Collection essentials #468 & #469: The Typing of the Dead (DC) and Dreamcast Keyboard

What a quirky game we have here. It’s basically a “mod” of “The House of the Dead 2”, the arcade light gun shooter that I covered recently, meaning that the graphics, story, etc., are basically the same. But the core gameplay has been fundamentally altered. Now, you are not using a gun to kill zombies. You’re using a keyboard! Whenever an enemy appears on the screen, a word or phrase will appear along with them, and the player must properly type it out in order to kill that enemy. As a nice touch, the player characters now have backpacks that resemble Sega Dreamcast consoles and keyboards strapped to their chests.

Of course, the things you have to type will get harder as the game goes along. And boss encounters may require the player to do something tricky. For example, the player may be asked a question and be presented with three answers, and they must type out the right one. 

Since I do transcription work for a living, I’m quite fast on a keyboard, so when I finally picked this game up I went straight for the highest difficulty setting and still didn’t really have a tough time. It’s super fun, though! If you’re looking for a fun way to exercise your typing skills, you can’t go wrong with this game. 

I really don’t have a lot to say about this one, as it’s pretty much exactly what it looks like. Just really solid, silly fun, and an essential in my book!