E-123 Omega

E-123 Omega"Ω”

by Payton R.?

E-123 Omega, technically referred to as E-123 "Ω”, is a fictional robot from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. He is considered a spiritual successor to E-102 Gamma who is part of the same robotics production line in the series. He was created by Dr. Eggman as the last and most powerful E-Series robot, and is out to eliminate him due to harsh mistreatment and lust for revenge.

Omega was created by Takashi Iizuka and designed and modeled by Nobuhiko Honda at Sonic Team USA. Omega has helped Shadow (and to a lesser extent, Rouge) in several games and while not being a major character, is popular enough in his own right and has established himself as a main character.

Concept and Creation

E-123 Omega was created by Takashi Iizuka, director of Sonic Heroes, the game Omega debuted in. Omega was likely made to be a "filler character" for Team Dark in Sonic Heroes since no previous character would fit the role, or possibly because Iizuka didn't want to bring too many old characters and continued the tradition of adding a new one each game. It is also possible Iizuka made him as a nod to the E-100 Series since the ones from Sonic Adventure had all been destroyed.

Iizuka was possibly assisted in designing Omega by Nobuhiko Honda, Sonic Heroes player designer. His design appears to have been made with the intention of fitting in with the rest of the E-100 Series robots from Sonic Adventure (particularly Gamma) while making him stand out by giving him a stockier upper body and arms with different colored eyes. His height is also lesser than the other models and his shoulders larger with a visible Greek symbol on the front of the left and back of the right with red handlebars on the top. They also decided to go without the twin exhaust pipes and the Jet Booster from Sonic Adventure of the first E-100 Series robots, instead settling for one circling pipe around the waist with two flaps attached and having twin jets installed in Omega's back below the hunch. The stripe running from his head to stomach has also been changed so that it is a separate piece of metal all together and not simply painted on like the others and he also has one extra finger and two hands with yellow wrists studded with large spikes like a dog collar. Just below his stripe is a plate of clear material that allows others to see some of his inner workings, but this is often colored blue or white in-game or in artwork.

Design Changes

Omega's design was changed considerably in Sonic the Hedgehog(2006), with a taller head and bigger shoulders, along with various small details such as less smooth fingers (making them look somewhat skeletal), and giving him a more humanoid appearance. Omega's frontal stripe sticks out much more than in previous games. He has a thinner head, with the eyes closer to the stripe. The flaps on his sides have been given grooves for unknown reasons. And his hands also look sharper and rather run down. He walks and moves in a slower, more cumbersome manner like an old fashioned robot, compared to his wild, sometimes erratic, human-like movements in previous games. Omega's voice was significantly different from his previous portrayals in Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog, sounding much more high-pitched and robotic. Many of the Western players of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) blamed this on Omega's new voice actor, the late Maddie Blaustein, and criticized her performance. However, Taiten Kusunoki, Omega's Japanese voice actor, also sounded this way in Sonic the Hedgehog despite voicing Omega exactly the same as Jon St. John and Jeff Kramer, Omega's previous English voice actors, in the past two games. Furthermore, Maddie Blaustein later clarified the portrayal change was according to SEGA's direction, as evidenced when she voiced Omega again in Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games, sounded much more accurate to previous English voice actors. This evidence suggests that Sega changed or altered the voice manipulation program used for Omega's voice in Sonic the Hedgehog to sound more robotic, but later reverted it back to normal, most likely because of poor reception. More recently, Omega had a design change for games like Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games & Sonic Generations which has it going back to it's design in Sonic Heroes, with the flattened head, farther away eyes and smoother claws, but has some qualities of Omega's design from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), such as the clunky, human-like movements that overall make it a descendant of Gamma. (Omega's silver frontal stripe is also occasionally miss-colored as black in some artworks.)

History/Early Life

Omega was created by Dr. Eggman as the 24th and last of the doctor's E-100 Series robots. He was designed by Eggman to prevent the release of Shadow the Hedgehog from his stasis, and, in this case, he failed to control Shadow when he was released. To accomplish this, Eggman sealed Omega in an abandoned base with Shadow. Being imprisoned infuriated Omega; he decided to prove his status as the most powerful E-Series robot by abandoning his original programming and taking revenge on his creator and all the other machines he built.