Sonic has had no shortage of iconic antagonists from across the series, from the older games that just had Robotnik fill that role, to the stranger antagonists of the 2000s, then back to having just Eggman for a while in the 2010s.
Shadow Shows Off New Abilities in Sonic X Shadow Generations ‘Doom Powers’ Trailer
Shadow’s got a whole arsenal of new powers at his disposal in Sonic X Shadow Generations, and they’re all on display in this latest trailer.
I’ll be going over quite a few excellent villains from across the series (decidedly not counting every Eggman robot separately, for variety) and ranking them from how fun they are as characters and how good they do as antagonists for Sonic and the gang.
For this list, I’ll only be considering villains from the platformers in the Sonic series, as taking into consideration both Comic runs and the various characters across TV Shows and Spinoffs would make this list odd. On top of that, I’ll be ranking these villains on how much I enjoy them as a character.
Cringe Before Him.
Despite being part of the Deadly Six, SEGA has been pushing for Zavok to be his own character that shows up in things. Most people don’t care for him at all (which is fair, he is basically just a knockoff Bowser), but he’s got the potential to be intimidating.
Namely, in Lost World, he tends to be a decently powerful presence that is only shown up by Eggman himself, and while future appearances tend to fumble him hard, there’s at least one good one. The comics show how to write him to be a genuinely intimidating presence who takes himself seriously, and that’s great.
9Hard-Boiled Heavies
Very Simple, Very Fun Villains.
Sonic Mania took the influence of the classic gamesheavily and gave us new, simplistic antagonists that have fun personalities that we see the entire extent of with their five minutes of screen time. They don’t make the biggest first impression, but I can appreciate them for what they do.
Heavy Gunner gives us a fun auto-scroller boss, Heavy Magician gives us awesome references to Bark, Bean and Fang, Heavy Rider exists, Heavy Shinobi has a fun fight with cool sound effects, and Heavy King gives us one of the best Super Sonic final boss themes.
Tons and Tons of Missed Potential.
Infinite is mostly up this high because he could’ve been cool,Forces tried to cook with him, and even though he kinda fell flat on his face, he was still a memorable antagonist. He can manipulate reality, has beef with shadow, has a cool design and somehow got fumbled.
Every Game Represented in Sonic X Shadow Generations
Sonic X Shadow Generations is an anniversary celebration for the Sonic series, and this list shows off each game that gets represented in it.
He comes off as a whiny, edgy child moreso than an actual intimidating presence, but the way his powers get used (especially in Metropolis) showcases a cool, intimidating character. With a touch of better writing, we could see Infinite climb the ranks of this list.
Big Monster with Cool Lore.
Chaos, the monster named after the Chaos Emeralds due to the fact he used to be their guardian until getting sealed away in the Master Emerald.Throughout the events of Sonic Adventure, he goes from a weak big drip to a powerful tsunami to be reckoned with.
While the lore surrounding Chaos is neat, he’s kinda just a monster that absorbs the power of Chaos Emeralds and causes destruction. He’s a good vessel for story, but the character himself isn’t all too interesting when you consider he can’t even speak.
6Dark Gaia
Another Big Monster with Cool Lore.
Similar to Chaos (fitting, too, since this game was called Sonic World Adventure in Japan), Unleashed’s Dark Gaia is a big, scary presence that’s related to the chaos emeralds, coming out every few thousand years to fight with Light Gaia in a potentially world-ending battle.
It breaks apart the planet at the start of the game, causing a ton of destruction and ultimately resulting in an awesome Super Sonic final boss with incredible music. It’s only this low because, just like Chaos, it’s just not much of a character and more like a natural force of nature.
All Talk, Very Little Presence.
While it’s a cool concept to have Sonic fight the manifestation of death and have it go on a holy monologue about how all things must come to an end, The End shows up as a big purple moon near the end of the game and makes you play Ikaruga, which is a bit wack.
Having this presenceguide Sonic to do everything throughout Frontiersonly for it to be revealed that he was being gaslit into helping The End escape containment is awesome. It’d just be nice if it got more screen time, and if its speech wasn’t drowned out by the music.
4Black Doom
A Great, Intimidating Presence, Sometimes.
Shadow the Hedgehog is a controversial game in the fanbase, but one thing that’s pretty agreed upon to be good is Black Doom. He acts as the devil on Shadow’s shoulder, attempting to convince him to betray the memories in his mind and work against humanity.
While some routes don’t execute this idea all too well, since the writing is all over the place in this game, the idea of an antagonist that gaslights the protagonist who’s struggling against his memory and morality is sick.Hopefully, Sonic X Shadow Generations does him even more justice.
Darkness Incarnate, Probably.
Similar to the previous entry, Mephiles is a character that attempts to gaslight Shadow into doing the wrong thing, but he just has a far more menacing aura about him, and the 2nd phase boss theme goes hard. He genuinely manages to kill Sonic, and that’s wild.
Review: Sonic Superstars
Sonic Superstars shines brightest when it’s sticking to what made the Genesis titles so successful.
06 may have been a bit of a mess, but Mephiles was one of the best things to come from it. He works as an excellent foil to the protagonists, combines with Iblis to make an incredible final boss, and is overall so cunning and menacing that it’d be a crime to not put him this high.
A Weirdly Emotional Story for Sonic.
Sonic and the Black Knight may be treading into spinoff territory a little, but it’s a platformer (kinda), so it counts. Plus, it’d be a shame to not cover one of the most emotionally-charged and well-done stories in Sonic’s history, that being of the tragic antagonist and depressed woman, Merlina.
She learned that ruin awaited her and her people in the future, and decided to seize the scabbard of the sacred sword to use the power of the underworld to bring her kingdom into a permanent stasis, only being stopped by Sonic’s will to live life to its fullest, while also donning an awesome golden suit of armor. This story is impactful, effective and Merlina is great.
Because of Course He’s Up Here.
Of course, it wouldn’t be right if Dr. Ivo (Eggman) Robotnik wasn’t up here at the top. He’s the one who made Metal Sonic,he blew up half the moon, he unleashed Chaos and Dark Gain, and he’s just simultaneously an intimidating presence and a comedic jackpot.
He’s a great character who’s become nearly as iconic to the series as Sonic himself, having shown up in just about as many games as the Blue Blur. He’s iconic, he has practically infinite potential as the ultimate foil in the battle of Nature vs. Technology and he’s one of the best video game villains ever.
Sonic the Hedgehog
Review: Sonic Frontiers
Sonic Frontiers is a hugely ambitious new direction for the series that comes close to hitting on all cylinders.
