Comix Zone

"Someone should have given Sketch an eraser."

Story.

You are Sketch.
By some unholy videogame physics you are trapped inside your own comic book. This being caused by the evil baddie you created yourself.
But you are not alone. Your trusty rat Roadkill and some woman are there to help you.

That is pretty much the story and I'm glad it is all.

Gameplay.

The game is basically a beat 'em up with some ''puzzles'', but not executed in straight levels. You go from one comic book picture (is there a word for this?) to another. While walking around and fighting you will see text floating above Sketch and the enemies and so gradually a ''story'' unfolds.
At first sight this looks really innovative (and it certainly is).
But the problem with the neat idea is that it is worked out badly.

First of all the controls.
The control scheme allows for a jump, hit and select button. The effect of the hit button depends on the direction pressed. Using various combinations you can pull off all kinds of moves. Ranging from sweeps to punches to spinning kicks. The whole martial art scala is there.
There are also some special moves, but since they are not needed to finish the game (neither is the variety of normal moves) I have not seen them.
The reason for this is that the enemies have, for one thing, bad AI.
You can walk up to them and simply smash the hit button. This will cause Sketch to do his thing and the enemy is history pretty quickly.
Some enemies do ''recognize'' repeated patterns and will block, but only for a very short while.
In all, this leads to a very boring experience through three levels full of the same enemies.

Three levels also translate to three bosses according to this game. These bosses are unfortunately nothing exciting. Although some (two) can not be hit directly and have to be hit indirectly, this does not at all amount to a shred of amazement.

With the select button you can choose an item and after that you can use it with the hit button.

The rat (Roadkill) takes himself one of the three item spaces whenever you pick him up.
Using the rat (it can find hidden powerups and can fight enemies) proves very tiresome. The rat is not always successful when you want him to find powerups.
Letting go of the rat several times at a place where you know a powerup to be hidden and seeing the rat unable to locate it will amount to some irritation.

The AI of the rat is even less than the enemies. It will walk off broken bridges and cliffs without any thought.
Nothing will prove more fun than seeing the rat unable to locate a hidden power up and then walk off a cliff when you need the animal the most.

Also Sketch is not without any control problems.
There is a part in the game where you have to climb along a rope while you get hit by two enemies at a time.
At times you'll get hit and keep hanging on to the rope, but other times you will simply fall to instant death.

These flaws combined produce anything but a pleasant gaming experience.
Imagine this idea being well executed. Would not this, even today, in the guise of some popular comic be extremely popular?

Graphics.

The animation of Sketch is well done, but he is also the only character with
such animation.
The enemies are a strange mix. Some look really cartoony, others bland. No great designs to be found here.
Most levels (you'll come across the average themes) look pretty detailed and show off a nice collection of colours.
There are also some effects that make the whole look even better. There is snow falling in one level for example and others have pools of water reflecting the background.

A warning if you plan to play the European version in 60Hz (on a Genesis or Japanese Mega Drive). Don't.
It glitches severely and may even crash.

Music.

To sum up the music in three words ''FM guitar rock'' would be enough.
People have indeed been blaming the sound synthesis of the Genesis for the bad quality of the music.
I however do not agree with them. One has just to listen, for example, to the music of Thunderforce IV to hear that guitar sounds can be well produced using the Genesis sound hardware.
But this doesn't change the fact that the music from Comix Zone is indeed lame. Most of the tracks sound dreary and monotonous.
I failed to find any memorable tracks in this game.

The sound effects consist of the usual ''martial arts sounds''. The enemies have some shouts every once in a while and so do the rat and the hero.
Yawn.

Replay value.

I regard the replay value of this game really low.
Besides this type of game, when imperfectly executed, being boring very quickly there are here additional flaws present.
There are plenty of good beat 'em ups on the Genesis system. To name a couple: Streets of Rage II and Final Fight (Sega CD) stand the test of time perfectly.
When you have a choice between games like that and Comix Zone the choice should prove easy.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/02/02, Updated 07/02/02