Everybody can Spin Dash in Sonic Pico Park

Sonic is perched on a little blue platform while seven companions form a crooked tower beneath him. The tiny cat-shaped heroes of Sonic Pico Park have the hair, tails and colours of familiar friends, and an awkward-looking gap to cross together. It's a delightful use of this cast: even the world's fastest hedgehog has other people to think about on the way to the finish.

TECOPARK's cooperative action-puzzler arrives on 12 November, bringing Sonic's Spin Dash, rings, loops and springs into the world of Pico Park. Between two and eight people can play locally or online, with crossplay supported. The appeal is easy to grasp from that combination. You get Sonic's recognisable toys in compact puzzles whose solution involves the group, for a couple as well as a crowded evening on the sofa.

A familiar move for every pair of paws

Every playable character can Spin Dash. That gives the crossover a common action to build around, whether you're wearing Sonic blue, Knuckles red or Amy pink. The goal sits on the right-hand side of each stage, so everybody shares a clear destination. Getting the group across the space between the start and that goal is the job. Curling into a speeding ball gives everyone a familiar way to get moving.

The characters are wonderfully economical little things. A few blocks of colour and a distinctive head are enough to recognise Tails or Knuckles, even alongside the original cats. The stages follow the same approach: pale backgrounds, solid blue platforms and bright objects that stand apart from the scenery. A spring is conspicuous; so is a gold key. Your eye goes straight to the things the team has to deal with, without a busy landscape competing for attention.

One layout places a spring at the edge of a platform, with the assembled characters stretched into a diagonal line above the gap. Another has Sonic curled at the bottom of a curved ramp, beneath companions gathered around a ledge. These are appealing little arrangements because the characters occupy so much of the puzzle themselves. Their positions, the shape of the ground and the familiar Sonic object are all easy to see at once. It looks like a game where pointing at the screen will be part of the conversation.

Two friends can bring the whole game

The confirmed player range is useful for planning an evening: all content supports any group size within that two-to-eight range. A pair can see everything without gathering six extra people. Equally, an eight-person group can tackle the game together. The attraction of the larger gathering is visible in that improbable tower of characters; the practical attraction of the smaller one is simply having someone available to play. You can choose the size of the gathering without choosing a smaller selection of stages.

On PC, up to seven local players can join an online session from a single machine. That makes a mixed gathering possible, with several people together and another player joining remotely. Crossplay also gives friends on different systems a way to share the puzzles. For a cooperative game built around getting everybody to one destination, making it easier to assemble the group is a particularly welcome feature.

For another shared-evening option, Let's Sing 2027 offers a two-player Soundtown adventure and four-singer modes. Here, the full two-to-eight-player range applies throughout the content. Choose the activity that suits the people coming over: singing together and steering a small crowd through a platform puzzle ask quite different things of a room.

More friends for November

Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy feature on the official game page alongside PICO CAT. Silver and Blaze have also joined the line-up, as reported in Nintendo Life's coverage of October's anniversary trailer. The miniature designs give those guest appearances a particular charm. Each new face joins a cast already reduced to the few pixels needed to recognise it.

The official release list includes PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch and Switch 2. SEGA announced the collaboration for Sonic's 35th anniversary, with TECOPARK developing and PICO PARK publishing. The strongest invitation is still that small group beneath the blue ledge: familiar characters, a visible destination and a problem they share. Bring at least one friend on 12 November. There is room for seven.