My partner and I recently revisited Sonic Adventure 2, and it wasn't because we have a special fondness for sending hedgehogs rocketing to their deaths at unpredictable angles or fumbling with Tails's Metal Gear. We were there for the Chao Garden—the side mode where Sonic and co. act as surrogate parents for little blorbo creatures who you can force to fight in karate matches before they've learned to walk. It's a feature so beloved that its failure to appear as a standalone game is a continued and baffling mystery. Apparently, I'm going to stay baffled, because Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka says the Chao Garden isn't right for a spinoff.
In an interview with Video Games Chronicle, Iizuka said Chao are inseparable from Sonic Adventure, and that the Chao Garden can't exist on its own any more than a branch can exist without the tree. "It’s not a standalone game," Iizuka said via an interpreter. "It’s integrated into the whole Adventure series gameplay, so we can’t just break it off and make it a thing."
I can understand not wanting to carve off a core piece of series identity and repackage it for individual sale. But considering there hasn't been a new Sonic Adventure instalment in more than two decades: Maybe carving off just the one piece wouldn't hurt? Especially when that piece takes place in a pocket dimension that's almost entirely divorced from the main gameplay?
Call me a madman, but when I'm giving a Chao a little gorilla so I can watch it grow gorilla arms, the fact that I found that gorilla while making a hedgehog go fast isn't a crucial part of the equation. Videogames have all kinds of other ways I could find little gorillas. Chaos deserve freedom from their purgatory, and ideally it'd be a freedom I can put on my phone.
Regardless, Iizuka said a request for more Chao Garden is, to Sonic Team, a request for another Sonic Adventure—something that currently isn't in the cards. "I think at some time I’d like to say 'Hey, yeah, we’re making Adventure 3,' but we don’t have plans for that yet," Iizuka said. "It’s just one of those things that if, if the stars align and it can all happen, then yeah, we’d love to make it."
Luckily, we might soon have a solution to our unsatisfied yearning for Chao wrangling. Bobo Bay, which I hope proves distinct enough to be legally non-actionable, is a "pet simulation game where you collect, mash(breed), accessorize, and train little creatures" that's targeting a late 2025 release. The Bobos can wear little hats. Phenomenal stuff.
