The art direction and animation is very inviting, making Comix Zone one of the more visibly inviting and immersive Sega Genesis titles late into system's life span. Further elements like page tearing, including an attack where Sketch can rip a piece of paper and launch a paper airplane that damages enemies truly brings this 2D world to life within a 2D world, if that makes any sense.
Instead of thugs sitting around and waiting for the player to interact with them, some bad guys are literally drawn by Mortus himself to assault you. Word bubbles are used in comic book fashion to convey dialog between characters. A gag that has been seen in many cartoons before it, this stands out in the world of video games and that alone separates it from the norm. In an aim to appeal more to the attitude of the times, Peter redesigned him to be a tough-looking grunge rock inspired man with a pet rat named Roadkill who assisted Sketch in solving puzzles and damaging enemies.Ĭomix Zone's signature means of progression which involves Sketch traversing across panels by actually grabbing the borders on the pages and leaping over them. Peter notes that Sketch's original name was "Joe Pencil" and was going to be a scrawny, prototypical nerd who turns into a superhero in the game. Both Roger and Tom Kalinske (SoA President) really liked it, so it was a fairly easy sell." I felt that comics and games could be very complementary and worked up a demo animation on my Amiga, which I played for Roger and other execs during one of those greenlight presentations. Many of my STI coworkers were ardent comics fans and I would often tag along with them to local Bay Area comic book shops.
In an interview in 2007 for Sega-16, Peter talked about the initial creative inspiration that lead to Comix Zone. With assistance from General Alissa Cyan, who gives Sketch in-game pointers. A lighting storm erupts, bringing the main antagonist of the comic, Mortus, springs to life, throwing Sketch into the pages of his own story. The game's plot centers around musician and comic book artist Sketch Turner, a self-proclaimed starving artist, is finishing up his latest work. One of the most artistically (pun partially intended) fascinating titles was that of the 1995 release, Comix Zone.ĭeveloped by Sega Technical Institute, a blend of both Japanese and American developers, including Sonic the Hedgehog creator Yuji Naka, Comix Zone was an incredibly unique release produced and written by Peter Morawiec, who's other notable works include the True Crime games Streets of LA and New York, respectively. Throughout the period, while the genre pretty much remained fairly straightforward with its simplistic and satisfying button mashing bedlam, developers began experimenting blending aspects of adventure and platforming to provide more psychological depth. The token munching games would make their way to home consoles, especially the Sega Genesis, paving the way for popular IPs like Golden Axe and Streets of Rage.
A staple in the arcades during the mid to late 80's, the genre saw the rise of titles like Double Dragon (considered the grandfather of the format), River City Ransom, and Final Fight. The 16-bit era saw an increase in popularity in the early 90's of the beat'em up brawler genre.