Comix Zone

"Review number three..."

I think its time, that at least one person decides to truly appreciate this under-appreciated game. Do you agree? Do you? Do you even know that we are talking about a game named Comix Zone? I thought so. It joins Body Harvest in the ''underrated, very fun catagory. Now, let us start my third review...

The Introduction:
Now, I will make one small confession. Other then a pathetic demo on my dads PC, I do not own this game. That honor belongs to my buddy Steve Helps, the owner of this game. Yep, despite the fact that he has an N64, and a Sega Saturn, and his friend has a Playstation, he has still kept this game ever since he got it, six years back. He has introduced me to this game, and I never got tired of it (despite the fact that it is a Genesis game). I here only silence, because everyone else is reading Dreamcast and Playstation 2 reviews, but I will continue. The game itself has one other thing in common with Body Harvest. It is very hard to fit into catagories other than ''Action.'' It is also ''Adventure,'' ''Puzzle'' and best of all, ''Downright Fun.''

Story: 7/10
Not really that good of a story, I have seen better in my time. There is a cartoonist named Sketch Turner, and he was just sitting there in his room, and then, out of the blue, a creep named Mortis appeared out of nowhere and nothingness. He zapped Sketch and his pet rat Roadkill into the comic book. There, Sketch met Alissia, and she told him what was going on, and said she'd help him out. So Sketch set of, and now he has to make his way through the comic book to Mortis, whom he must defeat and stop the evil plan he may have. If you fail, Mortis becomes real and will go for world domination. Well, that's actually not to bad a story!

Graphics: 9/10
Even though its a Genesis game, the graphics are actually are pretty good! Well, of course this is based on a comic book, so there is never a dull picture! As for the backdrop, it's good too. You can see the mountains in the background, or the smashed Statue of Liberaty head (poor Americans). Yep, I'm a Canadian. Now, where were we? Oh yeah. Stay out of my booze! Seriously though, the characters are well done, and quite detailed. I especially like the enemy design...

Music and Sound: 7/10
Well, I don't like the music all that much. It is basically just a ''Rock and Roll'' track that goes over and over again. Not even the boss themes are to good! I also get impatient listening to Steve punching in the ''invincibility'' code, with that music playing over and over. As for the sound, it pulled this section up to a seven! The sound is very very good, particularly Gravis's springs, the fireballs from some people, the screeching of Mongaria, and the ''Hi-Ya!'' from Styx. There is however two sounds that I really can't stand. The ''Oh Yeah'' from Sketch when he beats the level, and the ''SKETCH, I'M DROWNING!'' from Alissia while you are battling Mortis. Don't tell Steve I said that okay?

Control: 8/10
The control is fairly smooth, and easy to use. There are plenty of moves, why, Steve's had this game for six years and we haven't found all the moves. Is that good or bad? I don't know. The only problem with the controls is the difficulty you may have is using items. You must push the nasty ol' C button. One time, me and one of Steve's friend were over at his house, and Steves friend was fighting Mongaria. He decided to realease Roadkill (the rat) to scare Mongaria of. He pressed C, but it woundn't work. Mongaria, meanwhile was fastly advancing on him. The friend started smashing the C button, and it got pushed deep into the controller, and was stuck for quite a while. I laugh just thinking about it...Steve doesn't.

Gameplay: 9/10
Very, very fun. The game is rather short, but that is made up for by the fun factor. In each panel of the comic book, there might be a enemy to defeat. All the enemies are quite tough, they all take a lot of whacks before dying. There may be a puzzle to overcome. It could be a room full of explosives, or a hidden switch that only Roadkill can trigger, or maybe a simply grate blocking the way. Some rooms contain both! At the end of each episode, (three in all, two levels per episode) there is a very difficult boss, that can't be defeated simply by punching it to death. In my opinion, the Kung-Fu master is the hardest. He shoots a lot of fireballs at you, then he jumps down, and starts shooting spikes into the wall, and you must push him into them. This is incredibly difficult, because if you punch him, then he will fly back up, and start shooting the fireballs at you. At the end of the game, you will encounter Mortis, whom you must defeat quite quickly or it will mean certain doom for someone important to Sketch. <cheerfully>: Oh well, its time to move on to the more things.

Difficulty: 8/10
Average difficulty, I guess. There are a few very, very tricky spots in the game, that will take a lot of skill to figure out. I just wish this game could have been longer though, six episodes would of done nicely. You can always test your skill on the Kung-Fu master. It still takes me a full ten minutes to defeat him! Steve can wear him down in three minutes, and I hate him for that and wish he was dead (not really).

Originality: 10/10
Hmm, I can't think of another game like this right of the bat, just a second...<very long pause>...just a second, I'm thinking...<six hours later>.... Well, no I can't really think of anything, and...HEY WAKE UP!

Replay Value: 6/10
Do you own just a Sega Genesis sir? Good. Do you own anything but it? Well, if you do, then the replay value is very good. How about you ma'am? What do you own? Hmm, N64, Saturn, Dreamcast, Playstation, Playstation 2, ay? Well then, chances are, you'll never play this game again. So you see, replay value kinda varies.

Buy or Rent? I would suggest buying. You can get Genesis games at any video game story quite cheaply at any store, chances are, there are some used copies floating around.


The Final Notes:
Once, again...

Overall Statistics:
Story: 7/10
Graphics: 9/10
Music and Sounds: 7/10
Control: 8/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Difficulty: 8/10
Originality: 10/10
Replay Value: 6/10
Buy or Rent? Buy
Overall: 9/10

Well, thats my third big review. More coming soon! Oh yeah, and a nice warm Canadian ''Happy Independance Day!!!''

Signed: j_ohanley (j_ohanley92@hotmail.com)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/24/00, Updated 07/24/00