Sonic Adventure 2is one of the best games ever made. It’s also one of the worst games ever made. I’ve discussed that dichotomy in detail before, andthere’s a video you may watch if you want to hear how I unpack those two conflicting ideas. However, one part of Sonic Adventure 2 that puts it firmly in the ‘best game ever made’ camp is the Chao Garden.
For a while,Chaos were one of the Sonic series’ primary mascots(which is saying something for a franchise constructed almost exclusively of mascot characters) but for some reason, Sega hasn’t given the Chao Garden another shot since Sonic Advance 2 came out in 2003.
Well, Sega, take a look around you. Everything is in shambles. The world is on fire. It’s time for the Chao Garden to return and become a gaming oasis like it wasin the Dreamcast era.
A Genius, Calming Side Activity In A Breakneck Game
If you aren’t familiar, the Chao Garden was a side area in bothSonic Adventureand Sonic Adventure 2 where you could raise a small family of Chaos to compete in swimming competitions, races, and underground dog fights.
Okay, not that last one. I mean, you make them fight, but it’s not as sketchy as I made it sound.
The Chao Garden provided a nice break fromthe fast-paced action levelsthat had you running full speed away from giant military trucks, grinding down the rails of the Golden Gate Bridge, and launching yourself off the side of Eggman’s airship. The garden also gives you something to think about and plan for as you play the main game, since you upgrade your Chaos by feeding them the various machine parts and animals you get from destroying enemy robots.
There was something really cyclical about the way that the main game of the Sonic Adventure series fed into the Chao Garden and vice versa created a really satisfying loop. The two elements came together to make it feel balanced, like you were working toward something even if you’d finished the main story.
What The Chao Garden Looks Like In 2025
Ever since Sonic Adventure 2, however, a proper Chao Garden has been absent. Chao still make an appearance from time to time, like the hidden Chao added tothe levels in Sonic X Shadow: Generationsor the majorly downscaled Chao Garden feature in the Sonic Advance games, but they haven’t appeared in any substantial way since the Dreamcast days.
Apparently, the Chao Garden wasYuji Naka’s brainchild. Now that he’s no longer with Sega, it seems like no one else at Sonic Team has much interest in the concept, though therearesome rumors thatSega might be working on something Chao related. If those are just rumors, it’s a real shame, because given the current popularity of cozy games, a full-blown Chao Garden spin-off would probably find a decently-sized audience.
The gardens featured in Sonic Adventure felt a little ahead of their time since they were basically just cute animal care sims. They were compared to Tamagotchi when the Sonic Adventure series was coming out, but they’re not too far off from the likes ofStardew Valley,Animal Crossing, andHello Kitty Island Adventure.
It’s not difficult to imagine what a standalone Chao Garden game would look like. You’d take care of the little guys by managing their diets and giving them animals to… absorb (?) and get the powers from. Then you’d enter them in races and dog fights and the like. It’d basically just be what the Chao Garden was like back in the day, but with more options as to what you may feed them, how you get their food, and hopefully, more activities for the Chao to participate in.
As far as I can tell, Sonic fans really miss the Chao Garden. With every Sonic game release, people post secret voice lines on the internet of Sonic and friends mentioning something vaguely Chao related, or full-blown references like the Chao Garden scene inthe most recent Sonic moviewhere the cast goes to a Chuck E. Cheese-type restaurant that’s full of people in Chao costumes.
I don’t think Sega needs to do a full standalone release to make Chao Garden fans happy (even though that certainlywouldmake us happy.)Adding a Chao Garden to the next mainline Sonic gamewould be a lovely side activity to break up the breakneck pace of the rest of the game, and it would incentivize players to stick around past the credits to keep taking care of their virtual dogs.
With how messy everything is right now in the outside world, a new Chao Garden would bring some much-needed comfort to my gaming time. Plus, it’d be nice to hear Tails tell my Chao (and me by extension) that“everything’ll be okay” a hundred times in a minute.
