Chao are the greatest

So, out of every optional mini-game from every video-game out there, what is the one that keeps me coming back time and time again? Well, if you've read the title, you'll know it's the chao raising games from the Sonic Adventure/Advance titles. I can't overstate how much I love these things; I spent more time raising and breeding chao than I did playing the actual “game” part of the titles they featured in, and I bought Sonic Pinball Party just to give me another Tiny Chao Garden to make use of.

I suppose I should provide a brief explanation of what I'm talking about, for anyone that's somehow wandered in here without any clue as to what I'm rambling on about.

There was a sort of virtual-pet mini-game included in the Sonic Adventure titles for Dreamcast, and later the Gamecube, where you had to raise these weird “chao” creatures, using the rings and items to collected in levels to buy food and increase their stats respectively. Once sufficiently leveled, you could enter them in races and fights in order to unlock new items or breed them to create even stronger or rarer chao. By using the VMU on the Dreamcast, or the link cable for the Game Boy Advance, you could even take your chao with you for additional training or mini-game playing on the go.

On paper, it doesn't sound that different from many other virtual pet games out at the time, like those in the Dogz and Catz series, or even the tamagotchi craze it was obviously chasing. But what set chao apart for me, and its legions of fellow devotees, was a level of depth and complexity that goes unmatched even today. There are dozens of different variables affecting not only your chao's specific appearance or abilities, but also their personality and behaviours, many of which are completely hidden to the player.

The fact there were so many possibilities, and that so much of it was undocumented in-game really added to the sense of mystery and discovery in the game, as well as making the chao's behaviours seem so much more natural and alive compared to other games that were available at the time. For years after the games' releases, there were websites and blogs still being written about new discoveries made in the game, and new theories about the underlying systems.

All of this contributed to a brilliant distraction across a wide swatch of niches. If you wanted to raise silly and cute virtual pets for the heck of it, you could do that. If you wanted to enter your chao in races and fights, and endeavour to raise the strongest chao ever, you could do that too. And if you were interested in breeding rare and unusual creatures by unravelling the mysteries of their genetics, you could most certainly do that as well (you weirdo!) As a self-confessed chao-obsessive, I dove into all of this, spending hours crossing collectible animals off of check-lists, re-running levels over and over for more rings to buy expensive food and eggs, and purchasing cheat cartridges purely for the sake of obtaining exclusive chao (given out at Japan-only trade events and such).

Chao were fun, innovative, and had a strong cult following. So why is it they haven't featured in a title in well over a decade now? I know someone released their own Tiny Chao Garden fan-sequel last year ↗, but it's still in early access and, no matter how good it eventually turns out, it's not going to be able to match what a full-sized team could put together with a modest budget.

So Sonic Team, I implore you, please release the next generation chao simulator that fans like myself have been clamouring for. I'm more than happy to buy whatever sub-par Sonic game you choose to wrap around it, and you can't really say fairer than that.

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