Comix Zone Review

Ladies and gentlemen the 90’s were a strange time. A time in which super muscle dudes who wore John Lennon glasses and fingerless leather gloves, shorts and a sweater, who drew their own comic books could enter said comic books and beat up monsters of their own creation with the help of their pet rat.

I know. I know. You’ve heard it a million times before.

Comix Zone is exactly that. It’s a beat em up that takes place inside a comic book. Out hero/creator has been zapped into the book by his own super evil creation. Sketch Turner is the main dude. And Sketch is not in quotes so that is not a nickname. Mortus is his evil creation. He’s kind of got a zombie cowboy vibe going on.

So, Mortus trapped Sketch inside the book and Sketch has to fight his way out. That’s the whole story.

Sketch can punch, jump, get punched, and… that’s really about it. The action takes place inside the panels of the comic book and Sketch can interact with the panels a little bit. Like tearing parts off to turn into a projectile. There are items that can be picked up by that pet rat of his, Roadkill. Sketch can hold three items, Roadkill being one of them.

There are a few single use weapons like knives and iced tea to heal you.

The game is kind of hard. You have one life. If your health bar drops to zero or you drop down a pit, that’s it. Game over, pal. You do gain a continue if you complete a page. A page is a stage in this game. There are 6 pages which works out to be 3 two part levels in the game.

The game is, honestly, kind of hard. The combat isn’t great, the enemies are kind of cheap, the bosses are hard, items are very rare.

It’s fun enough but suffers from Beat Em Up syndrome. It’s too long. They’re always just a little longer than they need to be.

The look of the game, I will say though, is stupendous. The sprites look great, they’re large enough to be detailed but not overly so. The comic book look of the world an enemies works really well on the Genesis.

The music really has a 90’s alternative rock vibe to it which works out with the era and look of the game. The only downside is the crummy midi chip in the Genesis. It’s kind of brash and harsh. Tinny at times. But that’s an issue with the Genesis not the game itself.

Other than being a little too long and a lot too hard for it’s own good, the game is actually pretty decent. It’s a time capsule for the 90’s if nothing else. But is it worth opening? Eeehhh.