>>1848633
You don't play as Dr. Robotnik in Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. In fact, you don't even play as Sonic. You play as Has Bean, who has the exact same sprite as Carbuncle from Puyo Puyo, because they didn't bother to change it. But according to deep Sonic lore, Has Bean is one of the Bean inhabitants of Beanville who Robotnik already roboticized (so his Carbuncle-like form is actually a robot body), but he retained his free will and is rebelling against Robotnik.
I say according to Sonic lore, but of course this game isn't canon to regular Sonic lore, it's a tie-in to The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon series, seemingly taking place between the pilot and second episode. And that whole series was seemingly intended to take place before the "Sonic the Hedgehog" (SatAM to fans) series that aired at the same time. That series especially can't fit in game lore. However, the Mean Bean Machine did appear in Sonic Mania almost 25 years later, which is part of regular Sonic lore. Or rather, it's part of a splinter timeline known as the "Classic Timeline," but that's still part of the wider main continuity. Anyway in Mania you control the Mean Bean Machine as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Mighty, or Ray, with no sign of Has Bean.
But the point remains, you never play as an evil character in any variation of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. You do get to play as Robotnik in Sonic Adventure 2, but he's pretty sympathetic there. Sure he blows up the moon, but it didn't cause any long term damage to the Earth, so it's fine. You have to look at multiplayer spinoffs, like racing games, if you want to play as really evil characters. Robotnik has no sympathy in Sonic R, and Metal Sonic and Eggrobo both seem independently evil as well in other games they appear in. Metal Knuckles never really has a personality in any version, not even the UK comics, where he is a very important character, so maybe you can say he's not evil, just a puppet. Also there's Tails Doll. In the Archie Comics, which of course are a different continuity, he's an eldritch horror created by Robotnik that transforms into the giant vagina squid from Watchmen and destroys the city. Luckily Sonic reset the timeline at precisely that moment, due to an independent adventure he just happened to be having at the same time, so it all worked out. But Tails Doll was super evil and seemingly a Solaris-level threat, or at least somewhere between the Biolizard and Perfect Chaos. I guess he was approximately equivalent in power to Chaos Dingo, who is from a third continuity, Sonic Underground, which actually did cross over with the Archie Comics and was part of that multiverse. Maybe Archie Tails Doll was the Mobius Prime version of Chaos Dingo, who was himself clearly the Underground version of Perfect Chaos. And regular Dingo was clearly the Underground version of Metamorphia from the UK comics. One could make an argument that Neo Metal Sonic, with his ability to transform, is the main continuity version of Dingo and Metamorphia, but that might be a little bit of a stretch. Also there is Mimic, from the IDW comics, which are supposed to be main continuity. I suppose he could also be the main continuity version of Dingo and Metamorphia, he's an assassin, like Metamorphia, but it's still not quite as blatant.
But anyway you don't play as Dr. Robotnik in Mean Bean Machine. You play as a good guy named Has Bean. Now we wait for the Sonic Underground game where you can play as Sleet and Dingo. And Bartleby. He's not evil, but we should be able to play as Bartleby, damnit.