Although my English writing ability could certainly use a lot of work I didn’t buy English of the Dead to get my practice on. I bought it because it is made of win.
First of all, I absolutely love Typing of the Dead. When I was working at Nihilistic, Rodney and I would compete on network play (PC version). At the time, I was already using the Kinesis Advantage keyboard which was like cheating. It’s for turbo typists. Rodney eventually converted to the Kinesis as well as well most likely due to the shame of being destroyed in the greatest sport known to man. That is of course destroying zombies with the power of the written language.
Cue 2008, Japan. Most people in Japan want to learn English. That’s of course why there are so many English teacher positions here. But! Foreign English teaches should watch out as their job will soon be outsourced to the living dead. They can be paid in brains and are thus much more economical.
The contents of the game are actually a bit of use to a fluent English speaker who wants to practice Japanese. Although it’s clearly targeted toward the Japanese undead hating learner if you have a low level understanding of Japanese (i.e. you can read at least 50 kanji and know basic grammar) then you can get some decent practice out of this game. Of course if your Japanese skills are better than it only gets easier to practice with the game.
WOOOH!
And guess what – it’s a remake of House of the Dead 2. Who can’t get enough of the story of House of the Dead 2?
“Upon finding “G”, alive but wounded, James and Gary are met with an undead horde developed by Caleb Goldman, the president of the eminent DBR Corporation and an expert on the genome theory who funded the late Dr. Curien’s experiments.”
No! Don’t die on me G!
The best part is the story is still fully voiced in the abysmal original English voice acting that was recorded all those years back.
To top it off, the zombie on the cover is clearly attending a graduation ceremony. Where is this zombie university? What kind of curriculum do the zombie study? Inquiring minds would like to know.