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Sonic Team explains why Dr. Robotnik's name changed to Eggman

spunodi

Member
Guess that means in the good ending, both Sonic and Tails die:

jegdn4c.jpg

Through their constant running and battling the pair are dead inside, looking on helpless trying to smile as whatever life they knew ebbs away.

The sad ending really got to me as a kid. I didn't interpret it as Tails dead though, just trapped and tortured forever.

Which is much better,
 

Ivan 3414

Member
Interestingly, the name 'Bowser' was also a localization thing. His original name in Japan was Kuppa (or later, Koopa). I guess Nintendo's Japanese side is just more open to influence from western localization than Sega's Japanese side is.

I'm not certain but I think Bowser's name is still Koopa in Japan. Also, Peach was known as Princess Toadstool in the West, but that was eventually changed to her Japanese name, which has always been Peach. There was never any name combination like with Eggman. In fact, I can't really think of any instance where western localization influenced Nintendo's Japanese development teams at all.

Edit: completely forgot about the Koopalings, whoops
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Yet another terrible decision by Sonic Team.

Robotnik was a million times better sounding than Eggman. Ugh.
 

Huggy

Member
Huh, so that his old design resembles a walrus and that in The Beatles song The Walrus there is a line "I am the eggman" is just coincidence?
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Robotnik >>>> Eggman

Just like

Toadstool >>>> Peach
 
I'm not certain but I think Bowser's name is still Koopa in Japan. Also, Peach was known as Princess Toadstool in the West, but that was eventually changed to her Japanese name, which has always been Peach. There was never any name combination like with Eggman. In fact, I can't really think of any instance where western localization influenced Nintendo's Japanese development teams at all.

Edit: completely forgot about the Koopalings, whoops

Japan does use the word 'Bowser' occasionally, though. For instance, in the Japanese version of Mario Kart Wii, the 'Flame Runner' bike is called 'Super Bowser'. But it is rare.
 
I know the Japanese versions of Smash Bros. Melee, Brawl, and Wii U/3DS call Bowser "Koopa". He's even referred to that internally in the game's files.
 
The Koopalings were also named by Nintendo of America, with the Japanese version taking the names later. Originally they didn't have their own names.
Was it really NOA? I thought it was DiC but for the same reason of there being no names existing. Though given Captain N it is clear there was'nt really any fact checking going on either way (I refuse to think anybody at Capcom or Nintendo would greenlight a green Mega Man).
 

hank_tree

Member
I'm sure I read somewhere years ago that the reason was to do with the lip sync. The characters said Eggman so much and there isn't a good way to say "Robotnik" and sync it with the "Eggman" lips flaps.
 
Just call him Dr. Ivo "The Eggman" Robotnik. Reveal that Dr. Ivo Robotnik is his real name, but his villian name is Eggman, given to him as a running joke by Sonic when he faces him for the first time.

You pretty much loosely ripoff Raimi Spiderman Trilogy's story:

Sonic is Peter Parker, a blue eyes high school kid who is in love with this princess from another world. Silly Peter gets bullied by a bunch of kids from school for that since he has her pictures in his locker. His classmate Miles Morales sees this and interferes with it. They both become best buddies ever since.

Peter is the fastest runner at school which earns him the nickname "Sonic". Both Sonic and Miles were in the running team of their district.

Meanwhile, in the background, you see this military facility where some brilliant scientists are working on cruel experiments, combining Boston Dynamics bots with real animals. The animal is given a computerized brain that can contract muscles of the animal and make it move.

Through the shadows you see a dark figure slither through, slowly taking down guards. Suddenly a fog light points through and you see this black masked vigilante wielding dual Berretta. Shadow. He starts blasting through killing guard after guard. The animal panic and start retaliating, some in their mech form. Explosions ensure and suddenly all animals start running through the door. A few radioactive animals start attacking the soldiers, killing them in a bloodbath. Shadow gets bit. Shooting the hedgehog, he chases it out through the smoke between the debris.

You see Sonic chilling with Miles a few blocks when they hear the explosion. They run towards the sound, right then Sonic gets bit by a radioactive hedgehog, and becomes this blue-furred mutated motherfucker. Oh and his eyes turn green when he gets bit.

Basically he makes this face:

mk3FZ5Z.jpg


Anyways, they all become these Teenage Mutant Ninja Hedgehogs (or whatever bit them). Then you see a big showdown where they defeat this menacing Boston Dynamics machine. It's feels like the end credit scene but it's just the beginning. You see someone climbing a cliff watching over the battle, and he is on the phone. "Yes... They destroyed it. ... I understand, Doctor". --


......... I'm sure you can picture the rest. It leads to Dr. Robotnik becoming "Eggman".
 

L Thammy

Member
Was it really NOA? I thought it was DiC but for the same reason of there being no names existing. Though given Captain N it is clear there was'nt really any fact checking going on either way (I refuse to think anybody at Capcom or Nintendo would greenlight a green Mega Man).

Didn't DiC use different names like Kooky Koopa? I've heard that the green Mega Man was because someone involved in Captain N was playing the game on a broken TV or something like that.

his old design is literally teddy roosevelt:

wECPVec.jpg

I'm still half-convinced this was a joke. That and the Sonic = Bill Clinton thing.
 
I remember playing Mario 64 and being so confused as to why Toadstool was suddenly Peach. I had a similar reaction upon hearing the name Eggman.

I got used to Peach because I mean it made more sense to me than Toadstool. So I never fought it. But Robotnik was always a better name so I could never adjust to it.
 

NathanS

Member
Ivo is the dumbest of all because it's just "ovi" backwards and "ovi-" means egg. It's just "Eggman" but more pretentious.

pretentious is the keyword for anyone who argues anything in Sonic has ever been serious or that Robotnik sounded at all serious. Even as a kid that shit was a silly "EVILLLLLLLLL USSR!" name.
 

Reszo

Member
I always thought Dr Robotnik and Eggman were relatives or something. Like Uncle and nephew or something lol
 
I wonder whose idea it was to change his name in the first place. Somebody in particular on Sega's localisation team was clearly the first to come up with it.

I always have liked Robotnik better, personally
 

Shadoken

Member
Sure, especially in a game featuring 'Sonic the Hedgehog'. Sonic. The hedgehog. A hedgehog. Called Sonic.

Its like the difference between calling Him Sonic the Hedgehog instead of Mr Needlemouse.

The latter just sounds very outdated , Childish might have been the wrong word to use there. Eggman lacks the "cool" factor that Sonic is going for , it just seems out of place. While Robotnik seems to fit better.
 
Its like the difference between calling Him Sonic the Hedgehog instead of Mr Needlemouse.

The latter just sounds very outdated , Childish might have been the wrong word to use there. Eggman lacks the "cool" factor that Sonic is going for , it just seems out of place. While Robotnik seems to fit better.

Not only that but we're also talking about what the character now calls himself here, and IMO it's just stupid as fuck and completely out of character for him to adopt the insulting childish nickname Sonic gave him due to the shape of his body and obsession with eggs.

You could argue he's taking the moral high ground and removing the power from Sonic and the insult by using it himself but that's also out of character.

They would need to have a sequence in a game where Robotnik like snaps because Sonic calls him Eggman one too many times and he goes kind of crazy laughing to himself like "I AM the Eggman! Ahahahaha!" all out of his mind with rage and shit.
 

MilkBeard

Member
Dr. Robotnik is really clever and is a much better name. Eggman doesn't really create that same feeling in English. Maybe it sounds cool to the creators, but I guess it's their series, so...

As far as I know though, the localization team made a lot of the quality of life changes back in the day...
 

Walpurgis

Banned
I have always known him as Eggman. I first saw Robitnik on some browser based Sonic game and thought it was a fake fan name because it was so dumb.
 
I agree totally. I'm sure something like Eggman isn't out of place in Japan but it's a bit stupid sounding for the west.

If you say Egg-Man it sounds juvenile to me.

If you say Eggman the same way you would say Eggert as a name it sounds "normal" to me.

Robotnik sounds Saturday morning cartoon to me any way you say it.
 

PSqueak

Banned
I remember playing Mario 64 and being so confused as to why Toadstool was suddenly Peach. I had a similar reaction upon hearing the name Eggman.

Toadstool could easily be explained as a title or her last name and then in SM64 the western world just learned that her first name is Peach, like "Peach Toadstool", or maybe "Peach, the Princess Toadstool".

I guess by the time she was comfortable with casually inviting Mario to eat cake at the castle she was like "You know, you can just call me peach."
 

DarkKyo

Member
I think I like Robotnik more, just because I was so used to it as a kid.. watching the cartoons and reading the Archie comics series.

I think his best design though is from the Sonic Adventure games. I hate his current design.
 
Didn't Eggman have an incredibly evil grandfather in one of the games/shows?

I envision that guy as being Robtonik, and Eggman having a softer heart and so not wanting to be called Robotnik, has abandoned his family name. This is also the excuse I give as to why Eggman can be ridiculously evil in one thing but fairly kind in the next.
 

Atrarock

Member
Dr. Robotnik is really clever and is a much better name. Eggman doesn't really create that same feeling in English. Maybe it sounds cool to the creators, but I guess it's their series, so...
Clever? I hear a lot of things about "Robotnik", clever is not one of them.

And I stand by what I said about both names quite awhile ago, neither name sounds that great. One is a pun, the other has random letters thrown on it. Also the good doctor IS childish, at the very least, he's always been very clown-like.

His reaction to his demands not being met after firing a laser at the moon in SA2 (he threw a tantrum like a kid), his goofy ass smile, animations, overall demeanor.

Oh, and of course he's rather threatening...the animal-powered robots, turning little planet into factory wasteland (even ravaging his own base), kidnapping (Cream's mother), unleashing Chaos (the water creature), dark gaia (which literally split the earth apart), or even outright destroying reality to make a new one (Generations).

Regardless of what this man is called, regardless of what he's done, his character is his character, he is a large, round, egg shaped scientist with child-like reactions, and a BIG ol' awesome smile.

Herr Doctor is one of the best doctors, Olé!
 
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