zone
7040-462: Is intercepted by Sonic and new character Miles "Tails" Prower, who save the animals and retrieve the Chaos Emeralds before Robotnik does. Sonic raids the Death Egg, first fighting a robotic recreation of himself dubbed Mecha Sonic before fighting Robotnik again in a mechanical battlesuit resembling the doctor. After his defeat, the Death Egg is sent out of orbit . Following the events of Sonic 2 ,
7216-609: Is once again the main antagonist, but it is discovered that he was betrayed and captured by his own creation Metal Sonic , who disguised himself as Eggman and had taken control of the Egg Fleet for his own world domination plans. Eggman is an opportunist who tries to gather the Chaos Emeralds in the middle of the Black Arms' invasion of Earth in Shadow the Hedgehog . He is an ally or an enemy of Shadow, but ends up sending his robots to help stop
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7392-558: Is one of the main antagonists in Sonic Unleashed . Eggman ensnares Super Sonic in a trap and uses his Chaos Emerald energy to power a gigantic laser cannon, which shatters the Earth to pieces and frees Dark Gaia, the beast contained within. He spends most of the game collecting Dark Gaia's power as well as fighting Sonic with various machines, and much like the original games, flies off in his Egg Mobile when defeated. Unlike many previous games, Eggman actually assumes control of his plans at
7568-447: Is right, every loop-the-loop is perfect, and you're in the flow, sailing above the game's strange structure ... Sonic is incorrect game design and yet ... it's a masterpiece." Primarily because of its Genesis bundling, Sonic the Hedgehog was a factor in popularising the console in North America, thus solidifying it as a competitor to Nintendo and their Super Nintendo Entertainment System . During October–December 1991, with
7744-403: Is seemingly vaporized, but takes the Phantom Ruby for himself to power a new war mech, only to once again be defeated by Sonic, Classic Sonic, and the rookie, destroying his mech and the Phantom Ruby for good and breaking the Eggman Empire's hold on the world. In Sonic Frontiers , Eggman engages Amy Rose in a battle mech, with Sonic and Tails arriving to help her out. After destroying the mech,
7920-410: Is something I actually did in the Sonic Adventure series. I made it so that we understand the character's name is Robotnik, but his nickname is Eggman, and as far as everyone is concerned in the world now, we're just going to call him Eggman as his official name. The English instruction manual for his debut game Sonic the Hedgehog described the character's full name as "Doctor Ivo Robotnik", while
8096-425: Is split into three acts, all of which must be completed. At the end of each main zone's third act, the player confronts Dr. Robotnik for a boss fight . For most of the fights, Robotnik's vehicle is fitted with different weapons. After completing the sixth zone, the player continues to the single-level Final Zone for a last encounter with Robotnik inside a large machine environment. Destroying Robotnik's machine ends
8272-516: Is then forced to work with Sonic and Tails, as the Deadly Six plan to use his extractor to drain all of the world's energy to increase their power. However, in the final stage, Eggman ultimately overshadows the antagonistic role of the Deadly Six and is fought as the final boss of the game, using the energy gathered by the extractor to power a giant mech to rule whatever remains of the desiccated world. After Sonic defeats him, Eggman tries to retreat, but finds that his jetpack has been sabotaged by Sonic. In
8448-505: Is unknown. Sonic Team's Yuji Uekawa redesigned Eggman and other series characters for Sonic Adventure in 1998. Eggman's updated design added goggles to his head and gave him a more detailed red lab coat . For the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog game, Eggman was further redesigned, being made slimmer and more realistic to better suit the game's updated environment. Eggman is described as a certifiable genius with an IQ of 300. His fondness for electrical and mechanical machines has also made him
8624-489: Is widely considered one of the greatest video games . It sold approximately 24 million copies, becoming one of the best-selling video games . On the Genesis, which it was bundled with, it sold 15 million copies, making it the best-selling Genesis game . It established the Genesis as a key player in the 16-bit era and made it competitive with the Super NES . It has been ported to multiple systems and inspired several clones ,
8800-528: The Lethal Weapon franchise also directed by Donner – appears as the lead bank robber . He and Maverick (Gibson) share a scene where they look as if they knew each other, but then shake it off. As Glover makes his escape with the money, he mutters "I'm too old for this shit", his character's catchphrase in the Lethal Weapon films. In addition, a strain of the main theme from Lethal Weapon plays in
8976-598: The $ 200–300 million typically grossed by a blockbuster movie at the time. The original version bundled with the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive hardware had sold over 15 million copies as of February 2009 . The mobile game version also had eight million paid downloads by 2008, 482,960 units were sold on Xbox Live Arcade as of 2011 , and over 500,000 paid Android downloads were sold between 2013 and 2016, bringing total sales to approximately 24 million copies sold worldwide across all platforms. Sonic
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#17330661684829152-458: The 3D Classics line in 2013. This version, unlike most downloadable re-releases of the game, is not emulated ; rather, the code was restructured to take advantage of the 3DS system's stereoscopic 3D graphics and comes with additional enhancements, such as the option to use the Spin Dash move, a CRT -style filter, and the option to start from any level. With its sequels for the Genesis, Sonic
9328-560: The Mega Drive is capable of "beautiful things" in the technical department. Reviewers praised the colorful, detailed graphics. Rand called its color scheme "lively, but never garish", praising the interaction of color with detail in the sprites, backgrounds, and animations and describing its graphics as the best available for the Mega Drive. Reviewer Boogie Man of GamePro called the intricate backgrounds "eye-popping" and "gorgeous", which
9504-465: The PAL regions and Japan the following month. In November 1991, Sega of America included Sonic as a pack-in game with American Genesis consoles, replacing Altered Beast . This enabled Sega of America to sell 15 million Genesis units. Genesis owners who bought their consoles before the switch could request free copies of Sonic the Hedgehog by mail. Sega of America created a marketing campaign, making Sonic its new mascot. A version of Sonic
9680-630: The Sega Dreamcast . He went on to voice him in further games in the series, with his last performance being in Sonic Advance 3 before his death in early 2005. Mike Pollock , who first voiced Eggman in the English dub of Sonic X , succeeded Bristow beginning with Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Rush in 2005. While it was announced that the rest of the cast would be replaced from Sonic Free Riders onward in 2010, Pollock retained his role, making him
9856-571: The Sega Genesis game Sonic the Hedgehog progressed, however, programmer Yuji Naka and the rest of the Sonic Team thought the rejected design was excellent and deserved inclusion in the game. Since the character could not be the protagonist, the team retooled him into the game's main antagonist. In developing Eggman, the Sonic Team characterized him as Sonic's opposite. Eggman was designed to represent themes of "machinery" and "development" to play on
10032-656: The Sonic platform games, Eggman starred in the puzzle game Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (1993). Chikao Ohtsuka and Kotaro Nakamura have voiced Eggman in Japan, while Mike Pollock has provided his English voice since 2003. Eggman is one of the most famous video game characters and an established pop culture icon. He is widely considered one of the greatest and most iconic video game villains. His likeness has been featured in Sonic merchandise, and he has been adapted in comics , animations , and films. Jim Carrey portrays him in
10208-421: The avian inhabitants of an island into robots in yet another search for the Chaos Emeralds. Robotnik/Eggman is also a playable character in games such as Sonic Drift , Drift 2 , R , Riders (as well as its sequels Zero Gravity and Free Riders ), SEGA Superstars Tennis , Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing , Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed , and Team Sonic Racing . He appears as
10384-416: The performing arts . These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly either appearances in a work in which they hold some special significance (such as actors from an original movie appearing in its remake) or renowned people making uncredited appearances. Short appearances by celebrities , film directors , politicians , athletes or musicians are common. A crew member of
10560-466: The review aggregator GameRankings based on nine reviews published online in the 2000s. Sonic the Hedgehog has maintained its popularity, and has since been considered one of the greatest video games of all time . Frank Provo of GameSpot described the game as "one of the best platformers of all time", finding that despite technical issues in the Game Boy Advance port "after all these years,
10736-476: The score when Glover is revealed. Actress Margot Kidder made a cameo appearance in the same film as a robbed villager: she had previously starred as Lois Lane in Donner's Superman (1978). Ben Stiller , Vince Vaughn , Owen Wilson , Luke Wilson and Will Ferrell have made appearances in so many of the same films (whether as lead characters or cameos) that USA Today coined the term " Frat Pack " to name
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#173306616848210912-620: The "Veg-O-Fortress", setting up an elaborate pinball mechanism to keep the Chaos Emeralds safe. After the Veg-O-Machine is destroyed, Mount Mobius begins to crumble, and once the final boss is defeated, the doctor falls into the mountain, which sinks into the ocean. Robotnik has also appeared in "2.5D" isometric platformers; in Sonic Labyrinth , he secretly replaces Sonic's famous red shoes with "Slow-Down Boots", which take away his ability to jump or run fast, and in Sonic 3D Blast , he turns
11088-431: The "catchy" soundtrack, calling some of the sound effects "absolutely brilliant". Although Mean Machines called the songs "vaguely appealing", the sound effects were better appreciated. However, Boardman of Raze considered the music "a little boring". Critics cited the fast gameplay, unprecedented in platformers. The difficulty was disputed, described as "impossible" by Rand and "average" by EGM . Rand said about
11264-512: The 1960s, '70s and '80s. Aaron Sorkin also had cameos in some works he wrote: as a bar customer speaking about the law in his debut film screenplay A Few Good Men (1992), as an advertising executive in The Social Network , and as a guest at the inauguration of President Matt Santos in the final episode of The West Wing . Franco Nero , the actor who portrayed the Django character in
11440-480: The 8-bit version. An enhanced port for the Sega CD was also planned, but was canceled in favor of Sonic CD . Sonic the Hedgehog was a commercial success. It became America's best-selling video game for several months in 1991, outselling Super Mario . By Christmas 1991, Sonic the Hedgehog had sold nearly 1 million game cartridges in the United States. It was also Blockbuster Video 's highest-renting game of
11616-522: The Acro-Bat , James Pond 3 , Earthworm Jim , Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel , and Radical Rex . "Animal with attitude" games carried over to the next generation of consoles, with the developers of Crash Bandicoot and Gex citing Sonic as a major inspiration. Sonic 's success led to an extensive media franchise , with the first of many sequels, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 , released
11792-506: The Ancients' technology with his own, Eggman is able to reawaken Sage's consciousness in his own neural network, to his relief. Robotnik appears in Sonic Chaos , Triple Trouble , Blast and Pocket Adventure , as well as the 8-bit renditions of Sonic 1 and 2 . In Sonic Spinball , a pinball -themed game, Robotnik seizes Mount Mobius and turns it into a mechanical base called
11968-705: The Cat, to an arranged tournament to stop him from destroying landmarks throughout the planet Mobius with the Death Egg's arsenal in Sonic the Fighters . Sonic defeats all opponents and ascends to the Death Egg II to fight Metal Sonic and then Robotnik in a walking melee-modified Eggmobile, resulting in Robotnik's defeat and the Death Egg II's destruction. In Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I (set after Sonic 3 & Knuckles ), Sonic goes traveling on his own, not knowing Eggman survived
12144-689: The Chameleon, and Charmy Bee, alongside two friendly robots called Heavy and Bomb. Working together, Knuckles and the Chaotix use specialized power rings to work more effectively in tandem, collecting the Chaos Rings scattered throughout the Isolated Island, culminating in a battle with Metal Sonic, who Robotnik empowers with the Dark Ring into a hulking bestial form dubbed Metal Sonic Kai. The heroes manage to destroy
12320-736: The Classic Era bosses, the Modern Era bosses, and the final bosses during the game. Each Eggman uses a different mech: Classic Eggman with the Death Egg Robot from Sonic 2 and Modern Eggman with a redesigned Egg Dragoon from Unleashed . In the handheld version, they use the Big Arm mech from Sonic 3 and the Egg Emperor from Heroes , respectively. Unfortunately for the duo, the Time Eater is defeated when both Classic and Modern Sonic become Super Sonic. In
12496-399: The Death Egg crash-lands onto Angel Island, sustaining critical damage. While repairing the space station, Robotnik meets Knuckles the Echidna , who he tricks into thinking Sonic and Tails are villains who are after the powerful Master Emerald that Knuckles protects with his life in Sonic 3 . Knuckles steals the Chaos Emeralds from Sonic and constantly interferes with Sonic's plans. Robotnik
12672-488: The Death Egg. Robotnik makes one last attempt to escape with the Master Emerald, but Super Sonic defeats him. Afterward, as a contingency plan, an Egg-Robo—a Badnik designed in his likeness who survived the destruction of the Death Egg—is programmed by Robotnik to menace Knuckles in revenge for the echidna's role in his defeat. The Egg-Robo lures Knuckles through Angel Island's zones in rebuilt war machines before leading him to
12848-452: The Duke of Soleanna, Elise's father, and the time-traveling Shadow and Silver. Once again, Eggman is forced to assist the heroes during the last act. In this game, he was given more realistic human proportions; this new look for Eggman has not been used since, as his physical appearance was reverted to what it looked like in Sonic Adventure in his later appearances. Eggman, along with Dark Gaia,
13024-579: The Flames of Disaster within her, in order to control time in the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog game , serving as the main antagonist of Sonic's story, while Mephiles the Dark and Iblis the Inferno serve as the villains of Shadow's and Silver's stories respectively. The latter two villains use the Chaos Emeralds to merge into their true form Solaris, Soleanna's vengeful patron deity who seeks recompense for being experimented on by
13200-521: The Flower Moon , in a minor role as a radio drama narrator. In a same way, Roman Polanski appeared as a hired hoodlum in his film Chinatown , slitting Jack Nicholson's nose with the blade of his clasp knife. F. Gary Gray has made many appearances in the films he has directed including Friday , Set It Off , Law Abiding Citizen , and Straight Outta Compton . Directors sometimes cast well-known lead actors with whom they have worked in
13376-559: The Heavy King will try to take the gem from his creator in an interdimensional void, but Super Sonic takes it away from them and is sucked into a portal along with it. Diverting his attention from Sonic and Tails, Robotnik builds a new Metal Sonic and locates a new island that surfaced due to the Master Emerald's power, which holds a group of power rings with nigh-identical power to the Chaos Emeralds, dubbed Chaos Rings, in Knuckles' Chaotix . On
13552-680: The Hedgehog , Jim Cummings in Sonic the Hedgehog (where he also voiced the character in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog ' s unaired pilot), Edwin Neal in Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie , Garry Chalk in Sonic Underground , and Brian Drummond in Sonic Prime . Deem Bristow was the first English-language actor to portray Eggman in a video game, debuting in Sonic Adventure for
13728-405: The Hedgehog , where he attempts to steal six of the seven Chaos Emeralds and aims to turn all of the helpless animals inhabiting South Island into robots under his control. Sonic manages to defeat Robotnik and returns peace to South Island. In Sonic CD , Robotnik introduces Metal Sonic , a robot meant to match Sonic's abilities. While following the doctor once again to stop his schemes, Sonic
13904-615: The Hedgehog became available on GameTap in September 2009. In October 2010, it was released on Windows via Steam . The game was ported to Android and released in December 2012. Additionally, it is an unlockable reward in the console versions of Sonic Generations . The 2013 remaster was made available on the Sega Forever service on iOS and Android in June 2017. A port for Nintendo Switch
14080-636: The Hedgehog has been ported for a wide range of home and handheld consoles and personal computers through compilations. The first collection it appeared in was Sonic Compilation (1995) for the Genesis. It has since appeared in Sonic Jam (1997) for the Saturn , Sonic Mega Collection (2002) for the GameCube , Sonic Mega Collection Plus (2004) for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox , Sega Genesis Collection for
14256-430: The Hedgehog is one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time, with over 140 million copies sold or downloaded worldwide across consoles, PC's, mobile phones and tablets by May 2014. The game's first level, Green Hill Zone , has been featured in later games such as Sonic Adventure 2 , Sonic Generations , Sonic Mania , Sonic Forces , and the Super Smash Bros. series. The game inspired
14432-461: The Hedgehog was developed by Ancient and released in late 1991 for Sega's 8-bit consoles, the Master System and Game Gear . Its plot and gameplay mechanics are similar to the 16-bit version, though some level themes and digital assets are different and Chaos Emeralds are scattered throughout levels rather than bonus stages. Gameplay as a whole is simplified; the level design is flatter and has
14608-479: The Hedgehog was praised by critics, with scores above 90% from most video game magazines at the time. It was considered Sega's answer to Nintendo's widely popular Mario series, as it was a platformer featuring the company's mascot. In a preview following its CES debut in January 1991, John Cook of Computer and Video Games called it the most impressive game at the show and said it was "another jumpy jumpy game in
14784-597: The Japanese version's instruction manual for the same game called him "Doctor Eggman". It was not until 1999's Sonic Adventure that the character was called both "Eggman" and "Robotnik" in the English version, with the following English releases primarily referring to him as "Eggman". Yuji Naka has explained that "Robotnik" is the character's true last name, while "Eggman" is a nickname alluding to his shape. Since then, multiple English-language sources have acknowledged Ivo Robotnik as his true name and Eggman as his nickname, with Sonic Frontiers establishing his acceptance of
14960-560: The Marauders in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood , though after these threats have been neutralized, Eggman returns to being an enemy of Sonic. Eggman has served as the main antagonist in the majority of video games set in the Sonic the Hedgehog universe. Most Sonic games released before Sonic Adventure featured him as the final boss that the player fights at the end of the game. Robotnik also appears as
15136-483: The Mario mould, but with an astonishing turn of speed and great music." Upon release, Paul Rand of Computer and Video Games compared the two in depth and characterized Sonic the Hedgehog as being faster, with brighter colors and Super Mario World as having more "depth of play". Frank Ladoire of Génération 4 [ fr ] believed Sonic the Hedgehog was part of a new generation of games that demonstrate that
15312-652: The PlayStation 2 and PSP , Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (2009) for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 , Sonic Classic Collection (2010) for the Nintendo DS , Oculus Arcade for the Oculus Rift , and Sega Genesis Classics (2018) for Microsoft Windows , the PlayStation 4 , Xbox One and Nintendo Switch . The 2013 remaster was included in the 2022 compilation Sonic Origins . This remaster saw Amy Rose becoming
15488-598: The Sky Sanctuary Zone, revealing that Mecha Sonic Mk.2, a stronger robotic duplicate of Sonic, had stolen the Master Emerald once more while the Egg-Robo kept him distracted. After destroying the Egg-Robo, Knuckles defeats Mecha Sonic despite its use of the Master Emerald's power to achieve a Super Mode. Knuckles recovers the Master Emerald and is taken back to Angel Island by Sonic in the latter's biplane . In Sonic Mania , Robotnik (referred to as "Classic Eggman") detects
15664-644: The Sniper in Japan and Europe) in Sonic Triple Trouble , with Sonic and Tails combating both Knuckles, Nack, and a rebuilt Metal Sonic, before the duo convince Knuckles of the mad doctor's treachery and defeat him once more. Robotnik rebuilds a smaller Death Egg and, alongside Nack and his two cronies Bean the Dynamite and Bark the Polar Bear, challenges Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Espio, and independent contender Honey
15840-483: The Starfall Islands, as she is aware of unknown but devastating consequences that would result from his mission. Throughout the journey, Sage slowly becomes influenced by Sonic's compassion and loyalty to his friends and the world as a whole. As such, Sage develops an affectionate regard for Eggman, coming to address him as "father", and he in turn begins to regard her as his "daughter". Despite her efforts to galvanize
16016-558: The Titans, the Ancients' guardian robots who protect the Chaos Emeralds, against the heroic hedgehog, Super Sonic is able to destroy all three and free Tails, Amy, and Knuckles, but in doing so, releases a malevolent cosmic entity known only as the End. The End had destroyed the Ancients' homeworld centuries ago and was imprisoned in Cyber Space by the four leaders of the beings, but had managed to manipulate Sonic into freeing it. Sonic becomes corrupted by
16192-408: The United States. While the port is mostly identical to the original, it includes several new features not seen in the original Genesis release, such as the ability to save game progress and the inclusion of the Spin Dash move. This version, unlike others, received poor reviews, with a Metacritic score of 33/100. The chief complaints concerned its poor conversion to the Game Boy Advance, resulting in
16368-523: The action was restricted to the titular lifeboat, Hitchcock appeared in a newspaper ad. Quentin Tarantino provides brief cameos or small roles in all his movies. Likewise, Peter Jackson has made brief cameos in all of his movies, except for his first feature-length film Bad Taste in which he played a main character, as well as The Battle of the Five Armies , though a portrait of him appears in
16544-653: The alien menace in the end. As Shadow interrogates Eggman for information regarding his past, he is met with taunts from Eggman, who claims that Shadow is one of his androids . In some of the game's possible endings, Shadow accepts being an android and kills Eggman. However, in the Last Story during Shadow's final fight with Black Doom, Eggman admits to lying about everything he said about Shadow; he had used one of his robots to rescue Shadow from his apparent death, despite not giving further explanation how Shadow lost his memories. Eggman kidnaps Princess Elise of Soleanna, who harbors
16720-540: The author of a work to put a sort of personal "signature" on a story. Vladimir Nabokov often put himself in his novels, for instance as the very minor character Vivian Darkbloom (an anagram of his name) in Lolita . Cameos are also a tradition of the Muppets ' many projects over the years. Alfred Hitchcock is known for his frequent cameos in his movies , as early as in his third film The Lodger (1927). In Lifeboat , as
16896-473: The awards for Best Video Game and Going Live Viewers Award. In 1992, Mega ranked Sonic as their third-favorite Genesis game. In 1995, Flux rated the game fourth in its "Top 100 Video Games." In 1996, GamesMaster ranked the game 78th on their "Top 100 Games of All Time." In 2016, The Strong National Museum of Play inducted Sonic the Hedgehog to its World Video Game Hall of Fame . Retrospective reception has been positive, with an 86% rating at
17072-584: The carrot eating peasant in The Desolation of Smaug was featured in the foreground in reference to The Fellowship of the Ring . In addition, when he was directing Heavenly Creatures (1994), he appeared as a drunk person bumping into the main characters, and in the Frighteners , Jackson appeared as a man with piercings with his real-life son in a bouncer. Director Tim Burton briefly appears in his films. He made
17248-444: The case of many film adaptations of television series, or of remakes of earlier films. Others honour artists or celebrities known for work in a particular field, such as comic book writer Stan Lee , who made appearances in every Marvel Cinematic Universe movie up to Avengers: Endgame . Cameos also occur in novels and other literary works. "Literary cameos" usually involve an established character from another work who makes
17424-559: The character. Eggman also appeared in Sonic and the Secret Rings , where he assumes the role of Shahryār of Persia . Eggman appeared in Sonic Rush and Rush Adventure , where he is once again the main antagonist, alongside a parallel version of himself called Eggman Nega . Eggman also appeared in Sonic Rivals 1 and 2 , with Eggman Nega appearing as the main villain. Eggman
17600-552: The citizens of an insignificant town and turning them into robots. Despite being the title character, he remains the villain and is the final boss. Sonic and the Black Knight is the only game in the entire Sonic franchise series in which Eggman does not make a physical appearance or receive mention. However, the game makes small references to the character, including a collectible item bearing his emblem, an in-game mission featuring his robots as enemies, and unlockable fan art of
17776-493: The colors. After this, four people came onto the team to speed development up. Due to the popularity of Mario, Naka wanted Sonic to take over the American market. Sonic's default speed was set to that of Mario while running. Tests were run using the Genesis' tool library, and problems such as flickering, slow frame rates, and shaky animation soon became apparent. Increasing Sonic's speed caused animation problems. Naka solved this by developing an algorithm retained fluidity. All that
17952-426: The cyber energy running through him as Amy, Tails, Knuckles, and Eggman are released from Cyber Space, with Eggman gloating at his nemesis' apparent demise. However, unwilling to leave him to his fate, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles sacrifice their freedom to restore Sonic to normal, and with Sage's help, battle and eventually destroy the End at its full power, but at the apparent cost of Sage's life. However, after integrating
18128-408: The destruction of the Death Egg. Eggman is the main boss in this game and its direct follow-up, Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II , where he revives Metal Sonic and encases the Little Planet in a Death Egg with Sonic and Tails setting out to stop him. In Sonic Adventure , Robotnik learns of a legendary monster trapped in the Master Emerald named Chaos , and shatters the gemstone, freeing Chaos in
18304-594: The development team: They just kind of went off and did it. It became super popular and everyone in the West kind of learned about the character as Robotnik. That went on through the "classic" series in the Genesis/Mega Drive era, but as far as the developers are concerned... we really didn't want to have anyone in the [Sonic] universe with two names. To us, he's Eggman, but in the rest of the world he's called Robotnik. We wanted to unify that into one name moving forward. This
18480-435: The different names by establishing "Eggman" as a derisive nickname that the character reclaimed. Eggman has appeared in almost every Sonic game , sometimes as a player character . Sonic games characterize him as a maniacal roboticist who seeks to create his own empire . Despite his obsession with defeating Sonic, he secretly respects him, and the two are sometimes forced into alliances to overcome greater threats. Outside
18656-459: The eight-member team changed his name to "Sonic" and took the name Sonic Team . Ohshima said that "Sonic" was chosen because it represented speed. Ideas proposed to flesh out the character included placing him in a rock band, giving him vampire fangs, and giving him a human girlfriend named Madonna. Sega of America scrapped these ideas to keep his identity simple. Sega of America also expressed concerns that most Americans would not know what
18832-479: The emeralds himself. If the player collects all the Chaos Emeralds and completes the game, an ending sequence is shown. If all the emeralds are not collected, Robotnik taunts the player while juggling any of the Chaos Emeralds not collected by the player. In the 1980s, Sega had limited success with Genesis ports of its arcade games , but wanted a stronger foothold against its main competitor, Nintendo . In 1988, Sega of Japan began an in-house competition to create
19008-471: The end of the game by creating Eggmanland, and makes no effort to join forces with Sonic to stop his own plans once they have spiraled out of control. Still, Eggman suffers a defeat when he gives Dark Gaia a single order and is shot into the atmosphere by the creature. He is last seen having crashed in the Shamaran Desert and being mocked by his robot assistant SA-55 over his failure, only to chase it down in
19184-818: The energies of the alien Wisps for his plans to take over the universe. Unlike in most other 3D Sonic games, Eggman is the final boss, piloting an Eggmobile utilizing the Wisps' powers. After his defeat, a black hole consumes the entire park, taking Eggman with it. After the credits, Eggman is seen stranded in deep space inside the Eggmobile along with his two robot assistants Orbot and Cubot, stating he has his revenge plan laid out. Eggman appears in both his classic and modern designs in Sonic Generations . After his defeat in Sonic Colors , while stranded in space, Eggman comes across
19360-529: The film, and gave the term wide circulation outside the theatrical profession. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), an "epic comedy", also features cameos from nearly every popular American comedian alive at the time, including The Three Stooges , Jerry Lewis , Buster Keaton and a voice-only cameo by Selma Diamond . "Murder on High C", a 1975 episode of the TV series Get Christie Love! , which starred former Laugh-In cast member Teresa Graves , featured
19536-693: The film. For example, he played a peasant eating a carrot in The Fellowship of the Ring and The Desolation of Smaug , a warrior of Rohan in The Two Towers , and a Corsair of Umbar boatswain in The Return of the King . All four were non-speaking "blink and you miss him" appearances, although in the Extended Release version of The Return of the King , his character was given more screen time and his reprise of
19712-507: The following year. It has generated dozens of additional games and a large cast of recurring characters, keeping Sonic and Robotnik (later renamed as Eggman) mainstays, and continued beyond Sega's exit from the console industry after the Dreamcast . The series has ventured from platformers to fighting , racing , role-playing , and sports games , and also expanded into anime , manga , cartoons comic books , novels, and toys. Sonic
19888-518: The game an A+ and wrote that it was a very fast game, yet never felt chaotic or impossible, and they later named it the best game available in 1991. At the 1991 Golden Joystick Awards , Sonic the Hedgehog won Overall Game of the Year . In the 1991 Electronic Gaming Monthly awards, Sonic the Hedgehog won Game of the Year . At the European Computer Trade Show (ECTS) awards, it won
20064-415: The game was made to play quickly, which was where he focused most of his effort. Naka explained that the reason he wanted a fast game was that he had ported Ghouls 'n Ghosts , and wanted to work on its movement but found it slow. Sonic the Hedgehog was developed by a team of seven: two programmers, two sound engineers, and three designers, although it began with just Ohshima and Naka. People came onto
20240-469: The game's success, the Genesis outsold the SNES by two to one; at its January 1992 peak it gained a foothold in the industry and had 65 percent of the market for 16-bit consoles. Although Nintendo eventually overtook Sega, it was the first time since December 1985 that Nintendo did not lead the console market. Sonic the Hedgehog inspired similar platformers starring animal mascots, including Bubsy , Aero
20416-471: The game. A brief animation shows Sonic's return to the first zone, with animals liberated from Dr. Robotnik. If Sonic reaches the end of any zone's Act 1 or Act 2 while holding at least 50 rings, a large ring appears through which he can jump to enter a bonus stage . In them, Sonic is continually curled up in his Spin Attack animation, and bounces off the bumpers and walls of a fully rotating maze. In these levels,
20592-463: The gameplay in general that it "plays like a dream"; according to GameZone it would enchant players for hours, and Boogie Man praised Sonic Team's ability to provide an engaging experience primarily from running and jumping. Although EGM , Dragon , Paul of Mean Machines and Boardman of Raze praised the level design (especially the hidden rooms), Paul found losing all of one's rings frustrating. Bob Strauss of Entertainment Weekly gave
20768-621: The gangsters; he was a lighting crewman in After Hours and a passenger in Taxi Driver . He opened up his film The Color of Money with a monologue on the art of playing pool. In addition, he appeared with his wife and daughter as wealthy New Yorkers in Gangs of New York , and as a theatre-goer and can be heard as a movie projectionist in The Aviator . He also appeared in his 2023 work Killers of
20944-450: The good ending, the Little Planet is restored and released, disappearing again while emitting an image of Sonic's face in thanks. Robotnik returned in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 , where he once again seeks the Chaos Emeralds (soon finding out that there are seven, rather than six) to create the Death Egg, a huge space station in his likeness, in order to achieve world domination. He attacks West Side Island, turning its animals into robots, but
21120-400: The group. Actor Adam Sandler is also known for frequently casting fellow Saturday Night Live performers (including Rob Schneider and David Spade ) in various roles in his films (as well as making cameo appearances of his own in theirs, most of which he co-produces). Sam Raimi frequently uses his brother Ted and Bruce Campbell in his films. The American singer/actress Cher had
21296-488: The hardest part was working with the limited number of sounds that could play concurrently: he was limited to four, and said that his lack of knowledge of music on computers made it "impossible". He wrote the soundtrack concurrently with the Dreams Come True album Million Kisses . After he finished the compositions, they were digitized using an Atari ST and the program Notator. On October 19, 2011, over 20 years after
21472-408: The illusions created by his most recent ally to create mass destruction and scare the planet's population into submission. While waging war against a resistance militia led by Sonic's friends, he defeats Sonic with Infinite's powers, creating false duplicates of previous rivals (namely Shadow, Metal Sonic, Chaos, and Zavok), and keeps him as a prisoner. Sonic breaks free with the help of a new recruit of
21648-418: The inspiration of Michael Jackson 's boots on the album cover for Bad and the red and white color scheme of Santa Claus , whom Ohshima saw as the most "famous character in the world". Sonic's spikes were emphasized to make him sleeker, and he was given the ability to spin while jumping (so attacking and jumping could be controlled with one button). The new character was originally named "Mr. Hedgehog", but
21824-514: The island. Robotnik later captures Sonic and traps him in a labyrinth with speed-reducing sneakers in Sonic Labyrinth . Despite this, Sonic successfully traverses the labyrinth and gets his standard shoes back, with Robotnik retreating. Robotnik, once again pursuing the Emeralds, manages to trick Knuckles into working with him again, also enlisting the help of a bounty hunter named Nack the Weasel (Fang
22000-459: The level "Sonic Dimensions", in which he attempts to use the game's Keystone Devices to conquer multiple dimensions and defeat Sonic; a haunted parade balloon based on Eggman also appears as a boss in the game's Ghostbusters 2016 story pack's fourth level, "Breaking the Barrier". He appears as a trophy in both Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U , as well as
22176-470: The literal meaning of " cameo ", a miniature carving on a gemstone. More recently, in the late 20th century, a "cameo" has come to refer to any short appearance as a character. Cameos are generally not credited because of their brevity, or a perceived mismatch between the celebrity's stature and the film or television series in which they are appearing. Many are publicity stunts . Others are acknowledgements of an actor's contribution to an earlier work, as in
22352-475: The live-action film franchise distributed by Paramount Pictures . In 1990, Sega president Hayao Nakayama sought a flagship series to compete with Nintendo 's Mario franchise , along with a character to serve as a company mascot . Several character designs were submitted as part of a contest. Among the designs was a human character, who is seen wearing pajamas and resembled U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt , drawn by Naoto Ohshima . As development of
22528-471: The longest-serving voice actor to portray the character in any language. Jim Carrey was the first to portray Eggman in a live-action film, beginning with Sonic the Hedgehog in 2020. He reprised the role in the 2022 and 2024 sequels. Eggman's original design portrayed the character as a bald, rotund human wearing pince-nez sunglasses , a red flight suit with a yellow collar, a bushy mustache, and black pants with two white buttons. This rotund design
22704-501: The monstrous robot and free the island from the control of Robotnik, who retreats once more. In Sonic 3D Blast , Robotnik learns of an island home to a species of bird known as Flickies, who utilize Warp Ring technologies, and also discovers that Flicky Island currently hosts the Chaos Emeralds. Planning to capture the entire population of Flickies and roboticize them into a new army, Robotnik once again comes to blows with Sonic, who eventually defeats Robotnik yet again and drives him off
22880-410: The movie or show playing a minor role can be referred to as a cameo role as well, such as director Alfred Hitchcock who made frequent cameo appearances in his films. Originally, in the 1920s, a "cameo role" meant "a small character part that stands out from the other minor parts". The Oxford English Dictionary connects this with the meaning "a short literary sketch or portrait", which is based on
23056-409: The music industry and suggested his friend Yūzō Kayama write the Sonic score. However, Sonic Team did not think Kayama's music would fit, and so commissioned Masato Nakamura , bassist and songwriter of the J-pop band Dreams Come True . Nakamura said he was surprised, as he had just started with Dreams Come True, but accepted as he was inspired by the team's desire to outperform Nintendo. He said
23232-477: The name "Eggman" as a way to defy Sonic's mockery of him. While no Japanese-language video game has directly referred to the character as Robotnik, less direct usages of the name have occurred, namely a brief appearance of the text "Robotnik Empire" in the background of a cutscene in Sonic Adventure 2 and the use of " ロボトニック社 " ("Robotnik Corp.") as the name of his company in Sonic Riders . Eggman's true name
23408-461: The original 1966 film , appears in a bar scene of the Tarantino film Django Unchained . There, he asks Django ( Jamie Foxx ) to spell his name, which led to the famous promotional tagline for the film - "The 'D' is silent". Franco's character responds simply, "I know." Many cameos featured in Maverick (1994), directed by Richard Donner . Among them, Danny Glover – Mel Gibson 's co-star in
23584-453: The past in other films. In Jane Eyre (1943), Elizabeth Taylor makes a cameo appearance as Helen Burns, Jane's friend from school who dies from a cold. Mike Todd 's film Around the World in 80 Days (1956) was filled with cameo roles: John Gielgud as an English butler, Frank Sinatra playing piano in a saloon, and others. The stars in cameo roles were pictured in oval insets in posters for
23760-584: The player earns a number of continues for each multiple of 50 rings collected, but the main goal is to obtain the Chaos Emerald hidden within the maze. Colliding with any of the blocks marked "GOAL" ends the level. In his attempt to steal the six Chaos Emeralds and harness their power, Dr. Ivo Robotnik has trapped the animal inhabitants of South Island inside aggressive robots and stationary metal capsules. The player controls Sonic, who aims to thwart Robotnik's plans by freeing his animal friends and collecting
23936-480: The player runs out of lives, although the player may return to the beginning of the act with three lives if they have any continues . Scattered around each level are gold rings . Collecting 100 rings rewards the player with an extra life. Rings act as a layer of protection against hazards: if Sonic holds at least one ring when he collides with an enemy or dangerous obstacle, all his rings will scatter. He can recollect some of them again before they disappear. If he
24112-536: The post-credits cutscene, Eggman is shown to have survived the ensuing fall by landing on a soft patch of dirt. In Sonic Forces , after the Phantom Ruby ends up in the present following the events of Sonic Mania , Eggman captures a jackal bandit known as the Ultimate Mercenary, who tried to raid his base, and turns him into the new villain Infinite, imbued by a prototype he created from Phantom Ruby. Eggman uses
24288-519: The post-credits scene, both doctors wind up stranded in White Space with no apparent way out, leading Classic Eggman to suggest obtaining their teaching degrees once they escape. Modern Eggman agrees to this as he mentions that he "always enjoyed telling people what to do", although it is unknown if he is joking or serious. Eventually, both Classic and Modern Eggman somehow managed to escape White Space and return to their own time periods. Eggman travels to
24464-446: The process. Robotnik's goal is to control Chaos and obtain the Chaos Emeralds, which he can feed to Chaos so that it transforms into its most powerful form, using its destructive powers to destroy the city of Station Square in order to build his own "Robotnikland". However, Chaos turns against him and intends to collect the Chaos Emeralds for itself. Towards the end, Robotnik teams up with the heroes to defeat Chaos. Like other characters in
24640-555: The project for nearly a year. His designs for levels were intended to attract both hardcore and casual gamers by integrating occasional challenging set pieces into the mostly accessible level design. The color scheme was influenced by the work of pop artist Eizin Suzuki, and the aesthetics of Green Hill were influenced by the geography of California . In designing the gameplay, Naka was inspired by Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto , whose games he had enjoyed playing years earlier. Admiring
24816-493: The real investor Michael Burry appeared as an employee of his hedge fund "Scion Capital" while answering the phone saying "Doctor Burry's office". An unusual example of a famous non-actor being given a small but speaking fictional role occurred in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode " Second Chances ." Dr. Mae Jemison , an astronaut , the first Black woman in space, and a long-time fan of Star Trek ,
24992-419: The real-life Hunter S. Thompson , upon whom the character of Duke is based, leading him to remark "There I was...mother of God, there I am! Holy fuck." Stephen Hawking in popular culture lists more than a dozen appearances of the scientist playing himself. Maria Von Trapp made an uncredited brief cameo appearance in the film version of her life, The Sound of Music . She appeared in the background during
25168-417: The release, a three-disc compilation of music from Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was released in Japan. The first disc features original tracks from both games, the second contains Nakamura's demo recordings before they were programmed into the Genesis, and the third has songs by Dreams Come True and their associated Akon remixes. Game-package illustrator Akira Watanabe said that his goal
25344-411: The resistance (the game's custom character ). He rejoins with his friends six months later, forming a coalition to overthrow Eggman's rule, once again joined by Classic Sonic. When the two Sonics and the rookie confront Eggman and Infinite, the villains attempt to imprison them within the Phantom Ruby's pocket dimension, only for the two hedgehogs to escape and confront Infinite for the last time. Infinite
25520-500: The right time and because they saw an opportunity to "steal the show". Sonic the Hedgehog was believed to be the most impressive game at the show and won the CES award for innovation. Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske wanted reassurance that the character would not fail. The global head of marketing, Al Nilsen, and the senior product manager, Madeleine Schroeder, became involved in redesigning Sonic for American audiences. Artist Greg Martin
25696-623: The role of Jean Valjean in the West End and on Broadway, made a cameo as the Bishop of Digne . In the Soviet film Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears , Innokenty Smoktunovsky appeared for a minute as himself. Films based on actual events occasionally include cameo guest appearances by the people portrayed in them. In The Pursuit of Happyness , Chris Gardner made a cameo at the end. 24 Hour Party People ,
25872-449: The series, Robotnik was redesigned for this game; here he calls himself "Robotnik", with Sonic and friends calling him "Eggman" as a nickname. Sonic Adventure 2 marks the doctor's first appearance as a playable character , as well as the first game where he is primarily referred to (and refers to himself) as "Eggman" in all regions. Eggman revives the antihero Shadow the Hedgehog from dormancy. Shadow, knowing Eggman's desire to rule
26048-460: The simplicity of Miyamoto's mechanics in complex environments, Naka decided that Sonic would be controlled with only a directional pad for movement and a single button for jumping. He also wanted his creation to be more action -oriented than the Mario series; while playing Super Mario Bros. , he had wondered why the levels could not be cleared more quickly. Ohshima, Naka and Yasuhara worked 19 hours
26224-464: The so-called Isolated Island, Robotnik endeavors to use the Chaos Rings to forge corrupted "Dark Rings" and builds a hub that opens conduits to the island's Zones. Knuckles also ventures to the island, hoping to find out about his unknown heritage, but discovers Robotnik's schemes and aims to stop him. Knuckles is joined by a group of detectives known as the Chaotix, consisting of Vector the Crocodile, Espio
26400-725: The song "I Have Confidence" with her daughter Rosmarie and stepson Werner Von Trapp. Jacqueline Susann , author of the best-selling novel Valley of the Dolls , appears as a TV reporter in a brief scene in the film based upon her novel . Tom Morello , American guitarist and musician, made an appearance in the Marvel film Iron Man (2008), in which he also participated in the soundtrack . Elon Musk and Larry Ellison , both founders of large technology companies, were featured in cameos in Iron Man 2 (2010). The king of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf ,
26576-430: The start of the game, the player is given three lives , which may be lost if Sonic collides with hazardous enemies or objects while in possession of no rings, falls to the bottom of the level screen, or exceeds an act's ten-minute time limit. Signposts act as checkpoints to allow Sonic to return to the most recently activated post when he loses a life. The time resets when he returns to the checkpoint. The game ends when
26752-437: The team as the need for content increased. After being assigned a project with the code name "Defeat Mario", Ohshima and Naka began work, but encountered problems: Ohshima's Rabbit proved hard to program. Catching items and throwing them caused the action's rhythm to break. Naka stated that the rabbit was not suitable for his game engine, and he also wanted the game to be playable with only one button. Hirokazu Yasuhara came onto
26928-435: The team to supervise Ohshima and Naka and develop levels. He became the lead designer due to his greater experience, and found the way to make the game playable with only one button by having Sonic do damage by jumping. The trio came up with the idea of him rolling into a ball. After the hedgehog character was chosen, many characters were redrawn, and the team agreed on the environments' visual complexity, with particular focus on
27104-416: The team was trying to create smooth maps, and that implementing looping structures was a challenge because Sonic would break through them instead of running around them. The backgrounds were also a challenge, as the game's speed created the impression of going backwards. The zones were based on designs by Naka and Ohshima, with the goal of creating the world's fastest action game. According to Ohshima, Robotnik
27280-514: The then-growing debate between developers and environmentalists and as a symbol for humanity, which views nature as "dirty" and roads and buildings as "clean". The character was also designed to be easy for children to draw. The character was always named Doctor Eggman in Japan, but Dean Sitton of Sega of America changed his name to Doctor Ivo Robotnik when localizing Sonic the Hedgehog . In a 2016 interview with Game Informer , Takashi Iizuka revealed that Sega of America did this without consulting
27456-462: The trio realize the pilot was a robot decoy meant to distract them from Eggman's true goal; Eggman has learned of a mysterious new archipelago known as the Starfall Islands, home to immensely advanced technologies created by the Ancients, the aliens who inhabited the planet in the distant past and the creators of the Chaos Emeralds. Locating an Ancient portal spire in a ruined forest temple, Eggman uses his new A.I. assistant to activate it, only to provoke
27632-658: The underlying graphics, audio, and gameplay still hold up". Lucas M. Thomas of IGN agreed that it stood the test of time. Writing in The Guardian , Keith Stuart observed that Sonic the Hedgehog ' s emphasis on speed and pinball mechanics dramatically departs from generally accepted precepts of game design, requiring that players "learn through repetition rather than observation" as "the levels aren't designed to be seen or even understood in one playthrough." However, Stuart concluded that "sometimes in Sonic , when you get better, or through sheer luck, things take off, every jump
27808-524: The world, agrees to help him by using the Eclipse Cannon aboard Space Colony ARK. In the last story, Eggman aids Sonic in trying to stop a fail-safe put in place by his grandfather, Prof. Gerald Robotnik , which set the colony on a crash course with Earth. Afterwards, Eggman creates a series of battleships called the Egg Fleet, which he plans to use to take over the world in 3 days in Sonic Heroes . He
27984-478: The year. In the United Kingdom, it was the top-selling Mega Drive game for two months following its release. Sonic the Hedgehog was the best-selling home video game of 1991 , with 2 million copies sold worldwide by the end of the year, becoming Sega's best-selling home video game up until then. In 1991, Sonic the Hedgehog helped Sega generate a gross revenue of $ 1 billion in console sales and capture
28160-412: Was Masaharu Satō , who portrayed him in a handful of arcade games such as SegaSonic the Hedgehog . In the Japanese game releases from 1998 to 2015, Eggman was voiced by Chikao Ōtsuka . Kotaro Nakamura assumed the role following Ōtsuka's death in January 2015, beginning with Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games . In animation, he was voiced by Long John Baldry in Adventures of Sonic
28336-565: Was based on Humpty Dumpty . Yasuhara wanted the game to appeal to both Japanese and American players, which was why Green Hill Zone was redesigned many times. Sonic Team wanted the level to portray the character correctly. Its checkered ground was inspired by 3D image rendering from computers, an idea Naka obtained from Sega developer Yu Suzuki , who used this technique with Space Harrier . The team read Famitsu to stay informed of what their rivals were doing so they could avoid their mistakes. Sega director Fujio Minegishi had connections to
28512-455: Was commissioned to redesign the character, and a new backstory was created where Sonic was from Nebraska. Sega playtested Sonic across the United States with Mario fans: they were shown Mario and then played Sonic the Hedgehog . 80 percent preferred Sonic the Hedgehog , and the game was shown at the 1991 summer Consumer Electronics Show. It arrived in the United Kingdom on June 21, 1991, widely released in North America on June 23, and in
28688-495: Was echoed by Mean Machines . The Lessers (Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk) of Dragon claimed the graphics made Sonic a possible contender for the best game of 1991 and GameZone called the animation "some of the smoothest and fastest ... ever seen". Julian Boardman of Raze praised the "colourful and highly detailed" backdrops and "fabulous" sprites. The music and sound effects were also well received; Dragon called them "great", and GameZone "amazing". Rand praised
28864-618: Was given as "Robotnik" In 2022 the official web series TailsTube , in both English and Japanese audio, confirmed Eggman's true name is "Doctor Ivo Robotnik".. In Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble , the level titled "Robotnik Winter Zone" retains its name across all regions, including Japan. The name "Robotnik" has appeared in official Japanese media as the surname of two related characters, both featured in Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic X : Eggman's cousin, Maria Robotnik and their grandfather, Gerald Robotnik. Several voice actors have portrayed Eggman in his game appearances. His first voice actor
29040-461: Was in the children's program Mika ( Mika och renen Ossian på äventyr ) when Mika was in Stockholm with his reindeer. In The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), the real Jordan Belfort appeared as an emcee to introduce Leonardo DiCaprio , who played Belfort, in the final scene. Boxer Roberto Duran and his wife Felicidad made a cameo appearance towards the end of the film Hands of Stone , about Duran's life. In The Big Short (film) ,
29216-469: Was influenced by Ohshima's hope that he would be easy for children to draw. Eggman was also based on people Ohshima considered "nerdy, socially awkward, a tinker-type with glasses, a mustache, and a fat belly." Until 1994, Sega of America depicted Eggman in promotional material and game artwork as gloveless and with black, iris-less eyes; whether or not this was a misinterpretation of the game's sprite-work or an intentional design choice to make him more menacing
29392-447: Was insufficient to implement it. A two-player mode appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992), whereby the second player controls Sonic's sidekick Miles "Tails" Prower . Sonic Team also intended to include a sound test with animations of Sonic breakdancing to a band of animal characters; including a crocodile keyboardist who was later introduced into the series as Vector the Crocodile in Knuckles' Chaotix in 1995. The sound test
29568-425: Was left was to optimize of the game speed to adhere to the staff's expectations. The team noticed that different people had different perceptions of the game's speed: some believed it was too fast, which caused disagreements. As a result, it was slowed down. The loop running was implemented in a tech demo by Naka, who developed an algorithm allowing a sprite to move smoothly on a curve by determining its position with
29744-406: Was named "Dr. Eggman" in Japan and "Dr. Robotnik" in other regions as a result of a dispute between Sega's American and Japanese divisions. With a satisfying protagonist established, Sega turned to the programmer Yuji Naka , who had impressed them with his work on Phantasy Star and the Genesis port of Ghouls 'n Ghosts . Naka was a fan of Super Mario Bros. but wanted something faster, so
29920-406: Was offered the opportunity to appear on the show. She was given the role of a Starfleet crewmember and a few lines, thus becoming the first real-life astronaut to appear on Star Trek . Somewhat likewise King Abdullah II of Jordan appeared briefly in a non-speaking role the Star Trek: Voyager episode " Investigations ". Sonic the Hedgehog (1991 video game) Sonic the Hedgehog
30096-405: Was re-released for the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console on June 13, 2013, and included as an unlockable game in Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut for GameCube and Windows and Sonic Mega Collection Plus for PlayStation 2 , Xbox , and Windows. To mark the game's fifteenth anniversary, a port for the Game Boy Advance , Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis , was released on November 14, 2006, in
30272-406: Was released on iOS on May 15, 2013, with an Android version following the next day. This version was developed by Christian "Taxman" Whitehead and Simon Thomley of Headcannon from scratch using the Retro Engine , previously used in the 2011 remaster of Sonic CD . This port features several enhancements, such as widescreen graphics, the optional ability to Spin Dash, an additional bonus stage,
30448-541: Was released on September 20, 2018 as part of the Sega Ages line of rereleases. It adds features including the ability to use moves from Sonic 2 and Sonic Mania , a challenge mode, a time attack for the first stage, and features from the 3DS rereleases of the game and its sequel. U.S. Gold acquired the rights to make a version of Sonic the Hedgehog for the Amiga , ZX Spectrum , Commodore 64 , Amstrad CPC and Atari ST personal computers, but these went unreleased. Several screenshots exist, some of which resemble
30624-426: Was scrapped for time reasons and Naka used the freed up memory to add the " Se-ga! " chant used in TV commercials as a startup sound. Naka's relationship with Sega was tenuous during this time, and he received little credit for his work. He left the company shortly after the game's release, although Sega of America hired him later. Before leaving, however, he defied Sega's prohibition of developer credits by displaying
30800-428: Was the favorite. A man with a moustache, who eventually became Dr. Robotnik , was in second place. Sonic was originally teal-colored, then a light shade of blue, but he was changed to dark blue so he would stand out against certain backgrounds and to match the Sega logo. According to Ohshima, Sonic's basic design was created by combining Felix the Cat 's head with Mickey Mouse 's body. His shoes had buckles through
30976-418: Was to make the characters "colorful", using clear lines and gradation to "finish them neatly". According to Watanabe, the developers asked him to create a package design "similar to pop art ... without being particular to conventional packages" – something "original" and "stylish". Sonic was not revealed until the January 1991 international Consumer Electronics Show because Sega wanted to wait until
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