Pico Park is a co-op platformer that me and my friends decided to pick up to celebrate our birthdays occurring around the same time. I had no idea what to expect when my friend Joe told me that we were going to be playing it, but boy, what a surprise it turned out to be.
Gameplay in Pico Park takes you to multiple worlds known as “parks” where the objective is to obtain a key to open a door at the end of the level. While this might seem simple enough, each park has its own gimmick to learn to be able to complete it’s levels successfully. For example the “All for One” park only allows one player to be on the level at a time, but every couple of moves they are switched out with another player. This can get pretty hectic if you’re playing in a big group as you could be switched in and out after only making a couple of moves. Another one known as the “Retro Game” park takes your group through a bunch of old games (go figure) such as Tetris and Breakout. There is a surprising amount of variety in each of the parks and I was always left wondering what the next one would bring.
Everything revolves around the 2-8 player Co-op which means you’re going to have to bring some friends along for the ride. The more players you have with you, the more fun Pico Park gets as working together in a big group always makes things more chaotic. Teamwork is valued so heavily, that even if one person dies, the whole team is forced to wipe and start over from the beginning. That means everyone is going to have to carry their own weight, but at the same time help their friends overcome their weaknesses in platforming. This is reminiscent of the commands that St. Paul gave in his letters to the Galatians, Ephesians, and Corinthians to work together to achieve a higher good. Much like in Pico Park, we have to be in this race together if we are going to reach Heaven.
Moving on to sound, the tracks of Pico Park are in 8-bit with a happy and upbeat tempo which is reminiscent of old Pokémon and Mario games. While the songs are pretty catchy, there are only a handful in the entire game and it can get a bit annoying hearing the same song over and over again. This however can be excused as the game is only $5 and aims to have an old school feeling. Lastly, Pico Park’s cute sound effects give the game a lot of charm and help put a nice big smile on your face during these troubling times.
With not much else to say, Pico Park is a nice little indie game that allows you to have some fun with a group of friends. It’s simplicity is a nice change from the likes of Fortnite and Warzone where you’re tempted to give it your all every match. I hope you’re ready to start platforming with some friends, Just make sure to have not killed them by the end. Okay?
Scoring: 80%
Gameplay: 4/5
Art and Graphics: 4/5
Music: 4/5
Replayability: 4/5
Morality/Parental Warnings
Online interactivity: Pico Park has an online gamemode where you can group up with other players, however the servers are very inactive, so you’ll probably just be stuck playing with friends. No real form of chat is present besides a tab menu which lets you throw out basic commands such as “lets go” or “retry”.
Wrath: Pico Park relies heavily upon working with your team, so be sure to control your anger as it’s easy to want to get mad at your teammates for messing up.
