Sonic Adventure’s Chao Garden meets Kirby Air Ride in Star Garden, a new game unveiled on Kickstarter by the developers at Game Garage on September 2, alongside the release of free demo for the game on Steam. Take care of your unique Lumi in the Lumi garden and then once they’ve grown, bring them out onto the race track against either CPUs in story mode, or against your friends in local or online multiplayer. Available in the demo is a small taste of what the Lumi Garden feature will be like upon final release, as well as a few tracks for local and online multiplayer races.
Unlike in Sonic Adventure’s Chao Garden—where you pit your Chao against one another—in Star Garden, you’ll be pitted against your friends in races where your Lumi acts as your Air Ride Machine. Fly through the sky, dive in and out of the ocean, and wall ride across billboards on your Lumi, all while collecting items to upgrade them mid-race. Star Garden emphasises that being the fastest in the race is not necessarily the deciding factor in who wins or loses, as each Lumi has its own unique attributes. The way you choose to level up your Lumi may look different from how your opponent does.
Over the eighteen days since their Kickstarter campaign began, the developers at Game Garage have garnered over 2,500 backers, with a total of $181,300 donated to the creation of their game so far. Thanks to character designs reminiscent of the Sega classic Space Channel 5 and Sony’s Ape Escape, and an official soundtrack that blends the vibes of the soundtrack from Capcom’s Klonoa with ambient drum and bass, it really is no wonder Star Garden‘s Kickstarter drew in a following of backers as quickly as it did.
With only two weeks remaining in their crowdfunding operation, they’ve managed to reach twelve of their 15+ possible crowdfunding stretch goals. The first of these goals was the base donation requirement to have Star Garden made, which was set at $35,000. Some goals that they managed to reach afterward include a soundtest mode, vocal lyrics for the main theme song, an exhibition match mode, a slew of new unlockable characters, PlayStation and Xbox ports, and two original songs composed by Shogo Sakai—known for his music in the Mother, Kirby, and Super Smash Bros. games.