Sonic Team director shatters hopes for a standalone Chao Garden. 'We can’t just break it apart and make it a 'thing''

We recently played Sonic Adventure 2 with my partner, and it wasn't just because we love to send hedgehogs flying into the air at unpredictably high angles or mess around with Tails's Metal Gear. We were there to play the Chao Garden, a side mode in which Sonic and his friends act as surrogate fathers for little blorbos that you can force to fight karate matches even before they have learned to walk. It's a feature that is so loved that its lack of inclusion in a standalone game continues to be a mystery. Takashi Iizuka, the head of Sonic Team, says that a spin-off game for Chao Garden would not be appropriate.

Iizuka stated in an interview with Video Games Chronicle that Chao Garden is not a standalone game, just as a branch cannot exist without a tree. Iizuka told an interpreter that the game was not a stand-alone. "It is integrated into the Adventure series gameplay. We can't just separate it and make it something."

I can understand why you wouldn't want to carve out a piece of the series identity and repackage for individual sale. It's not like there's been a Sonic Adventure game in over two decades. Maybe removing just one piece of the series identity wouldn't be a bad idea? Even when that part takes place in a pocket-dimension that's almost completely divorced from the main game?

It's okay to call me a nutcase, but the fact that I discovered the gorilla by making a hedgehog run fast isn’t important. There are many other ways to find little gorillas in videogames. Chaos deserve to be freed from purgatory. And ideally, I'd like that freedom to be something I could put on my phone.

Iizuka stated that a request to have more Chao Garden would be, for Sonic Team, a demand for another Sonic Adventure, which is not currently in the works. Iizuka said that he would like to be able to say, "Hey, yes, we are making Adventure 3," but there are no plans for it yet. "It's one of those things where if the stars align, and we can make it all happen, then yes, we would love to do it," Iizuka said.

We might have a solution for our unsatisfied desire for Chao wrangling. Bobo Bay is a pet simulation game that I hope will be distinct enough to not be actionable by law. It's a "pet simulator game where you can collect, mash (breed), accesorize, and teach little creatures." The release date for the game is set for late 2025. The Bobos are able to wear little hats. Phenomenal stuff.