Typing is a dying art, what with everybody communicating via txtspk these days, so it's a relief to see that my school typewriting lessons weren't entirely in vain. The Typing of the Dead games have been carrying the torch for the nascent type-'em-up genre for a few years now, most notably with the recent Overkill, but now a contender has entered the ring. Literally. Skullgirls is set to receive a new mode in a future update that will reward players for their keyboarding skills.
The mode, entitled The Typing of the Skullgirls Encore, lowers damage for other types of moves and places more importance on super ones, their damage determined by how well you type out the giant word that now appears onscreen. Tap the word out perfectly within the time limit to do 150% damage to your rival combatant; screw up completely and you'll only deal 10% of the move's base power. It's a fun idea, but I get the feeling it may be a little awkward to reach for a keyboard several times in the middle of a fight - dedicated Skullgirls players will likely be using a controller or arcade stick instead.
The mode was shown off in a Twitch stream several days ago, but it will be added to the version of Skullgirls you see before you (er, if you have your Steam library open) next year, at the same time the game reappears on consoles after its recent publishing difficulties. If you're still unsure whether you should pick up Skullgirls, have a read of our review .
Thanks to PCGamesN and Shoryuken .
