The Typing of the Dead: Overkill

I'm not sure who came up with the idea for this game, but I think it's brilliant. Basically they just took the grindhouse horror game House of the Dead: Overkill and replaced all the shooting mechanics with typing. And it works, really well. It's possibly the best typing game I've ever played.

So in the original House of the Dead, it was what's called a rail-shooter. It's a lot like a first-person

shooter, but you don't actually control your movements. You are, in essence, stuck on a rail, and you shoot at whatever the screen happens to point you at. Which sounds like a weird way to make a game, but you have to understand that these games originated as physical arcade games where you would point actual toy gun controllers at the screen, and would have your hands full and unable to actually control anything else.

Luckily that strange game style makes it perfect for converting into a fairly compelling typing game. Zombies pop up on the screen and you have to type the words to blow them away. Plus, if you don't like the whole typing aspect, it also includes the original click-to-shoot version as well.

The only potential downside I think is that it really goes for the grindhouse style 100%. So if that's not your thing, the cutscenes might be a real pain. It's bad acting, bad dialogue, bad plot, and liberal use of the word “motherfucker”. Which I guess also means it's not an appropriate learning tool for kids.

So, if you've got an interest in two or more of typing, zombies, or anything grindhouse, then chances are this game will be right up your alley. I give it 3.5/5 stars.