[This post is part of a collaborative Sonic retrospective based around the games on Sonic Mega Collection Plus. To read more, please head over to the central post!
This one is written by Josh Bird, who previously wrote about Bomb Jack , Quake and Age of Empires.]
Many of you will know the film clip for “Take on Me” by ’80s Norwegian band A-ha. In the video—a pioneer in music video special effects—the heroine falls in love with a character in the comic she is reading. She follows him into his hand-sketched comic world where they embrace before being chased by a bunch of race car mechanics menacingly brandishing wrenches. Although our heroine escapes, her beloved is trapped within the pages of the comic with nothing to protect him but his hair-waxed coiffure and chiselled good looks. Ultimately, he is able to escape the comic world into our world through the combined powers of love and music video logic.
Now, imagine a video game that let you play as a protagonist who has similarly been trapped within the pages of a comic book. However, this time the twist is that it is a comic of which you are the author. Furthermore, while the hair wax remains, our leading man—with the most nineties of names, Sketch Turner —is also armed with knives, explosives and a pet rat. This is the conceit of the video game Comix Zone released on the Mega Drive/Genesis in late 1995.
Comix Zone differed from most of its competitors in two keys ways. Firstly, rather than the standard left-to-right progression that one may find in other ’90s beat-em-ups like Fatal Fury or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, Comix Zone has you moving from one frame of a comic book to the next—up, down, left and right—just as a comic book is read. Elements of basic puzzle-solving are also occasionally required to progress from one frame of the comic to the next—like a lightweight version of 1997 film The Cube. But most of the time it is simply a case of beating the hell out of the various enemies present in each frame.
The second innovation found in Comix Zone is a willingness to break the fourth (third?) wall. The main protagonist is fully aware that he is merely a character in a fictionalised world of his own creation. The game has a playful sense of humour, if the inclusion of the pet rat was not enough of a giveaway. Early in the game he sarcastically asks the mutant attempting to kill him, “Is this how you treat you creator??”.
The final element worth noting about Comix Zone is its impressive aesthetics. In keeping with the comic book theme, the sprites use bold colours and much of the action is accompanied by Batman-esque fight words. Pow! Wack! Zzap! Unfortunately without the name recognition of a Batman or Sonic the Hedgehog the game sold poorly and was quickly forgotten. However, its innovative gameplay and distinct visual style eventually helped it find a place in the hearts of retro gamers. It is now one of the more well-regarded Mega Drive/Genesis games, with its recent selection as one of the games included with Sony’s 2019 Mini Mega Drive solidifying its position in the canon.