What's the Deal with Chao?

20 years ago today, at least in North America, “Sonic Adventure” was released for the Sega Dreamcast. In many ways, it was the beginning and the end of an era for the “Sonic” franchise. Not just the end of the literal Classic Sonic era, as we now recognize it. I'm talking about how it was the last time I can recall normal humans, not just Extremely Online nerd people like me, expressing excitement over a new “Sonic the Hedgehog” game. Afterwards, the “Sonic” series would be increasingly defined by video games of debatable merit and the rather peculiar habits of certain corners of its fandom.

As such, “Sonic Adventure” emerges as a pivotal title in blue hedgehog history that prompts many question. Why did Sega make the decision to move Sonic, a character always previously aligned with the natural world, into an urban setting? Why did Sega interrupt the fast paced action we associate “Sonic” with by including radically different styles of game play, like shooting and fishing? But, most pressingly tonight, I ask a totally different question:

What's the deal with Chao?

If you're reading this blog, I would presume you know what the hell I'm talking about. To answer my own question, I assume Sega and Sonic Team included so many different types of game play into “Sonic Adventure” in hopes of appealing to as large an audience as possible. The game, after all, was a flagship title for a new console, hoping to show off everything the Dreamcast could do. So among the other styles of gaming included in “Sonic Adventure” was a virtual pet. Call the Chao, they were cutesy, little, blobby mascot things that you could take care of in designated areas spread throughout the game. This could link up with the Dreamcast memory card, where you could play a tiny mini-game starring your Chao.

I was hoping to find some information online about the decisions made behind Sega/Sonic Team's chose to include such a wild departure from traditional “Sonic” thrills in "Sonic Adventure." Sadly, nothing much on the developmental side turned up. Apparently, the Chao were based off similar creatures that appeared in “Nights.... Into Dreams,” but that's about the sole behind-the-scene tidbit I could uncover.

However, why Sega chose to introduce the Chao is easy to figure out. Two years prior to “Adventure's” release, “digital pets” with mysterious names like “Tamagotchi,” “Giga Pets,” and “Digimon” would sweep the world and become a serious fad. Around the same time, Nintendo and Gamefreak's “Pokemon” series would be unleashed on the globe, spawning a global phenomenon that has never really gone away. The Chao feature resembles both of these hugely popular properties. Like “Pokemon,” the Chao are cute and small critters that the players are encouraged to form bonds with. They evolve and change in unique ways depending on how the player takes care of them. A Chao mini-game could be played on the VMU – Visual Memory Unit, the Dreamcast's memory card that also operated as a small, handheld gaming device itself – which was obviously similar to “Tamagotchi” and its contemporaries.

In other words, Sega was trying to make their new “Sonic” game as popular as possible by capitalizing on a number of then-relevant fads.

Despite the bold nakedness with which Sega was emulating pre-existing ideas, it would seem the Chao were a roaring success. The Chao Gardens, the isolated areas were Sonic and friends could interact with their little Chao, were well-received by players and reviews even in 1999. The customizable element of the Chao supposedly had quite a lot of depth. The food you gave the Chao, what games you played with it, and the general way you treated it influenced what form or appearance your Chao developed. For an example of how much people are invested in this idea, extensive online guides still exist to produce specific looks in your Chao.

Moreover, the Chao have become beloved and popular members of Sonic's supporting cast. They were heavily featured in the “Sonic Adventure” merchandising that was released alongside the game. The creatures were incorporated into the game's mythology, to some success. The characters continue to appear in new “Sonic” games, most recently showing up as racers in “Team Sonic Racing.” The little blue blobs have appeared in the various cartoons and comic books. When Sega wanted fans to embrace new character Cream the Rabbit, they gave her a Chao sidekick... A strategy that seemed to have largely worked.

The point I'm making is, as gimmicky and out-of-place as the entire Chao concept seemed, fans truly embraced it. The Chao's popularity is such that fans have expressed frustration with Sega's refusal to incorporate Chao Gardens into further “Sonic” games. This has prompted a number of enterprising “Sonic” nerds to create critically acclaimed fan games of their own, centered entirely around raising Chao.

I, for one, never quite got the hype. Yes, I spent a little time as a kid messing around in the Chao garden. I can even recall an evening that was largely devoted to me playing “Chao Adventure” on the VMU, a game that I seem to remember involved a lot of walking and occasional boxing. Yet the mechanic never hooked me. I never attempted to customize my Chao, never put my time or effort into raising it. Digital pet rearing was not what I signed up for when I popped the “Sonic Adventure” disc into my Dreamcast. So, accordingly, I largely ignored and focused on the running and robot-bashing and the other things about the franchise that I have always found appealing.

To be brutally honest, I never felt the Chao really belonged in “Sonic.” I have never found the attempts to incorporate the creatures into “Sonic” lore, within the comic books and even the game themselves, to be anything but awkward. It always bugged me that the Chao Garden levels in “Sonic Adventure” never had any effect on the game's actual plot. Even on a visual designs level, they don't seem to fit. Sonic's world is one populated by anthromorphic animals and humanoid villains. The Chao are neither, being whimsical blue generic things. The designs are sickeningly cute, among the most obvious attempts by Sega to create highly cuddly and marketable mascot characters. And Omochao is annoying as shit.

And yet people still love the baby blue hug-blobs. I conducted an informer poll on the Archie Sonic Online Discord asking everyone what is up with Chao and got a fairly consistent series of answers. Fans respond to the amount of depth put into the creatures and consider the endless ways they can be customized to be a good source of re-playablilty. More than one person who responded said the mini-games provided a change of pace from the regular “Sonic” experience, a breather. That it was a way to play “Sonic” without doing all the usual “Sonic” things.

Which are all valid answers, I suppose... That do little to resolve my own confusion. Listen, guys, if I want a break from “Sonic” stuff, a change of pace or a breather, I turn off my system and go do something else. Does that make me sound like an old man? I guess my complaint boils down to finding Chao visually uninteresting and wishing Sega had just packaged the little critters as a separate game, instead of shoving them in with “Sonic” which wasn't a great fit for them in my opinion.

But if I sound like an old man, that's fitting. I am an old man, who has existed on this planet for three full decades and somehow still cares about a stupid cartoon hedgehog. “Sonic Adventure” came out twenty years ago and I still think of it as a newer iteration of “Sonic.” It's telling that most of “Sonic” fandom is young enough that the “Adventure” games are their classic era. Time is pitiless and marches ever onward. As for Chao, it seems likely to me that they will remain a part of the franchise, acting in a mascot capability of sorts, even if Sega never creates another Chao Garden again. I will continue to ignore and vaguely resent their presence but that's part of growing up, I guess. Happy 9-9-99, guys!