My Ideas for a new Chao Game

Right, so the official Sonic the Hedgehog twitter channel has made a couple of chao related posts over the past few weeks, and people are speculating they may be testing the waters to reintroduce the mode in a future game. Given that I am also a chao fanatic, I thought now would be a good time to throw down some of my thoughts and ideas on what would make for a successful chao-comeback.

 

First up is what kind of form should a new chao release take, with the choice being between:

• A bonus mode/minigame in a full Sonic title (like in the Sonic Adventure series)
• A mobile app, or
• A stand-alone console game (probably released as digital first).

And given the options, I'm inclined to say that sticking with the status quo (A bonus mode in a full Sonic title) is the way to go. I mean, sure, a full chao game would be incredible (I'm imagining somehting like Misadventures of Tronne Bonne but with chao instead of servbots), but I don't think there's enough brand-power there to make it a success (yet), and if it flops, that'll be the last we see of them. A mobile app also feels like the wrong way to go, as it would likely be a cut-down experience, or have to support itself using free-to-play elements, seeing as apparently nobody wants to buy premium games from the app store any more. I could see a place for a mobile companion app, however, so people can take their chao out on-the-go, like we saw with the VMU and Tiny Chao Garden back when.

 

So, if we are going for a more updated of the Adventure 1 and 2 style gameplay, next we need to think about what new elements we would want the new game to have, taking advantage of the last 15-20 years of tech and experience now at our disposal. Ideally we would want features that appeal to the different types of chao-fans (racers, breeders, carers ect.) as well as some general improvements that everybody can enjoy.

 

First up, something for the breeders, and that would be family tree charts for your chao, to save on busting out the old pen-and-paper when trying to go for a rare chao. The Dogz and Catz games (remember them?) managed to do this back in the 90s, so this should be zero trouble to implement.

 

Next up, a feature I'd really like included, is more complicated relationships between chao, with the possibility of them forging friendships and rivalries with one another. This would add an additional dimension to the game, possibly necessitating you breaking up fights and making chao get along together, or simply sitting back and watching organic chao behaviour. Memory issues would have held this back on the Dreamcast/Gamecube, but free of these limitations we could see a far more complex and convincing simulation of unique creatures with distinct personalities, and I am all about that.

 

As for competing, it goes without saying that the game needs more events, and ones that favour the many different skills chao possess. Weight lifting is an obvious one for strength, and having chao swim down to retrieve rocks/swim through hoops would also be cool. The biggest overhaul I'd like to see is more ways to influence the events, without getting directly involved of course. Rather than just tapping a single button for a stamina boost, simple commands like “Go!”, “Jump!”, “Go Left!” or “Not That!” would make the games far more interesting to actually play, and of course would require additional training to teach your chao to recognise. The holy grail would be to have something similar to a dog agility course, where you have to coax your chao through the obstacles in the fastest time, and would offer maximum interactivity without handing over full control of your chao.

 

Online play should be a given, as being able to compete against other players and trade chao would be incredibly cool, and being able to set up play-dates with other players chao, so they can breed, teach each other new skills or otherwise interact would be awesome, though it would require a very robust anti-trolling system in place. It seems fairly obvious that people would give their chao rude names, but there's also the possibility they'd try and feed other player's chao alignment changing fruit, or hit them when you're not looking to try and change their alignment/personality. Knowing the internet, I have little doubt someone will invent a specific chao appearance and dance mode combination that somehow comes off as offensive.

 

Going back to the more positive aspects of online play, this does make way for a possible new feature; chao orphanage/rescue. By connecting to the game's servers, you would be able to see a selection of chao that have been given up for adoption/released into the wild, and be able to take one home with you. I can see this becoming a new way to play, with some players choosing to play the role of “chao rescuers” and filling their garden with rescued chao, and also an opportunity for players to obtain chao with slightly higher stats without breeding them themselves.

 

Online connectivity also provides a means for patching and for providing tools to swap chao between devices and, crucially, the possibility to move your flock of chao forward onto future games (fingers crossed). Being able to take your chao with you, instead of leaving them languishing on a memory card/old harddrive somewhere is a feature we've all wanted.

 

I don't have a segue for this idea, so I'm just going to throw it out there; garden management. Having a greater level of control over your chao garden would not only be a fun addition, but would also give you something to do while waiting for your chao to evolve. It could start out menial, pulling up weeds, Tiny Chao Garden style, until a chao gains a high enough strength stat to be able to do it themselves. From there you can move on to planting trees and plants, and eventually placing small structures like pools and play houses, or even tall tree houses and diving boards for chao with the skills to use them.

 

Anyway, these are just some of my ideas, and at the moment we don't even know if Sonic Team is actively even working on a new chao game, so this could end up being a completely pointless list of fantasies. If one does materialise though, I'll probably give it a go no matter what form it takes, because there's no such thing as a bad chao mode. Except the one in Sega Superstars, but we don't talk about that.

«Back to "Game Analysis"»