After years of creating elaborately technical, but very slow lumbering machines to kill one fast-moving rodent, Dr. Robotnik (known to Beatles fans as Dr. Eggman) decided to strike Sonic the Hedgehog where it would hurt him most: in the central nervous system.

His most successful creation, Dr. Robotnik’s Vertigo Machine, sent out a 9.2-GigaWhave blast of nausea-inducing Vertigohms. As a side effect, it also introduced a third dimension to Sonic and Robotnik’s universe. Almost immediately, Sonic began to fall from ledges he would previously have simply run past and to miss the entrances of loops, as if he had suddenly lost all sense of direction.

The invention worked a little too well, Robotnik eventually realized. It made gamers nauseous and impatient as well and sent them away in droves. Ever the pragmatist, Robotnik stopped using the machine and leased it out to the developers of the Worms game series.

Things improved a little in the Sonic universe, but not much. Robotnik, now depressed and demoralized, went back to inventing bulbous, hovering monstrosities.