Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, the weekly column that takes a look at the non-cooperative happenings in the videogame industry. With Borderlands 2 and Torchlight 2 dominating the news this week, other gaming news was slim pickings. But we've still found a few choice morsels for hungry readers to savor.

Time for another delightful installment of Beyond Co-Op, where we tell you about all the non-cooperative news that matters. Anything else that happened last week was just white noise! This week we got some fun announcements coming out of Comic-Con, a slew of fighting game news, and a Kickstarter campaign that might just shake up the games industry.

As you all know, Sonic 4 Episode II will be featuring the classic duo of Sonic and Tails, exploring a new age of the Sonic combos these two will bring forth. Collaborative gameplay is the name of the game between Sonic and Tails this time around, using 1 of 3 combos to help players take on the difficult areas of any stage.

Quick!  Take a gander at these handful of screenshots from the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II for XBLA and PSN.  The two player co-op game has players jumping into the red shoes of Sonic or the white kicks of Tails as they race through some beautiful looking enviornments to defeat Dr. Robotnik.  You can even team up and take him on in two player co-op.

We all like having our favorite games on us when we are on the go, but what if I told you can take a game you play on your TV and pick up right where you left off on your phone? Well, Sonic 4: Episode II will now feature this convenient synchronizing capability come release!

Yep, looks like Sega will need to think of yet another way to re-invent the Blue Blur, as they have decided to possibly halt Sonic the Hedgehog 4 episodes indefinitely.

"Dundun dun derr, dun dun dun dun derder." The Sonic games have the type of music that will haunt me to my grave. The recent revamp, Sonic the Hedgehog 4, may have had the music, but did not have the co-op gameplay of Sonic 2. This is being rectified in Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II, according to the Xbox marketplace; they mention 2 player co-op both offline and online. Who could this second character be? Big the Cat? Of course not, it’s Tails - check out the latest gameplay trailer to see the speedy duo back in action.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I, the long-awaited return to 2D gameplay for the Sonic series, met with a mixed reception when it debuted on consoles in 2010. Part of its back to basics approach included ditching longtime partner Miles 'Tails' Prower, the flying fox with a voice that makes you just want to smack him. And of course, this guaranteed that Episode I was a single-player affair. But SEGA has recently released a teaser trailer for Sonic 4: Episode II that promises the return of Tails, along with classic nemesis Metal Sonic. Dare we hope that Tails' presence means that Sonic 2-style co-op will return as well?

This week's co-op session was a bit different.  With family over my house for my birthday party, my 5 year old nephew caught a glimpse of Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection sitting on my coffee table.  This of course meant he wanted to play it - and he wanted to play the games in co-op too!