Chao Garden

Lore & Background

Chao hatch from an egg and evolve in different ways depending on how they are raised, eventually dying when they reach the end of their lifespan. If a player takes good care of their Chao, the creature may be reincarnated. Chao can be fed coconuts and various fruits from trees in the garden, and can get a health check-up and learn new skills at the Chao Kindergarten. In the original Dreamcast games, Chao can be placed into the VMU and taken on the go, featuring a minigame called Chao Adventure that helps increase their stats. The North American release of Sonic Adventure added the ability for users to trade Chao over the Internet.

Sonic Adventure 2 adds the ability for Chao to evolve into Hero and Dark Chao depending on the alignment of the characters who care for them, with special unlockable areas known as the Dark Garden and Hero Garden. Each Chao has a rated score in four stats: swimming, flying, running and strength, integral to their performance in Chao Racing and Chao Karate. They also have an additional stamina stat increased through feeding. Adult Chao can breed to produce more Chao with different genetics; when ready to breed, flowers sprout around them. In very rare instances, Chao can get sick—a feature that went undiscovered by the fan community for two decades.

Reader's Guide

Chao Garden was well-received by critics and is considered a fan favorite despite not appearing in a game since Sonic Adventure 2. Fans often request a new Chao Garden, but Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka has said it has not happened because of how closely tied the minigame is to the Adventure duology. Critics have described the feature as 'shockingly rich and complex' for a side feature, and 'surprisingly interesting and fun to play around with'. The updated version in Sonic Adventure 2 was called 'so entertaining and so much more complex'. The feature has been cited as a clever way to encourage replaying stages, and as a reason the Adventure games sold so well. Some fans view Chao Garden as the main appeal of Sonic Adventure, and the lack of more appearances has been called 'a continued and baffling mystery'.

Chao Garden has inspired derivative works such as fan games (Pocket Chao Garden, Chao Resort Island) and game mods (Chao World Expanded), as well as original indie games like Poglings, Bobo Bay, and Loddlenaut. The hub area of Balan Wonderworld was often compared to the Chao Garden, with one article calling it 'effectively a Chao Garden by another name'.

Did You Know?

• A special variation of Chao, the Tails Chao, was distributed using the Tiny Chao Garden.
• In the GameCube ports, VMU connectivity was replaced with Game Boy Advance connectivity, adding a Tiny Chao Garden.