Monday, February 21, 2011

Update 2/21 - Terminal Reality, The Typing of the Dead



This week we're featuring the work of Terminal Reality, the Texas-based game developer behind the Bloodrayne series, as well as the creepy PC game Nocturne and one of the Blair Witch Project tie-ins. It's a pretty expansive piece, complete with developer interviews and tons of interesting trivia. (There's a third Bloodrayne movie? How disastrous!) And our Weekly Kusoge is The Typing of the Dead, where Sega took The House of the Dead 2 and turned it into a typing tutor. I'd like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that kusoge doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad game - The Typing of the Dead is probably the best in the series - but in this case it's marveling over the fact that such an incredulously bizarre game ever got made. The Sega of today would surely not be that brazen. I'd also like to apologize for the brevity of this update - even though it was a long weekend in the States, I've been quite busy lately, much of it putting the finishing touches on the adventure game book in hopes to have it done for an April-ish release. Please check the cover list out - as of current, there are over 250 games covered, some with expansive articles, some with brief page-long blurbs, and the total page count is hovering around 750 pages. I wrote a 2000 word love letter to Grim Fandango, which was a pretty satisfying way to spend the time off. Updates might slow a bit until it finally gets out the door, but it will definitely be worth it.

3 comments:

  1. Typing of the dead :D!!!

    Brilliant, though it's a 5 headed snake (or 5 snakes, i never thought of it before) not a 3 headed one (though the typing edition may use 3 instead?).

    Also it got multiple versions to update the language (kanji, better english, ect). apparently used in schools/offices to teach typing too (not sure if it was just a rumor but theres a speaking of the dead for voice killing?)

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  2. Can't agree with the application of the "kusoge" label to Typing of the Dead at all. It seems like there needs to be a factor of incompetence or outright poor design involved rather than OH HEY WOW GUYS THIS GAME SURE IS WACKY and that's just not the case with TotD.

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  3. And that's not entirely correct - it definitely can encapsulate incompetence, but "kusoge" is a pretty broad term. The game that probably introduced the term into wider English usage was Cho Aniki, but those games aren't bad either, just...really bizarre and kind of intentionally stupid, but in a fun way. Typing of the Dead definitely fits in that category.

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