Comix Zone

Comix Zone is a 1995 beat 'em up video game developed and published by Sega for the Genesis. It is set within the panels of a comic book with dialogue rendered within talk bubbles and sprites, and backgrounds possessing the bright colors and dynamic drawing style of superhero comics. This style is in previous video games, for example Ocean Software's "" in 1988, but "Comix Zone" stretched the idea to such an extent that Sega applied for and were granted a patent for a "Videogame system for creating a simulated comic book game".
The concept for the game originated from a 1992 demo video for the Commodore Amiga titled "Joe Pencil Trapped In The Comix Zone", animated by Peter Morawiec. It explores how the gameplay and the comic book elements would blend in.
Plot.
Sketch Turner, a "starving artist" and freelance rock musician living in New York City, is working on his newest comic book, "Comix Zone". It is the story of the New World Empire's attempt to defend Earth from an invasion of alien renegades, with inspiration coming from Sketch's oddly vivid dreams and nightmares. One night, while Sketch is working on "Comix Zone" during a thunderstorm, a lightning bolt strikes a panel of his comic. In this instant, its main villain, a powerful mutant named Mortus, escapes the comic book's pages, desiring to kill Sketch so he can become flesh and blood and take over the real world. Because he does not possess any power in reality, Mortus sends Sketch into the world of his own comic, freely drawing in enemies attempting to kill him.
Inside the comic book, Sketch meets General Alissa Cyan, who believes he is "the chosen one" who came to save their post-apocalyptic world from the evil of Mortus and the alien invaders. Ignoring Sketch's protests, Alissa sends him on his mission, keeping in touch with instructions and hints via radio. It is up to Sketch to stop Mortus's evil plans and find a way out of this comic world.
The game has two possible endings. At the end of the game, Alissa attempts to defuse a nuclear weapon that Mortus and the Mutants plan on using to wipe out the New World Empire and humanity, when Mortus comes back into the comic and throws her into the chamber, which starts to fill up with liquid. Mortus then battles Sketch personally. If the player defeats Mortus and the Kreeps he summons as he takes damage quickly enough to drain the liquid and save Alissa before the nuke self-destructs, an ending occurs where Alissa comes to the real world with Sketch and Roadkill and joins the army, eventually becoming Chief of Security for the United States. Roadkill is given a vast amount of mozzarella cheese, and spends a lot of time exploring the city's new sewer system when not sleeping under a pile of Sketch's dirty socks. "Comix Zone" becomes an instant sensation, selling out on the first day, making Sketch famous as it becomes the best-selling comic book ever.
Defeating Mortus after the chamber fills with liquid, Alissa dies as the nuke self-destructs. Sketch and Roadkill come out, but Sketch's comic is destroyed, leaving him devastated at having saved the New World Empire, but failed to save Alissa.
Gameplay.
"Comix Zone" is an action platformer in which players control Sketch as he progresses through panels of his comic book, hoping to reach the end and escape before his own creations finish him off. Each level consists of two pages and secrets are discovered by shredding the paper and revealing items. Along with standard attacks such as punching, kicking and jump attacks, Sketch can store up to three items in his inventory to help him overcome obstacles. Along with weapons such as bombs and knives which can also be used to destroy obstacles, Sketch can pick up iced tea to restore his health, and a fist that transforms Sketch into Super Sketch, dealing a powerful attack on all on-screen enemies. His pet rat Roadkill can discover hidden items and access areas that are too dangerous for Sketch to reach.
Sketch can also tear off the backdrop into a paper plane to throw at enemies, but this costs health and can also hurt Sketch if he's not careful. In order to progress through the pages, Sketch often has to either successfully solve a puzzle, or defeat all the enemies within that panel. Arrows will then appear, allowing Sketch to jump to another panel, with some areas offering multiple routes.
Sketch's health is determined by a health bar, which is diminished when Sketch is damaged by enemies or obstacles. It will also diminish as Sketch punches through breakable objects or if he uses his paper plane move. If Sketch loses all his life, or falls down a bottomless pit, the game will end and Mortus will take his place in the real world.
However, the player can gain extra chances by clearing the first and second chapters, which allow Sketch to resume from the beginning of the page should he die. "Comix Zone" is designed to be used with the 6-button gamepad: buttons X, Y and Z correspond to the three inventory slots Sketch has. If used with a 3-button gamepad, button C cycles through the items, and button A activates the item. Button C on a 6-button gamepad is used for a custom action, blocking by default; on a 3-button gamepad, Sketch blocks automatically.
Reception.
On release, "Famicom Tsūshin" scored the Mega Drive version of the game a 30 out of 40. "GamePro" considered the game's visuals a successful recreation of the look and feel of a comic book, but said that the game quickly sours once the player encounters the repetitive combat and overly simplistic puzzles. They also found problems with the controls: "Sketch can't move rapidly around the panel, and button slamming yields unpredictable results." They concluded, "You really want to love "Comix Zone" for its original elements, but after a few panels, the honeymoon's over." The four reviewers of "Electronic Gaming Monthly" acknowledged the problems with the controls, but also remarked that the graphics are exceptionally colorful for a Genesis game, and argued that the originality of its comic book look makes it a must-have despite its flaws.
"Next Generation" reviewed the Genesis version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "A very cool idea for a game that wasn't executed properly, "Comix Zone" is better than most."
Ports and related releases.
The game was ported to Windows 3.1 in 1995 by Sega PC. It was the first game to use the WinG graphics library.
The game was ported to the Game Boy Advance only in Europe on September 11, 2002, which was developed by Virtucraft and published by Sega. Its significantly smaller screen size that allows much less on-screen was said to reduce the effect of seeing into the other frames around the player, making it more like a traditional platform game.
The game is hidden within the Japanese version of "Sonic Mega Collection" and can be unlocked in all versions of "Sonic Mega Collection Plus" by having a "Sonic Heroes" game save, or by starting all other Genesis games at least 50 times. The game is part of the "Sega Genesis Collection" for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable (also called "Sega Mega Drive Collection" in PAL regions) On January 29, 2007, "Comix Zone" was released for the Wii's Virtual Console, and Xbox Live Arcade on June 10, 2009. The game appears in "Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection" (for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) and on June 3, 2010, it was released on Steam. It is also included in the Genesis pack. In August 2011, the game was made available for download on PlayStation Network as part of the "Sega Vintage Collection", with trophy support.
On June 22, 2017, the game was published on iOS and Android mobile operating systems as part of the "Sega Forever" retro game collection.
The game is in the Genesis Mini retro console which was released on September 19, 2019.
On September 22, 2020, a vinyl record soundtrack of the game's music was announced by record label Cartridge Thunder. The record release features the original Sega Genesis soundtrack by Howard Drossin, as well as live recordings from the band Roadkill.