Bad Bosses: Robotnik

You might know someone who is horrible at their job. You might be that person. Most jobs have a certain criteria or goals that the employee must meet in order to be successful. What I have observed and learned from past experiences is that video game bosses are incompetent at their jobs.

Dr. Robotnik is a mad scientist who wants to take over the world like most mad scientists. He captures cute animals and turns them in machines for some reason. Sonic the Hedgehog does not like this at all. The maniacal doctor decides to go after that pesky Hedgehog; Dr. Robotnik does this over the years but the end result is always failure. Let’s look at why.
In the first game on the Sega Genesis, Sonic speeds through Green Hill Zone while collecting rings. These rings protect Sonic from dying and give him power. Why doesn’t Robotnik create a ring less world? If he can create jumping piranhas and crabs, can’t he make a vacuum to remove the rings or figure out how to melt them?

In the last act, the scientist shows his face for the first time. In his flying contraption a wrecking ball comes out of it. This is a good idea in principle but while he’s swinging it around there are two floating platforms around him. Did he really need to confront Sonic in a place where Sonic could reach him? Couldn’t the doctor place spikes on the platforms? Sonic easily defeats him and leaves behind a canister full of captured animals. The scientist should really keep a better track of those things.

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Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is worse. In the first act the doctor drives a slow moving vehicle with a drill attached to its grill. Now, if Sonic was a poor jumper, I could see how this could work but the World’s Fastest Hedgehog is also a great jumper and thus Sonic destroyed another poorly designed contraption. Robotnik towards the end of Sonic 2 uses large contraption to eliminate the hedgehog. This backfires too but it was a good attempt.

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In Sonic Adventure, Dr. Eggman summons Chaos to conquer the world. This is a bad idea because Chaos does what Chaos wants and the scientist gets demolished by the creature. In Sonic Adventure 2, Eggman comes close to killing Sonic but Sonic comes back the power of the Chaos Emerald. Then our heroes and villains realize that they are on a space station that will crash into the earth and that wasn’t in the doctor’s plans to die. They work together to stop it from crashing and the game ends there. Eggman really should have known the weapon he was using wasn’t stable but then again he has a history of not being detail oriented.