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[Melubas]

So I remember when I was a kid, whenever I went to my father's place I would be psyched to play some Mega Drive, or Genesis for you americans (I had the Nintendo consoles at mom's, the Mega Drive at dad's). One of these games was Comix Zone. I liked it back then, too. What I remember most about it is probably the difficulty and the music. Fast forward to this christmas when I got a Mega Drive Flashback, plug it in, and launch Comix Zone again. Holy shit, it holds up perfectly well.

In Comix Zone you play as Sketch Turner, a comic book artist who finds himself plunged into his own stories where he has to fight villains he drew himself. As you play the villain will draw new obstacles that you have to overcome, and there is a lot of dialogue in the form of text bubbles, which makes it feel more like an interactive visual novel and less like a game.

Everything is more or less perfect; the cartoony yet realistic visuals, the fluid animations, the way you jump from page to page in a comic book. I love the grunge-y music and the sound effects. The music is a style I've never really heard in any other game, but it fits perfectly with the mood. And regarding the sound effects there's something immensely satisfying about the sound when you finish a combo and Sketch screams out. It also has sampled voices which is pretty cool for a Mega Drive game.The gameplay is super fun. Even though the combat system is not that advanced it feels like a fighting game in its own right. You can't just mash things out. And the difficulty is on another level. In the later levels you will get destroyed, but it's a pretty short game so it doesn't matter. I never managed to complete it but I think it has like five levels.

Anyone else like this as much as I do?

 

[_Zento]

I LOVED this game as a kid. I must have played through it 2-3 times on the Mega Drive (Genesis). It'd be great for it to be revisited one day with an updated comic book 2d style.

 

[Revolutionary]

I loved the style and art but the gameplay didn't do it for me back then. If I recall correctly, Vectorman came out around the same time and I much preferred that game.

 

[Klart]

Why can't we play any MD games like this on current gen?

Is a (slightly updated/extended) Megadrive Collection really too much to ask?

 

[Blam]

I really liked this game shame not many people played it.

 

[DryvBy]

Awesome game. Really good art design too. I originally played it on PC so I have no idea if it looked a lot better on there.

 

[Harlock]

The trick is this game is puzzle. You need to learn how to beat each page taking the least amount of damage. Most people will like like a regular beat up game and get annoyed when you tale damage puching doors, for example.

 

[BANGS]

How exactly is this game overlooked? It's been rereleased a thousand times and is always towards the top of the charts in "best genesis games" lists and such...

It is an amazing game in so many ways, from graphics to style to overall concept. But it certainly has some major flaws. Combat feels kinda stiff compared to games like streets of rage(although it's very similar and certainly serviceable) and you take damage from hitting inanimate objects... also I don't believe there was two player support. That said, I do like to run through it every now and then...

 

[Melubas]

Dropping some songs here, listen and be amazed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlREn2A2OCQ&index=4&list=PLB0xooEkKbSat73Y_C5-OFakTsxoyPoUJ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-AKe6bbc1M&index=6&list=PLB0xooEkKbSat73Y_C5-OFakTsxoyPoUJ

 

[Melubas]

How exactly is this game overlooked? It's been rereleased a thousand times and is always towards the top of the charts in "best genesis games" lists and such...

It is an amazing game in so many ways, from graphics to style to overall concept. But it certainly has some major flaws. Combat feels kinda stiff compared to games like streets of rage(although it's very similar and certainly serviceable) and you take damage from hitting inanimate objects... also I don't believe there was two player support. That said, I do like to run through it every now and then...

First of all a lot of mega drive games tend to get overlooked in favor of SNES games as far as I'm concerned, another example is the vastly superior Batman & Robin game that never get mentioned even though people talk about the SNES iteration. I wasn't aware it had been rerelased apart from the mega drive flashback release, but if so cool! Glad you like it though. I never saw it as a beat em up game in the same vein as Streets of Rage, so the fighting never bothered me. Then again it has more options than those games if I remember correctly? I love Streets of Rage too though.

 

[HellforLeather]

Yep, its a fantastic game that looks amazing. Its probably got the best animation of any gave of the 16 bit era.


....it was also tough as fuckin coffin nails. I could never get very far

 

[The Awesomest]

I remember loving this as a kid, but I could never get much further than the start of the second level.

 

[SpiceRacz]

I don't think it's overlooked at all. My understanding is it sold/reviewed well at the time and it's usually in any ranking of top Genesis games. I mean, it's available on Steam and thw Google Play store.

 

[DouglasteR]

Overlooked ? Never.

Right after Truxton, Burning force, left from The Revenge of Shinobi, in some sector of my heart !

 

[Maso]

I loved it. It's probably the most memorable Genesis game for me.

 

[PSYGN]

One of my favorite games of all time.

 

[chemicals]

I played this today on Steam. Love it. Such a cool concept.

 

[Koala Driving a Ferrari]

I never realised that this game was so well liked. I played it briefly a while back but dismissed it as the gameplay never clicked. I'll have to give it another shot. I absolutely love the Mega Drive.

 

[PleaseDontBanMe]

A classic indeed

 

[Hinedorf]

Ok now.....I'm really not sure what universe any of you are from, THIS IS A TOTAL PIECE OF CRAP GAME.

If you want to fire some nostalgia bullets from your past, that's fine but I can tell you exactly what this game was....In the era of video game rentals this is the type of game you'd rent for a weekend AND NEVER PLAY AGAIN.

The controls were poor, the difficulty was clunky like most games of the time due to the poor relation between controls and graphics.

I don't want to be the hater, but you can go through just about every gamers top10 games from that era and never find Comix Zone. This game was GREAT CONCEPT, and a shitty everything else.

 

[StriC-NYNE]

Definitely one of my childhood games I kept playing back to back, and one that I could never beat back then (I'd always get stuck around that tournament level - that long nailed old man boss in the sewers). I did eventually go back to it like a year ago and even got to beat it, and while I still do cherish this game dearly, now I fully understand why I couldn't get passed certain areas. The game definitely does have some questionable design choices.

You straight up shouldn't be punished for simply progressing in a game, I.E., you shouldn't lose health for breaking comic strips, pillars, boulders etc that block your only path to the next page / screen. It's like they just expect you to know when to use bombs at certain times to bypass barricades even on your first playthrough, and even then you're bound to lose health anyway because literally everything hurts you and you only have 3 item boxes to fill in to pass on hurting yourself.

Then you had some enemies that were placed in the worst conceivable areas. I remember in one of those mountain levels, there were multiple flying skull bat things swarming around you as you try to cross under a tight rope. As you're fighting these bats, there's a guy shooting fireballs from afar guarding the only way out. the only way to dodge the fireballs is if you raise your feet up, but you're defenseless in that state as your only way of attacking are your legs, and you need them to hit the bats that are constantly coming from all angles. Mind you, if you get hit hard ONCE from any of these obstacles, you fall into the bottomless pit and you die. You don't get lives in this game and continues come in arbitrarily (or maybe you just simply don't get enough points by then?), so you're lucky to even have one. If you weren't given a continue, it's literally game over and you have to start all the way back from the beginning. And I recall that mountain level being in the middle of the game. It's extremely brutal

Then you just have every enemy who just attack whenever they feel like it even when they're supposed to be in block stun. Even when you're comboing them they'll just get those random cheap shots in.

So yea, this game is really challenging, even at it's own detriment at points. I'm a gaming sadist and love me some hard ass games, but obviously prefer if they were designed soundly. I wish there was Comix Zone 2 where they'd iron out those kinks and expanded on more comic like tropes and all that because damn do these graphics and sound still hold up. The game even ends on a potential sequel tease... but that's just being too hopeful.

 

[Jreede]

Ok now.....I'm really not sure what universe any of you are from, THIS IS A TOTAL PIECE OF CRAP GAME.

If you want to fire some nostalgia bullets from your past, that's fine but I can tell you exactly what this game was....In the era of video game rentals this is the type of game you'd rent for a weekend AND NEVER PLAY AGAIN.

The controls were poor, the difficulty was clunky like most games of the time due to the poor relation between controls and graphics.

I don't want to be the hater, but you can go through just about every gamers top10 games from that era and never find Comix Zone. This game was GREAT CONCEPT, and a shitty everything else.

This pretty much sums up my thoughts on the game. Fantastic concept, horrible execution. I seriously doubt the majority of people waxing poetic about the game on this thread even got halfway through the game.

 

[NoKisum]

Why can't we play any MD games like this on current gen?

Is a (slightly updated/extended) Megadrive Collection really too much to ask?

This and a whole bunch of Genesis games are up on Steam. Probably on sale right now.

 

[SegaShack]

It’s a cool game but I could never get past the second level. I hated how you would lose health for punching things you needed to break.

 

[dogen]

This pretty much sums up my thoughts on the game. Fantastic concept, horrible execution. I seriously doubt the majority of people waxing poetic about the game on this thread even got halfway through the game.

As said by other people in the thread, half of the game is figuring out how to get through each panel while minimizing damage. It's not just a beat em up, which should be sorta obvious when you see that even punching things hurts you a little.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Loved it as a kid, rented it multiple times. Could never beat it. Game was hard.

 

[cireza]

Great game. I love the ending theme.

 

[Lt. Sweet Jones]

Comix Zone is in my top three of all time. I still play it on my PS3!

I remember renting this game as kid with my cousins. We would take turns trying to beat it, hahaha. We memorized every single enemy movement until our reactions became muscle memory.

It was first game I ever mastered. Good times.