Can your team outrun Metal Sonic in Sonic Pico Park?

Metal Sonic is close enough to pick off the stragglers. In a press screenshot from Sonic Pico Park, a yellow Pico Cat hangs back while the rest of the group bunches up ahead. Gold rings bob above their heads and the blue robot streaks along the floor between them. It's a small scene with an awkward question for whoever's leading. How far ahead do you want to be when there's still somebody behind him?

TECOPARK's co-op puzzler launches on 12 November with two familiar villains. Metal Sonic pursues the party across a scrolling stage, while Dr. Eggman swings a wrecking ball around an arena. Both are easy to recognise from a distance. That's handy when you're trying to keep track of your own little character, watch an enemy and see which of your friends is about to jump into trouble.

One rival, a whole pack to catch

Metal Sonic made his debut in Sonic CD, where Eggman's robotic copy went head to head with Sonic in a race. The speed of the other hedgehog was the problem. Here, watch the space between the players as much as the space between Sonic and his rival. The floor keeps moving through the frame during the chase. A lead that feels comfortable to the player on the right can leave a friend making their next jump with the robot in the way.

There's a clear destination in an ordinary Pico Park stage. The goal plate is on the right and the group works out how to get everybody there. You can see that idea at work in our look at the game's springs and shared puzzles, where the party gathers around a ledge and the position of each character helps explain the puzzle. With Metal Sonic closing in, the arrangement of the party changes as you move. A call to jump that helps the player in front comes at a different point in the run for the friend who's a platform behind.

Every playable character can Spin Dash, so the cat at the back has the same basic burst of speed as Sonic. The neat part is that giving everyone the move leaves each player responsible for when to use it. A dash buys room from a pursuer. It also takes you further from the friend whose next jump you were watching. The person at the front has a reason to keep looking left.

Eggman's wrecking ball takes up the room

Eggman's fight gives your eyes somewhere else to go. His Eggmobile hovers above a broad floor with narrow platforms up the sides, and the chain puts the ball a good distance from the craft. The boss health bar sits at the top. Below it, the press shot catches several characters near the floor, one green Pico Cat higher up on the left and a blue cat far to the right. With the ball hanging between them, one group can be watching an entirely different route out of danger from the other.

The chain is a particularly good fit for this stripped-back arena. You can see where it starts and where it ends, and the ball is enormous next to the players. Eggman can be above you while the dangerous part of his machine is over by your friend. A shouted 'move' has its limits in a room like that. Calling out where the ball is gives everybody something they can act on, whether they're up on a platform or still crossing the floor.

The fight looks different from the back

Look for the little gold rings when the party gets busy. In classic Sonic, carrying rings protects you from a hit. The old games scatter them when you're struck, a signal you can read while you're still moving. In the Pico Park boss screenshots, rings above individual characters put that familiar shape right where you're already looking. The yellow cat has a ring and a little blue number over its head. In Eggman's arena, there are loose rings between the players on the floor and the cat on the ledge.

Both encounters sit inside a game designed to let two to eight people play every stage. A pair has two positions to track and can speak to each other directly. A full group has more eyes on the arena, with more voices trying to get a warning through. The screenshots already give a good sense of that difference. Even with the characters picked out in bright colours, look at how easily the players in the centre of Metal Sonic's chase turn into one moving patch of pink, red, orange and blue.

There's a small pleasure in how plainly these villains explain their intentions. Metal Sonic tilts forward and comes after you. Eggman hangs a giant ball from a little flying pod. You can grasp the threat on the same screen that your friend is still working out where to land. That's the part worth watching when the group takes off. The jump that looks straightforward from the front can leave the player behind you with a robot on their heels and very little time to line up the same move.