Fans of Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 likely remember the Chao Gardens. These special areas invited players to raise the adorable Chao characters found throughout the game, and quickly became a fan-favorite part of both titles. Unfortunately, while some fans have long been hoping for a spinoff title featuring these cute little guys, that’s not looking too likely.
In a recent interview with VGC, Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka gave his thoughts regarding a standalone Chao Garden game, and while it doesn’t sound like a definitive ‘no,’ it’s not sounding very hopeful either.
“When we talk about Chao Garden specifically, I know everyone’s like ‘I want Chao Garden, I want Chao Garden’,” Iizuka said.
“But Chao Garden is a piece…it’s part of the whole Sonic Adventure series of games. It’s not a standalone game, it’s integrated into the whole Adventure series gameplay, so we can’t just break it off and make it a thing. And so it’s like, alright, well, if you’re asking for Chao Garden and Adventure 3, then that’s pretty much asking for Adventure 3.”
A standalone Chao Garden game doesn’t seem to be in the cards, and unfortunately, Iizuka implied in a previous interview that a Chao Garden wouldn’t appear in the upcoming title Sonic X Shadow Generations.
“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. 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.”
Iizuka did, thankfully, express interest in bringing the area back in some capacity, though it’s unclear when and where that will be.
The next game in the Sonic universe, Sonic X Shadow Generations, will be released on October 25 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.
