Panel Play
Comic books are indisputably a hugely influential medium. You know it, your friends know it. Heck, your grandma who you dragged to take you to see Iron Man in 2008 knows it. Whether in film or gaming, comic legends have pervaded pop culture in the 21st Century. The latest purveyor of this trend is Comix Breaker, a mobile game put out by developer MojitoGames.
Breaking Free
Comix Breaker’s loosely established plot has you play as a kid jumping between varied comic book worlds. These contain varieties of monster enemies in standard tactical card game faire. Each “issue” contains a specific number of levels, offering roguelike battles broken up by reward checkpoints. These checkpoints offer various buffs, healing or new cards upon arrival, varying strategies for separate runs.
While the core gameplay feels a lot like other card battle titles on mobile, Comix Breaker has one defining feature. Its breadth of design is amazing. Despite being from a relatively smaller team, every character and enemy feels well thought out and constructed. The world is generic enough to feel stereotypical while nuanced to be unlike similar games. Certain sections feature gorgeous animations that are smooth and exciting, linking the action of combat together.
Next Issue
Still, all that glitters, right? Despite its dynamic design choices for its overall assets, Comix Breaker’s actual UI is a nightmare. Players launch right into battle to avoid this initially, and I see why that decision was made. After completing the first few courses, your tutorial plants you in the middle of a main menu that has so many customization features and notifications. This would probably be fine if half of the options weren’t locked behind an in-game currency paywall.
Microtransactions are a major turn off for me personally, and I realize that may not be the case for everyone. Still, if anyone is bombarded enough with ads and notifications that won’t go away unless you make a single purchase, they’re bound to be hesitant to come back. On top of this is such a cluster of assets that it’s hard to remember what the utility of all the specific menu options are. This made me want to not re-launch the app after a few rounds because I didn’t want to have to re-learn where everything was that was forced on me through an already lengthy tutorial.
The Fields We Know
Comix Breaker seems to succeed as hard as it fails. Unfortunately, every positive feels outweighed by a small list of really distracting negatives. The app’s design and style is unlike a lot of other games I’ve played. At the same time, just coming back to re-launch the game feels like a chore of menu navigation. This was really frustrating to me because, overall, I really did enjoy the core gameplay of the card battles. Being bogged down by the rest, though, really bummed me out. Still, if you’re up for a new challenge that shakes things up in a few ways- give Comix Breaker a shot. Just don’t drag your grandma into this one- she’ll probably get it even less than she does RDJ’s charming smile.
Is It Hardcore?
Meh.
In Comix Breaker, what works, works, and what doesn’t? Really doesn’t. Despite a great soundtrack and world design, the flash doesn’t always stay in the right proportions. Overwhelming menus and microtransactions really bog down this otherwise slick game.
