Question Of The Week [September 5th 2024]

Q: What is a game no one talks about?

A: Comix Zone

A classic Sega Genesis (or “Mega Drive” for those in Europe/PAL regions) game featuring Sketch Turner, a comic book artist who, on a dark and stormy night gets sucked into his own comic book trapped by the evil Mortus. Sketch is aided by the lovely Alissa who sports a quite hip (for the time) 90’s short cut hair style. RoadKill, Sketch’s pet rat, also joins in the fun allowing for some light puzzle solving.

The majority of the game is your basic Side Scrolling Brawler, like Streets of Rage or Double Dragon. But what sets Comix Zone apart is the super cool setting, with the aesthetic of an actual comic book. Where there are Comic Panels that keep the action in one location, and when Sketch actually kicks and punches enemies off screen, they actually rip and break the panels in a flurry of torn paper. It’s such a unique style and it’s such a shame no one ever talks about this game as a classic staple of the Genesis library.

The soundtrack and voice acting is also something that has been firmly stuck in my brain since 1995. The game starts off with a “Testing, one… two…. SEEEEGGGGAAA” in a Elvis style impression, that I quote pretty much every time I mention the Genesis. Along with Alissa saying “Good Job Turner!” at the end of every level. Which was one of the first channel point Sound Effect redeems I made for my Twitch channel once I hit Affiliate status. The enemies' screams and even yells and grunts are also ingrained into my mind with the “Pack It In” which I always thought as a kid sounded like he was saying “Hot Baby”. And let’s not forget Sketch’s “Seeeee Yah’!” after he kills an enemy. It’s a great game just for the voice acting alone, especially when it wasn’t super common in games still at the time.

I’d encourage anyone who hasn’t played Comix Zone to grab it, just keep in mind it’s fairly difficult, which is why most probably have never finished it. It’s brutally hard, in the same vein that most games at the time were. But that has come back en vogue and I’m surprised there aren't more retro gamers that talk about this game as a “hard as nails” type of game. For me, it will be one of the first games I think of when I think about the Sega Genesis.