Comix Zone

Comix Zone is a 1995 arcade-style action game for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. Gameplay involves defeating enemies with punches, kicks, holds, and combos of the three, the managing your inventory, and solving puzzles.

The game's most remarkable feature is that it is set within the "panels" of a comic book. Each level consists of two "pages" and secrets are discovered by shredding the "paper" and revealing items. Dialogue is rendered within talk bubbles with the typical comic font. Sprites and backgrounds possess the bright colors and dynamic drawing style favored by superhero comics. Although many comic-themed games have come out since it release (most notably XIII and Viewtiful Joe), none has ever been like Comix Zone's implementation of the theme.

The plot concerns Sketch Turner, a cartoonist who becomes trapped in his own comic book. The villain of his story, a powerful mutant named Mortus, comes to life in an unusual thunderstorm, and he decides to trap him in his own world. Inside the comic book, he meets General Alissa Cyan, who believes he's a superhero that came to save their post-apocalyptic world from the evil.

The "drawn on paper" theme is held throughout, and the player can even rip shreds out of the backdrop and fold them into paper planes to throw at enemies. But because this paper world is also part of themselves (because they are drawn on it), this action takes a small slice off the player's health bar. Certain combos will send enemies hurtling, and if a fragile border between frames is in the way the enemy crashes through it, tearing it to shreds. When confronted with a unbreakable frame barrier, the hero merely swings himself out of the frame, over the top of the border, and back down into the next scene.