Who Was Responsible for the Evil of Dr. Robotnik?

When President Theodore Roosevelt said, "Believe you can, and you're halfway there," he could not have foreseen that his image would at some point become the inspiration for one of the most dastardly villains in the history of video games. A villain who always believed he could, but never could get further than halfway there, thanks in part to the efforts of a do-gooder hedgehog named Sonic.

Dr. Ivo Robotnik (the Eggman, for short), has been trying to make Sonic the Hedgehog's life miserable since the furry blue hero debuted in the summer of 1991. If it is true that you are only judged by the strength of your competition, then it is no surprise Sonic has become one of the most popular, endearing characters in the history of video game adventure.

Dr. Robotnik, an evil scientist with an IQ clocking in at 300, is often given to fits of anger. He sees little use in good, and in post-1997 Sonic adventures has only been able to tolerate the blue hedgehog if there is a mutual enemy of greater power whose defeat requires their cooperation.

As mentioned above, Dr. Robotnik has been with Sonic the Hedgehog since the very beginning. Sega sought the help of Sonic in an effort to compete with Nintendo's already strong hold on the industry, which came largely from the ever-popular hit adventure game Super Mario Bros.

Nintendo had their hefty Italian plumber, and he in turn had the evil spiked turtle dragon King Bowser. If Sonic were to compete with Mario as a hero, he would need a villain that could press him to the very ends of his capabilities.

In Dr. Robotnik, he got just that.

But why would Sega select one of history's most revered Presidents as the basis for Sonic the Hedgehog's most feared villain? Well, there is a thin line between love and hate, or in this case, good and evil.

In April of 1990, Sega's research and development department accepted the charge to create a replacement character for then-mascot Alex Kidd. Kidd was a little too bland, and nowhere near up to the challenge to compete with the considerable popularity of Nintendo's hero. The team developed a number of concepts in an effort that led to Sonic. One of the potential heroes was a caricature of Teddy Roosevelt. Another was an egg-shaped character.

Sega ultimately went with Sonic the Hedgehog as their hero of choice, but every hero needs a villain, and rather than go back to the drawing boards, they looked over some of the other designs and combined the Roosevelt caricature with the egg-shaped character for a newer and more sinister creation.

Ever since Sonic the Hedgehog blazed onto the video game scene, he has been followed, challenged, and tormented, by Dr. Robotnik, in a turbulent relationship that has spread from the 8-bit systems of yore to the super-advanced gaming of today. It has even crossed over into other media, such as comics and cartoons. It is also a relationship that always sees our hero get the upper hand, good trumping evil as it always has, and, hopefully, always will.