Typing of the Dead
Page contents last updated on August 9, 2024
| Platform: | Sega Dreamcast |
| Genre: | Edutainment |
| Developer(s): | WOW Entertainment, Dreamcast port by Smilebit |
| Publisher: | Sega |
| Release Dates: |
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Typing of the Dead is an M-rated educational title designed to improve your typing ability while also giving you good laugh. It's quite possibly the best application of the Dreamcast keyboard on the platform in my opinion. Who was this for? I'm not complaining about its existence, because I am genuinely very happy that it's a real game that I can play. I'm just genuinely curious as to how someone at Sega thought, "Oh yeah, this is an experience that Dreamcast gamers want."
Much like the mainline games in the House of the Dead series, Typing of the Dead is a rail shooter where you kill zombies and other crazy demonic shit that you encounter. Except instead of pointing a light-gun at your enemies, you are typing words, sentences, and even answers to trivia questions in order to take down the undead scum.
Each enemy has a textbox containing a word or sentence near them. The color of the border around the textbox transitions from green to red, which indicates how close the enemy is to attacking you. You can only type one phrase at a time, which is selected when you start typing it. You can't back out of typing it once you've started, so you have to finish the phrase if you want to move on to another enemy. It would be wise to prioritize killing the enemies which are closest to you first. If you type the phrase quickly with few or no errors, then you are rewarded with a higher rank for that kill.
If you're paying attention (or remember their locations), you can sometimes see textboxes containing a single letter or brief phrase for a short moment. If you catch it and type it fast enough, you can be rewarded with more health or special attacks.
This game really catches me off guard sometimes with the strange prompts it makes you type. Some of my favorite phrases that I've had to type in this game include "Perforation is a rip off", "Skin cancer", "Tall dark and handsome", and "Ugly dog just like it's owner".
Something that I would also like to note about the typing is that you don't need to go out of your way to capitalize letters, and that you don't need to press space between words. You just have to hit the correct keys.
The strange voice acting and cutscenes in this game is one of the biggest reasons to continue playing the game. I look forward to every encounter. There's one part I remember where a guy screams, "Ahhh help meee ahhh" in the most comically whiny and pathetic voice ever. Then once you save him he says something like, "Thank you for saving me" in the most calm and normal voice, as if he wasn't just being attacked by zombies and then saved by some guy wielding a keyboard with a giant battery-operated dreamcast strapped to his back. Then he slowly strolls off screen as if nothing dire is happening. This game is insane and I love it.
Every line is delivered so nonchalantly and off-key. It's as if the voice actors were just reading their dialogue out-loud, with no context whatsoever to what is happening or even what other characters are saying. There have been so many instances where I've laughed out loud during a cutscene because it's just so absurd.
I would love to try the multiplayer for this game someday, but the second player also needs a keyboard and I only have one of those. I think that it's great that multiplayer was included, despite there being few people with Dreamcast keyboards (or a Dreamcast for that matter).