Board Thread:Fun and Games/@comment-29980193-20200131012726/@comment-71.168.104.194-20200202161914

BartoszMikMik wrote: KirbyPKMNInkling wrote: The main thing is, if we assume what they said in the GameXplain video is true, they specifically added Robotnik INSTEAD of Eggman. So it wouldn't make sense to then change him to Eggman i still don't get it..

aren't robotnik and eggman the same person tho? Yes, but actually no in this case.

The naming problem was due to the marketing of Sonic in the 90s and the fact that SEGA thought that everything wasn't badass enough for the US.

So while Sonic and Eggman stayed the same in Japan, they made Sonic five times more radical in the US, drastically edited Eggman's design (as his AoStH design was actually based on his appearance in American manuals, just not with the same personality) and changed his name to Robotnik to make him more villainous.

Basically, Sonic X is essentially what the Sonic the Hedgehog games were in Japan (minus the Dreamcast art style) and Sonic SatAM and Sonic Underground was how the games were presented in the US. (This is also the reason why Sonic CD had it's soundtrack completely changed between the Japanese and PAL regions and the American release)

They eventually stopped doing this with the release of the Dreamcast and Sonic Adventure as they combined both aspects into a single game, Sonic Adventure had the badass radicalness and dark tones of the US releases and the fun carefree vibe and colorful characters of the Japanese releases, with both versions of Sonic's archnemesis combined into a single character with both the dark past and villainy of the Western Robotnik, but the goofiness and design of the Eastern Eggman, with Dr. Ivo Robotnik being confirmed as his actual name and Dr. Eggman confirmed to be a nickname given to him by Sonic.

The game Eggman, AoStH Robotnik, Sonic SatAM Robotnik and Archie Comics Eggman/Robotnik are all entirely different incarnations of the exact same character that just live in different continuities.