Comic book-style Metroidvania game Comix Zero coming to Nintendo Switch
Bear Games will release its new game Comix Zero on Nintendo Switch, the studio confirmed this week. The project’s launch window has yet to be announced.
Bear Games officially describes the game as a “comixvania”. The world is presented like a graphic novel in which screens feature a multi-page spread and players “jump between panels, smash through borders, and search for secrets hidden in the margins.”
Lots of additional details can be found in the following overview:
Waking up in a fantasy world was a blast… Up until you found out it’s run by slavers as pleasant as butt cactus.
You’re Zero, a slacker from Earth with a knack for bad jokes, questionable hygiene, and (somehow) saving the world. Your plan is simple: kill the baddies, get the girl(s), head back home. At least, it was simple… until you became immortal.
Here’s the catch with immortality: every time you die, Zero loses a piece of his memory. Soon, it won’t just be your keys you’re misplacing. Can you survive long enough to find the way home before it fades away?
Welcome to Comix Zero, the first-ever comixvania – a unique twist on the Metroidvania genre where you will be exploring pages of a comic book brought to life.
In Comix Zero, the world unfolds like a graphic novel, each screen laid out as a multi-page spread. Every panel represents a new area, scene, or dialogue. You’ll jump between panels, smash through borders, and search for secrets hidden in the margins.
This is a comic book world in the literal sense, too. Each hit drains you of color until you’re nothing but a sketch. Here, ink is the difference between life and death.
While Comix Zero plays like a Metroidvania, its core gameplay takes inspiration from Elden Ring. The world is open from the start, with new paths gated not by specific abilities but your skill and determination. This approach – combined with an ‘interactive comic book’ style of games like Comix Zone – makes for an experience you haven’t seen anywhere else.
Just one thing: don’t expect it to be easy. You’ll need grit (and maybe a map) to make it through.
Key Features
- Comix Zero is designed as an RPG, allowing you to tailor Zero’s abilities and equipment to match your playstyle. Drink consumables from the precious bodily fluids of defeated bosses (gross). Craft powerful items and new weapons (not gross). Talk to NPCs to get quests and rewards (it varies).
- New gear helps, but it’s your skill that counts. Comix Zero’s combat takes its cue from games like Elden Ring, rewarding precision over button-mashing. You’ll probably try to button-mash your way out of it anyway, so get ready to die. What were you trying to prove anyway?
- The narrative of Comix Zero is intertwined with gameplay. Each time you die, Zero loses a piece of his memory, slowly forgetting parts of his life. As memories slip away, characters start responding to Zero differently, leading to unexpected twists and altering the game’s ending.
- In Comix Zero, ancient myths collide with humanity’s penchant for war crimes. Each faction has its own motivations and alliances, and you’re caught right in the middle. This is a place where spells are created from human blood painted on human skin (detached from a human). It’s not exactly a vacation spot.
- Comix Zero’s narrative is filled with nuanced characters, political intrigue, morally gray choices, and real trauma. And then you had to go and make an absolute joke out of it. Are you proud of yourself?
Get a look at a trailer for Comix Zero below.
Gameplay Trailer
Comix Zero should make its debut digitally on the eShop. We have more Switch coverage here.
