Crossover: Comix Zone

Crossover: (n) 1. A new weekly feature at GayGamer focusing on a video game either based on a comic book character or series.

Comix Zone, for those of you too young to remember the 1990s, is an action-platformer title that was originally released for the Sega Genesis back in the day. As plots go, this wasn't too bad... in fact, it was fairly original: artist Sketch Turner is working on his comic book one dark and stormy night when lighting strikes and sucks him into the story on the page he's been drawing. Meanwhile, Mortus (a villainous mutant Sketch created) trades places with Sketch in the real world and will be able to fully exist in our reality if he's able to kill Sketch in the comic.

Admittedly, this sounds somewhat dumb, but it sets the stage for what turns out to be one of the best stylistic gimmicks to appear on the Genesis: the game itself is a giant comic book and Sketch finds himself leaping from panel to panel in order to progress through each level. Not only that, but the bright colors and crisp artwork really looks like something out of a comic book, too (well, by that console generation's capabilities, at least).

There are a number of paths to progress through each level, presented in the form of multiple panels to choose from after Sketch beats the snot out of his enemies. As a result, the game has some replay value so you can find all the different areas and unlockables available throughout. However, the game is also fiendishly difficult, most likely to make up for its overall short length: health is easily depleted by hitting breakable object, or by having your attacks blocked by an enemy, and it doesn't recharge between levels. Also, there are no extra lives at the beginning of the game; players can earn up to a total of two extra lives by defeating each sub-boss in the game, but this is easier said than done. If you're easily frustrated, then you might want to skip the game, but if you're someone who likes a challenge then you'll probably enjoy Comix Zone's difficulty levels.

Thankfully, we're no longer out of luck if we don't own a Genesis: Comix Zone was released for the Wii Virtual Console store on January 29. It's available for 800 Wii Points, and I would highly recommend picking it up if you're a comic or platformer fan. However, if you are going to download the game, make sure you have the Wii's Classic Controller handy because trying to execute some of the more advanced maneuvers with the Wiimote is next to impossible. Perhaps if we nag Sega enough, we'll get a sequel...

...hey, it seemed to finally work with Nights Into Dreams.