Sega Typing Of The Dead
Skye Severy
Unfortunately, while Japan actually got arcade cabinets with keyboards attached to them, I was never fortunate enough growing up to see anything similar in the United States. But, I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy when it actually hit North America early in 2001 and eventually picked up the PC port for the sole reason of actually playing through it again and seeing if I was as rusty as I thought I might be. Yes, you just read that correctly, I bought a typing game about zombies twice for the sole purpose of playing through it more than once.
For those who may not be in the know, the game actually made it to the Playstation 2 in the form of The Typing of the Dead: Zombie Panic, but this was sadly exclusively to the great nation of the Rising Sun and arrived in Japan in 2004 complete with a USB keyboard. Additionally, the game hit GameTap in 2007 for the PC junkies in the crowd who still wanted to get their typing slaughter of the undead on. But, even that should have proven the demand for a sequel and thankfully enough there was.
The year is 1991, and AMS agent, Agent G, has just been given his first assignment; to track down crime boss, Papa Ceasar, who has links to the recent outbreak that have been turning humans into 'mutants'.
Due to the outbreak of mutants, the ever cool headed and stoic Agent G is forced to team up with foul mouthed and hot-blooded police detective, Isaac Washington who is out seeking revenge of Papa Ceasar for killing his father.
The two start by storming a mansion owned by Papa Ceasar, and after fighting their way through the mutants within and saving the odd civilian along the way, they make their way to the basement and attempt to arrest Ceasar.
Unfortunately Ceasar has upset his disabled scientist aide, Jasper Guns by threatening his sister, and Jasper injects himself with a mysterious formula, transforming him into a psychic mutant. Ceasar takes this moment to flee, leaving Agent G and Isaac to face off against the mutated Jasper. After a shootout between the two parties, Jasper is left in agony on the floor, telling the two detectives to tell his sister he loves her. Agent G offers to ease Jasper's pain (by putting him out of his misery) which Isaac misunderstands and yells at G to shoot him. G is dumbfounded by Isaac's inability to understand tact, as he shoots Jasper one last time to end his suffering. Just then, Jasper's sister Varla Guns, a stripper making ends meet, comes around the corner and swears at the two for killing her brother before vowing revenge on Papa Ceasar for what he did to Jasper. Isaac tells G that he'll drive to their next destination with his beloved car, but it blows up just before they reach it. G offers to drive his car instead as Isaac drops to his knees in disbelief.
Varla goes back to her strip club where she loads up on weaponry and talks to Jasper's girlfriend, Candi Stryper, a fellow stripper, about what happened. Candi misunderstands Varla's more subtle explainations until Varla finally snaps at her and tells her straight. Both girls make their way through the strip club, trying to find Varla's keys to her motorcyle as they fight off mutants and eventually come face to face with two co workers who have mutated Coco and Sindy. Upon killing them and retrieving her keys from Sindy's stomach, Varla takes Candi and attempts to get her out of the city before going back to get revenge on Papa Ceasar.
Agent G and Detective Washington meanwhile have tracked Papa Ceasar down to an abandoned hospital, which once again is filled to the brim with mutants. They eventually come across a mutant called The Screamer who can seemingly warp reality. After killing her they find a ringing phone inside The Screamer's body. Isaac refuses to put his freshly manicured hands into her chest cavity to pull it out, so G does it instead. Answering it, Ceasar taunts them from the other end before rigging the hospital to explode. Barely making it out in time they rush to G's car, which also explodes just before they reach it. Fortunately Varla comes along on her motorcyle and sidecar and offers the pair a ride.
Isaac and Varla get into an argument, swearing at each other and insulting one another which leads an angry Varla to ride off and abandon both Isaac and G near a carnival full of mutants. The two once again fight their way through the carnival of mutants and face off against conjoined brothers, Nigel and Sebastian. After the battle, G commandeers an ice cream truck to get them to their next destination, as he and Isaac argue some more.
Varla meanwhile came across Candi trying to hitchhike back into the city claiming she'd forgotten a keepsake of Jasper's to let her listen to his voice one more time. Exasperated, Varla offers to let her tag along to help kill Ceasar and avenge Jasper, giving her a ride. As they drive, Candi spots Ceasar's car outside a meat packing factory, causing the two to investigate. After fighting their way through they come across a huge mutant woman/cow minotaur hybrid wielding a giant cleaver called Meat Katie. The girls manage to finish her off before she can kill them, causing Katie to fall into a meat grinder and releasing her cleaver into the air where it temporarily gets stuck in some wooden rafters. However the cleaver falls down, slicing off Candi's forearm and causing her to die from blood loss. Varla attempts to save her from bleeding out but fails, now promising to avenge both Jasper and Candi, she sets off to find and kill Papa Ceasar.
Varla eventually catches up to Ceasar at a trainyard, where she pushes her gun to Ceasar's head but is stopped before she can fire by G and Isaac arriving on the scene. G wants to arrest Papa Ceasar whilst both Varla and Isaac want to kill him themselves. The three have a stand off, each pointing their guns at one another, whilst Papa Ceasar attempts to escape on a train after giving a speech about how he'll never be caught. Isaac shoots him in the leg. Ceasar smacks Varla in the face with his cane, temporarily distracting the officers from pursuing him as he fires up the train. Realising Ceasar is getting away both Isaac and G chase the train and manage to jump on board leaving a furious Varla at the train station alone.
G and Isaac fight their way through the train cars mutants when they're attacked by a gigantic mantis like monster called the Crawler. Shooting out it's eyes, the creature goes under the train and is killed. Isaac and G attempt to get inside the main train, before half the train explodes. Isaac and G jump from the speeding train as it crashes into a swamp. Varla catches up to the duo just as they regain conciousness, but Papa Ceasar appears and takes her hostage, forcing her to drive him to the prison whilst throwing down a cassette to Isaac, taunting him once again and revealing to G and Varla that he murdered Isaac's father. G swears he'll come rescue Varla, picking up the cassette and following Isaac through the swamp to head the pair off.
After fighting their way through the swamplands, including a gigantic toad like mutant who throws pieces of his own bloated body at them called The Lobber, G and Isaac find themselves at the prison and meet eccentric warden Clement Darling, who tells them both they have made a very bad first impression on him. G tries to ask Clement if he has seen Ceasar, to which Clement points them in the right direction, but claims he has no idea about the mutants. G and Isaac storm the prison which is now overrun with mutated inmates. They reach the electric chair theater only to be surprised to see not only Varla strapped to a chair, but also Papa Ceasar himself. Clement Darling stands in the middle and reveals that he was behind everything that happened with the mutant outbreak and Ceasar was a mere accomplice. He then flips the switch on Papa Ceasar, killing him and robbing Isaac of his revenge.
Clement reveals his mother to the two detectives, showcasing an incestral love for her, and that in order to keep her alive he is going to use Varla and the mutant formula to save his mother. Flipping a different switch he, Varla, his mother and Papa Ceasar's corpse descend into the basements below, whilst unleashing two hulking brutal mutated prisoners on the detectives. Fortunately for G and Isaac, the two mutants turn on one another and Brutus kills his partner before turning to G and Isaac. G and Isaac manage to overcome Brutus and give chase to Clement hoping to save Varla.
The pair come across Varla, who acts flirtatious and out of character confusing both G and Isaac, until Clement reveals that 'Varla' is actually his mother's brain in her body. 'Varla' turns around and reveals an exposed brain, with Clement carrying Varla's brain in a jar, still alive. 'Varla' slaps Clement telling him off for spoiling her fun before making out with him, disgusting both G and Isaac. Clement's mother blasts the detectives back with a psychic blast, showcasing how dangerous she now is. However it isn't long until her body starts convulsing, the body rejecting the brain and formula. Before she can mutate both G and Isaac gun Clement's mother down, but she falls into a vat of formula, mutating into a giant abomination.
G and Isaac prepare to fight Mother, before the screen cuts to a 'missing reel' shot, after which the boys have mini guns and are outside, claiming it's lucky they came across these or else they'd be dead. Mother is revealed to still be alive, and bursts through the ground to confront them one last time. After a drawn out battle G and Isaac manage to gun mother down, killing her.
Clement, unable to live in a world without his beloved mother, begs G to let him return to the womb as a final act of redemption, killing himself. G, disgusted eventually let's him do what he wants after Clement threatens to blow them all up if they don't allow it.
G sits with Isaac pointing out the irony in how the one time Isaac did not spout "Mother" F-bombs, was the one time it would have been appropriate regarding Clement and his mother. He then tells Isaac he knows despite his bravado that Isaac is actually rather fond of G but can't express his feelings properly, telling him that he also considers him a friend.
c80f0f1006