Comix Zone
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By Mats Paasche
Comix Zone is a beat em’ up action game released in 1995 on the Sega Mega Drive, also known as the Sega Genesis. The game has since been released on several compilations as well as the Virtual Console and Xbox Live Arcade. I played it on SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection for PS3.
You are Sketch Turner, a young struggling comic book artist. One stormy night Sketch is sitting in his loft New York apartment working on his latest comic, when suddenly lightning strikes and a hand reaches out of the comic book. Next thing you know the evil villain Mortus (which is Latin for Dead) has escaped the comic book, and drags you into your own comic. Apparently he can’t kill you in the real world but “knows just the place to do it”.
At the beginning of the first level you run into Alissa, a sexy brunette who also happens to be a general. She serves as your guide and provides helpful tips throughout your adventure and later becomes your obligatory love interest. When you meet her she immediately assumes you are “the chosen one” and sends you on a mission to find and eliminate Mortus and his mutated Henchmen. You barely get enough time to express your confusion before you’re sent off to fight your first couple of mutants.
The levels or “episodes” are made up of comic book pages, each episode has two pages and there are three episodes in total. You progress each page by jumping from panel to panel, each panel is a different scene with light puzzles or fights. The game is pretty short, but since it’s also very difficult you’ll most likely spend a fair share of time with it.
The gameplay itself is actually pretty cool and polished for its time. You have one button to attack, one to block and one to jump, using these in combination with the directional pad makes Sketch do various combos. Because of this, the combat has a surprising amount of depth. You’ll also pick up items along the way. This includes everything from throwing knives, power-ups and explosives, to a pet rat that you can use to stun enemies, solve puzzles or even discover secret items by ripping holes in the pages of the comic.
The game can be very frustrating and hard though. Each time you hit a blocking enemy or destroy obstacle, you lose life, and you have to do this a lot. The problem is slightly mended by healing potions, but these are so few and far between that you still die a lot if you’re not extremely careful. Once you’re dead you restart at the beginning of the episode, and since each episode is quite long this can be extremely annoying. This isn’t exactly helped by bottomless pits and other cheap deaths.
Comix Zone is an indubitable classic that ultimately suffered from a late lifecycle release and hardcore exclusive appeal. The game has a very admirable amount of polish and its concept and visual style is a delight to watch and play. The game also has a pretty decent soundtrack and great sound design. This is a game you should definitely dust off and give another go, if only to see how much, more recent games have been inspired by it. And if you can get past the difficulty you’ll have a great time.