COMIC BOY 4+

I know the game is as great as the developers say it really is and on that I personally couldn’t agree more. They just need to make enough improvements to pay homage to Comix Zone. If there’s more than one thing I personally believe the developers can do to prove just that they should put in a opening introduction to the game so that everytime players load up the game they can see something similar to Comix Zone itself. Another thing I had in mind is interactions between the four characters like comicboy and parkourgirl talking about how they got into the comic book and what they should do to celebrate once they finally escape from the comic book. And one last thing I had in mind is that upon completing all the other levels there should be a level where comicboy confronts the alien blob like creature that brought him into the comic book world and upon defeating it he and his friends are sent back to the real world. Message to the developers: if this advice helps out I sincerely you give you a shot. Thank you and good night.

I was drawn to this game for its art style but can’t get past the poor gameplay. It looks like a side-scrolling endless runner crossed with a platformer, reminding me of games like Nitrome’s Leap Day, but the control responsiveness and physics are off. So for example, the first character has a roll move that allows you to dodge under hanging obstacles. However, this dodge has a tightly predefined distance, so the character pops up immediately upon completion. That’s fine in a game with stationary objects, like most endless runners, but here there are objects that move. That means you can easily find yourself in situations that are unwinnable, e.g., if you are moving in the same direction as a swinging platform that you need to dodge under, because you run a little slower than the swing, your only option is to dodge under it (limited distance) or jump over it (finicky hit box). Combine that with limited lives and an unskippable countdown timer after losing 3 lives, and you have a lot of unnecessary and repetitive frustration. There are also odd choices for the physics; for example, your character typically sails through the air when jumping in a slow arc yet if you walk off of a ledge, you drop literally straight down like a rock, and at a FASTER rate than you fall in jumps! That just makes no sense at all; the game does not consistently apply its own physics, which for a platformer, for me, is the kiss of death.

The design for the main character seems quite similar to Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. I played through the first 10 levels, and was pretty bored. Not bad, but also not terribly inspired gameplay, but I can see myself wasting some time at the DMV playing this or something.

The UI seems pretty weird though? Why is there no settings button? I wanted to turn off the music, but could not find a way. When I tapped the sound box on the right side of the main menu it brought me to the level select screen. Once there, there’s no way to go back to the main menu. Ok, weird but I guess if there is no reason to be on the main menu (such as to turn the sound off) it doesn’t matter too much. Also when in the game, the pause button does not have any way to restart the level, it forces you to quit to the level select screen and then reselect the level you were playing. Which wastes time and there’s no reason for. And of course, again no way to get to settings from the pause menu or turn off the sounds.

Overall, it’s ok.