Comix Zone

Comix Zone is a late-generation Sega Genesis game that's got plenty of style to spare. Yet it is perhaps more known for its infamous difficulty than its spot-on comic book presentation. It features comic book artist Sketch Turner falling into his own work, forcing him to fight his way through the villain's plot. So, just how fun was it? Well...

What I liked...
-Amazing comic book graphics. Comix Zone has a style that I've never seen in any other game. Some games attempt to recreate comic book illustrations with cel shading, but Comix Zone accomplishes it not only with comic-style sprites, but also actual panels that our hero Sketch Turner must swing between as if they were 3D walls. Enemies fall apart into shreds of paper. Text, bubbles, onomatopoeia (POW, etc.), and the like all look straight out of a comic book.

-What's alright...
-Simple fighting mechanics. The developers accomplished a lot with just one button for attacking. There are a lot of ways to punch and kick by using the control pad and jump button in conjunction with the attack button. Unfortunately, the fighting is still not particuarly deep, despite all the animation that goes along with it. Enemies block a lot, but I never felt like I learned anything about breaking their blocks, other than getting into a lucky groove.
-Unforgiving continue system. I'm all for a game being brutal and sending you back to the beginning of the game, but I can't help but wonder if Comix Zone goes too far. The game is very short (6 comic book "pages," two pages per level), so it's only right that a game over sends you back to the beginning. On the first level, you have no extra lives. On the second level, you get one more chance. After beating the second level, you have one more life added. In other words, you have only two chances to die before it's all over. I love the challenge, but the method borders on unfair.

What I didn't like so much...
-Control failure and other quirks. Mostly, the game controls well, but certain actions are awkward. Rolling, for example, requires you to crouch and then hit diagonally downward. It sort of works, but not always. Grabbing levers was often difficult for no apparant reason, and sometimes as I pushed a box to destroy a trap, Sketch would continue moving straight into the trap even after I stopped pushing the control pad. In one particular place in level 2, sometimes enemies would cause me to lose my grip on a rope and fall to my death, but other times they would not... and I couldn't figure out why. And on level 2, that means if it happens twice in a row, then it's back to the start. Jumping controls aren't well suited to dodging projectile attacks, but it works with practice.

I gave Comix Zone 2/4 stars on my Backloggery for "decent." It's not a bad brawler, and I'm pretty sure brawler die-hards would get a big kick out of it. It's short, but very challenging. It's not perfect, but it's a decent game with an amazing visual style that must be seen to be believed. Check it out if you're into brawlers and can weather the unforgiving lack of extra lives.