Comix Zone

After a relatively lengthy hiatus from the Genesis project, Comix Zone is the ninth game to fall. It was hard, but it was short. And I have to admit, I kind of enjoyed it. Part of this has to be because the game was released in 1995, and is thus among the most modern - or just least ancient - games in the Genesis catalog. You're a comic book artist (seen above, looking every bit like a cross between Meat Loaf and Steven Seagal) - no, you know what? Let's allow Wikipedia to describe this one.

"One night, while Sketch is working on Comix Zone during a thunderstorm, a lightning bolt strikes a panel of his comic. In this instant, the main villain of Comix Zone - a powerful mutant named Mortus - manages to escape 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 to try and kill him."

So, yeah. You're the comic book artist, trapped in your own comic book, and now your own creation is drawing enemies in to try to kill you. Why not just remodel the game entirely so that you're a comic book drawing trying to avoid the creations of an evil comic book artist? Like, why subvert what is already implausible on too many levels and also completely unheard of?

In the end this was another dumb beat-em-up, but it looked prettier than so many others from the Genesis era and the combat was satisfyingly bulky and clunky. Every encounter felt like a Street Fighter match, for better or worse.

Arrow Flash
Alien Storm
Comix Zone
Chakan: The Forever Man
Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle
Columns III
Columns
Altered Beast
Bonanza Brothers