The Typing of the Dead

The House of the Dead 2 was a pretty good game. But along the way someone somewhere had the bright idea to combine the gory zombie shooting game with a typing tutor.

That might have been one of the best ideas ever had by anyone.

The game was already borderline ridiculous anyway, and this game is identical to its predecessor in every way… with a few exceptions. Instead of guns your guys have giant Dreamcast systems strapped to their backs and keyboards strapped to their fronts. They need these because the zombies that assault you have letters, words, and phrases welded to their fronts. You have to type the phrase on your ‘Dream-Blaster’ to neutralize the threat. The stronger the enemy, the longer and more complex the words and phrases are, and you’ll eventually work your way up to full sentences. Some are relatively normal, but some… I just don’t have the words.

The spectacularly entertaining horrendous voice acting is intact, which is a relief. Most of the enemies have been retrofitted to have pop hammers and lollipops instead of axes and such of the previous game, which just adds to the silliness. And sprinkled through the levels are powerups for big-headed zombie mode. It’s all just silly enough to be a really good game.

Typing of the Dead

This is one of the few games that I bought more than once on purpose. It seems to be ridiculously rare, but I stumbled over a copy for my Dreamcast, so I picked it up. And then a few months later I found a copy of the PC version (which seems to be even rarer) at one of my local toy stores when it went out of business, so I snapped it up as well. I spent a lot of time playing with both versions, so it was totally worth it.

And, as an upside, it made me a better typist, and it was a game I wanted to play. So, chew on that Mavis Beacon.

3 Responses to “The Typing of the Dead”

  1. m1m1nk says:

    Awesome, d’you know where I could download it?

  2. basscomm says:

    The game’s out of print and the official website quit hosting downloads of the demo long ago, I’m afraid.

    You might try eBay or some such, but it’s rare enough that I don’t see it up there very often.

  3. m1m1nk says:

    Yeah, I managed to get the demo, quite entertaining, and educating as well.

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