In this version of the classic, the main character James and friends have Dreamcast backpacks and keyboards strapped to their chests, and must type letters, words and phrases to destroy the horrible zombies. Chapter 1 is geared toward beginners, with simple words and phrases such as "3D" and "Hell's Kitchen," while Chapter 6 works up to such tricks as forcing you to type stuff that you really can't take the time to look down at the keyboard for -- for example, "yeeeee-hawww," for which there's no way you can remember the number of e's and w's.

Occasionally, there are twists to phrases thrown your way, to keep you on your toes, such as "you reap what you sew." (Or maybe those developer types just can't spell.) Some are nonsensical , such as "tin peach." We found that we especially suck at non-letter characters, unfamiliar words and anything with hyphens, like "will-o'-the-wisp." To battle hydras, players must type the answers to random, multiple-choice questions. Even though the questions aren't difficult, it's easy to start typing the wrong answer in the interest of beating the clock.

As each word is typed, skill is assessed with a letter grade from A to E (yes, E), and at the end of the game you are rated on speed, accuracy and skill with special keys, as well as a rating for how you compare with the last 100 people to have played the chapter in question. Naturally, two players can go head-to-head if you have two keyboards handy.

Time to nitpick: A key flaw in the typing training, if not the gameplay itself, is that you never have to use capital letters, even if the word is shown onscreen as capitalized, or is a proper noun. You also don't have to type the spaces between words, although you'll probably find yourself doing it anyway.

If you're a bad typist to begin with, fear not! There's a training mode in the game that teaches and drills you on correct finger positioning. Once you have that down, you'll want to move on to Arcade mode. If you're an intermediate or better typist, you'll enjoy the game, but will probably beat it in a matter of hours. It's still fun to replay, though, since the storyline is not the reason you'll like this title.

Those not familiar with House of the Dead 2 should be warned that the game is reminiscent of a poorly dubbed Japanese horror movie. The graphics are bad, the dialogue is predictable and the uninflected voice acting is the worst you'll ever encounter. If you don't appreciate the humor of such things, you won't enjoy the game as much as we did. And somehow we found the sight of the phrases like "dot-com revolution" and "barcode hairstyle" floating over old-school, jerky zombies especially ludicrous.

The Bottom Line: Move over, Mavis Beacon. This Dreamcast typing tutorial blows your tiresome tutorial to smithereens.