Sonic Mania player misreads boss sprite, now we have Dr. Eggman's evil niece
Call her Omeletta or Eggette or Ovoid Robotnik
If you played video games created during the 8-bit or 16-bit eras, chances are good you might have misread what an artist was trying to convey with just a few dozen pixels. Players have famously misinterpreted Toad from Super Mario Bros. — is he ... flipping me off? — and what Agahnim from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past actually looked like.
One Sonic Mania player fell victim to sprite misreading recently, and the result is pretty great: a new original character that’s being embraced by Sonic the Hedgehog fans.
Artist Alpha Gamboa opened up about his interpretation of Dr. Eggman’s spider mech, which players battle in the Flying Battery Zone in Sonic Mania, on Twitter earlier this week. Gamboa didn’t see Eggman piloting his spider upside-down, but instead saw “Eggette” at the controls of this arachnoid terror.
Fans (and even Sonic Mania’s sprite artist) quickly fell in love with Eggette, posting their own artwork, creative names and backstory for the character. Names for the character, theorized to be Dr. Eggman’s niece (presumably to get around the idea of envisioning him procreating), include Eggatha, Omelette, Dr. Ovoid Robotnik and Yolki Dolki.
Here are a few of the highlights:
Considering the developers of Sonic Mania aren’t shy about leaning into Sonic in-jokes, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Dr. Eggman’s niece become more than just headcanon in the game’s inevitable sequel.
