Sonic Pico Park Is the Couch Co-op Game My Nephew and I Have Been Waiting For

Honestly, this one got me. Pico Park is already the game I reach for when my nephew comes over and we've got twenty minutes before dinner - it's silly, it's loud, and someone always ends up blaming someone else for a dropped key. Now SEGA has gone and put Sonic in it, and I'm not sure my living room is ready.

Sonic Pico Park, made with the original Pico Park team at TECOPARK, arrives on Switch and Switch 2 on 12 November 2026. It's also coming to PS5, Xbox Series and PC, so if your friends are scattered across consoles, the good news is it supports online play with cross-play on top of the usual couch chaos. Two to eight players, same recipe: tiny stages, one shared goal, and puzzles that only work when everyone actually cooperates. Which, in my experience, is where the laughing starts.

The new trailer dropped during SEGA's Club Chaos stream for Sonic's 35th anniversary, and the headline is that Silver and Blaze have joined the playable lineup. That matters more than it sounds - half the fun of Pico Park is arguing over who gets to be who, and a bigger roster means fewer tears from the youngest player at the table. Expect Sonic-style gimmicks too: spin dashes, rings, loops and springs woven into the puzzle logic.

What I love about this pairing is how low the barrier is. Pico Park has always been a game you can hand to a complete newcomer - a grandparent, a six-year-old, a friend who 'doesn't really play games' - and they'll be contributing within a minute. Sonic gives it a face people already know. For families on a Switch, that combination is kind of perfect.

I'll be honest, I don't need a 60-hour epic every month. Sometimes I need a game where eight people shout 'wait, WAIT, don't jump yet' in unison. Mid-November, that's exactly what I'll be playing.

Image: Matthew Paul Argall from Australia / CC BY 2.0, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sonic_the_Hedgehog_for_Sega_Master_System_(44460857132).jpg