The Typing of the Dead for Sega Dreamcast

The House of the Dead 2 is pretty well known among gamers. This arcade shooter turned Dreamcast launch title was the next progression of the original House of the Dead, a light gun shooter on rails in a world being taken over by zombies where everyone speaks in the worst imaginable dialog. So, you can see why I was so excited when, seemingly out of the blue, Sega announced The Typing of the Dead.

The Typing of the Dead, for those who haven't heard of it, is a clone, a hack of The House of the Dead 2. The game is the same. The character's lines are just as bad. You're still on rails. There's just one difference. Instead of wielding guns, the player characters have a special Dreamcast backpack, to which a keyboard is strapped.

To play the game, a Dreamcast compatible keyboard is required. I had one already, because I used my Dreamcast to surf the net until I got my first computer in late 1999. However, they were cheap then and are much cheaper now. About the only thing they're good for these days is playing this game. I recommend owning two keyboards for multiplayer action.

The enemies on screen are defeated by typing a character, a word, or phrase. So, instead of winning by being a great shot, you win by being a fast an accurate typists. As you type the word or phrase, the correct characters come off of the screen. Be sure to watch the screen as you type, because if you miss one, that's the only way to know where you left off.

As I mentioned, this game is good to go for two players. In that mode, each enemy has the word or phrase that kills them displayed thrice, once for player one, and once for player two, and once just for reference. Here's a tip: Never, ever start typing the same phrase as your partner, because then you're duplicating effort, and there's usually other threats on the screen.

This is a great game to bust out with people who've never seen anything like it. It's surprisingly fun, and hilarious to watch body parts fly off as characters are typed. It's an interesting party games, especially today.