Bobo Bay Preview: Tiny But Mighty!

Racing onto PC toddles Bobo Bay. An indie-sandbox monster raising and racing game developed and published by NewFutureKids. In this title you’ll move to the titular Bobo Bay to raise Bobo; a type of small child-like monster that is astoundingly adorable. Improve their stats with special items, unlock outfits to make them look cuter, and snuggle them to improve their mood and your relationship with them. If you ever played the Chao Garden in Sonic Adventure games then you know the kind of thing to expect. This feels very much like a spiritual successor to that side game.

There aren’t enough words to describe how delightful and sweet the little Bobo are. This coupled with the rather chill atmosphere makes for a rather relaxing experience. Caring for the Bobo is a simple task. And from a mechanical standpoint the races are, well, it isn’t like you need to learn complex controls that is for sure. But whilst the game does hold a world of promise it does feel like it has a gap or two that need filling. But with that said, let’s get to the review!

Bobo Bay is set to release in late 2025, it can be wishlisted on Steam where a demo can also be downloaded.

Story – Baby Steps

In Bobo Bay, you play a young woman (who may be a zombie or some form of undead) who has decided to take up Bobo raising. From her little tea cup house, she must raise the little blighters to be the best racing Bobo around! That way she can impress her family back home and have a generally good time. Despite being a largely sandbox kind of experience this preview build of Bobo Bay does feature a nice slice of the story. Granted it is mostly in the form of letters from unseen NPCs but I appreciate the context. Something that is largely lacking in a lot of titles I preview.

This is all the tutorial you’ll get in the Bobo Bay demo.

An area of weakness the game has at the moment however is the tutorial text. Or lack thereof. Very early on you get a letter from the developers telling you essentially that they aren’t going to hold your hand through this but it is easy enough to understand. And whilst I appreciate the honesty (and the fact the game isn’t that difficult) I do feel that certain elements could have been explained better. There is a splash screen when you load up the game which gives you a heads up. But nothing within the game itself where I think it would be better placed. While I was able to manage without it I do feel that given how convoluted it currently is to start a race some in-game tutorial text would have been greatly appreciated.

Gameplay – Cheer Here!

As mentioned towards the head of this preview Bobo Bay is a game that is a spiritual successor to the Chao Garden from the Sonic Adventure games. Your job is to care for and raise a variety of Bobo, this game’s equivalent of the aforementioned baby critters. Helping them to grow and develop their stats so that they can partake in a collection of mini-games. These mini-games can reward you with cosmetic items for your Bobos, items to further increase their stats, and sometimes money to spend on those things from the market. I say “sometimes” as if your Bobo’s rank is higher than the rank listed in the race selection you won’t win extra money for it.

There are a wide variety of races in Bobo Bay.

The game’s controls are every bit as good as they need to be for a game like this. Responsive and easy to get to grips with. Granted much of the core gameplay loop of this one is just made up of you picking things up and putting them down. So it isn’t like it needed to be overly complex. But all the same, this is a chill game and everything that can add to that is welcome. As it gives you more time to relax and enjoy the overall cuteness of the title.

Train and Train Again

The core loop of the game is easy to understand. You start every day by heading to the Forest to see if there are any Bobos to be found, after a quick cuddle you can adopt them. You then take them to get a name registered. And from there you can enter them in a race, or increase their stats with any fruit you may have knocking about. You select from a list of races. Each one requires your Bobo to have a certain level of skill to stand the best chance of winning. If you win, great! If not then your Bobo can still receive a stat increase. Though either way they’ll spend the rest of the day asleep.

Thankfully each aspect of a Bobo’s stats is explained.

The races themselves are passive affairs. Once you have entered your Bobo and they are in the race all you can do is watch them try and deal with whatever is in front of them. You can “hype” them to give them a slight boost at the expense of their stamina. But honestly, I have yet to find a time when the “hype” has done anything aside from wasting stamina and prolonging the inevitable. You can enter as many races as you like on a given day, so long as you have enough Bobo ready to go.

Chao for Now!

At the core, I feel there is much to enjoy with Bobo Bay. It is adorable and has a wholesome quality to it. But I feel the game needs a little extra something to take it to the next level. The Chao Gardens in Sonic Adventure was a side game, a chance to unwind and break up the flow of the high-speed platforming. Sure, it was deeper than similar side games. But it was a side-order, something you could dip in and out of as you wished. Here it is the sole focus. And as such the game needs to be a little deeper and a little more compelling.

Oh no, they’ve discovered football!

Don’t get me wrong. There is a fair amount of depth and crunch within managing the stats of your Bobos. And trying to figure out who will give you the best results. But outside of that, every day can be boiled down to waking up, snuggling, feeding, racing, sleep, repeat. Which isn’t a bad way to live come to think about it. But once the novelty of “Oh hey, here is a spiritual successor to the Chao Gardens!” wares off there isn’t much else there. In fairness it is early days, it is an alpha after all. And it does seem there is more planned to build this one out.

I’m personally just curious to see what else can be done. Because I frankly found the preview playthrough to be good, and if it all comes together well I can see Bobo Bay being a “Must Play” game in 2025.

Graphics & Audio – Lil’ Blue

As you can tell by the screenshots in this preview Bobo Bay has an art style that makes it clear that whilst this is a title that wears its inspirations on its sleeves it is trying to carve out an identity of its own. Well, as much as possible without losing that Chao Garden aesthetic. And whilst the graphics aren’t the most impressive they have a colourful charm that adds to the sweetness of it all. I don’t think it needs to be said that our titular critters are adorable on almost every level. Watching them pootle about the levels minding their own business and chilling between races is an incredibly sweet thing to see. And helps to take the charm levels to incredible heights.

As one expect (or hope depending on your point of view) Bobo Bay has a chill soundtrack. A perfect accompaniment to the vibe and feel of the game. Which honestly works incredibly well as you potter around the beach to see how your little buddies are getting on. The Bobo themselves will babble and chatter amongst themselves. The player character will occasionally chip in to talk to them too. Things get a little more bouncy in the races, where the soundtrack shifts into more of a late 90s/early-00s house-club sound. All be it still with a chill and not too overpowering tempo to it.

Bobo Bay was previewed on PC.