Thank you Elecorn for providing us with a review code!

I’m so old that when I was in high school I took a typing class on an actual typewriter. Typing classes are still around, but they are gamified and use computers. It seems that using a keyboard is second nature for younger people. If you do office administration work, chances are you’ll be asked about your accuracy and words per minute stats. You can find out your words per minute by taking free online tests (I got 55 WPM and 99% accuracy), or by playing games like Keys of Fury: Typing Action.

Keys of Fury: Typing Action has three game modes and support for user-created content. You can follow along Tai Ping’s journey in the story mode, play various arcade mini-games, or rate your skills on gradually harder words in the learning mode. As of this review, the story mode isn’t completed yet.

Tai Ping’s adventure begins with her trying to get a train ticket to Central, but the conductor refuses to sell her a ticket. Instead, he offers her advice on how accuracy is more important than speed and that fury mode will auto complete words for a bit if you press ; or make a mistake. Tai Ping insists on going to Central, which triggers robotic security guards that will catch the mayor’s attention when defeated. The mayor has some work for Tai Ping to complete in exchange for passage to Central. Tai Ping will be tasked with cleaning out a warehouse infested with ninjas and collecting taxes from a stubborn produce merchant.

The ninja levels are tricky since the words only appear for a couple of seconds at a time. Each typo will cost Tai Ping a heart. If you run out of hearts, you can continue from the last checkpoint, which is nice. Each time you play a story or arcade level, you can earn coins which can be spent at the shop to unlock music tracks, outfits, and character skills. I highly recommend buying more hearts and the ability to regain health with each word/phrase typed perfectly. Alternatively, you can increase the typing timers and fury length.

There’s a good variety of arcade modes to enjoy. If you’re looking for a chuckle, you can type jokes and their punch lines. There are two levels that require you to type and race against (or be chased by?) dinosaurs. The second race level has you typing out various dinosaur types, which can be pretty long! The arcade levels really brought out the nostalgia by having you type quotes from movies and TV shows from the 80s and 90s. Some quotes include “Totally tubular”, “I pity the fool”, and “The more you know”. There’s also an Endless Endurance mode to play to see how long you can survive.

Keys of Fury: Typing Action Is pretty family-friendly, with cartoon violence against robots, ninjas, bosses, and produce. There isn’t any blood.

The pixelated visuals are nostalgic and work well. The soundtrack is pretty good, and the (in-game currency) purchasable songs are nice as well. I was expecting chiptune music, but the arcade level song has rapping and synthesizer hooks.

Keys of Fury: Typing Action is reasonably priced at $4.99, and it’s worth picking up if you like typing games. Some may find it too easy, but I’m sure that users will create more challenging content for it. The appropriateness may change with user contributed levels/words, so be careful out there!