How do you make typing fun? For me, the tried-and-true example has always been Typing of the Dead; what I would genuinely consider to be one of the single greatest games ever made. But you can only really iterate on the idea of “typing words to defeat enemies” so many times before you hit the proverbial wall of creativity. We’ve been here; we’ve done that. The novelty is gone. At least, it was, until Keyboard Warrior managed to grab my attention.
Co-developed by Grouch and SuitNtie, and published by Grouch, Keyboard Warrior transcends what you’d expect from a normal typing game by making the keyboard itself your means of combat, instead of its ability to type. What do I mean by that? Well, you’ll see. It’s a bold experiment, and seeing as how the game’s demo released ahead of the Steam Next Fest, I figured I’d share my thoughts on it.
Battling Across the Entire Keyboard
As of writing, there’s really not too much going on in Keyboard Warrior story-wise. You’re an adorable little mouse armed with a sword and fashionable cape, and you’re tasked with traversing a small woodland area dominated by a stone keyboard in its center. There are presumably evil creatures roaming all around the area, the keyboard especially, and it’s your job to take them out.
Keyboard Warrior is no ordinary typing game. Instead, every key on your keyboard corresponds to its respective stone in the game. Tapping a key will jettison your cute little mouse character to said key via the shortest route possible, with no buffer or delay between subsequent key presses. If you want to bounce all around every available space by just mashing all of your keys really fast, by all means, you’re welcome to. Not that you should, though.
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The game is broken up into waves, and you get three lives per wave, with your lives refilling between them. The game is a roguelite at its core, meaning that no two attempts at clearing the game will ever be the same — every wave will throw a handful of enemies and hazards your way, like slowly shuffling pillars, or puddles of lava, or stationary towers that shoot out a ring of projectiles every time they’re struck. Are they especially dangerous? Not really. But you do have to keep some things in mind.
If you’re going to attack an enemy, for example, you have to make sure that you slash through them instead of on top of them. Ending up on the same space that an enemy is moving through will lead to you taking a hit. It’s certainly something that you’ll need to adjust to in order to get very far. Once the game starts throwing its entire arsenal of foes at you, with having to keep track of all their positions relative to yours while bouncing between “Q” and “;” and “V,” you’d be surprised at how difficult things can get in such a short span of time.
If I had any complaints, it’s that there really isn’t all that much going on outside of what I’ve already described. Bounce around the keyboard, slash through enemies, rinse and repeat. It’s definitely something that fits better for quick burst play sessions instead of anything that’s more prolonged, though I imagine that’ll change as more content is added in the future. I can’t help but wonder what kind of potential there is for boss fights, or new enemies, or what other kinds of unique hazards you’ll have to consider while you’re gliding across all the different keys.
The game looks nice, at least. It shares a similar retro aesthetic to Grouch’s other games, like Hyper Chess and Wizard Pool. Vibrant colors, detailed textures on low-poly models, and an overall reverence for a specific era of early 3D games really strikes a nostalgic chord for me here. Take notes; if you ever want easy brownie points from me, this is an easy way to get them.
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Should You Play Keyboard Warrior?
As it stands, Keyboard Warrior is still in a very, very early state. It costs nothing to give it a shot yourself, other than a few minutes of your time, but do keep in mind that this probably won’t be a perfect representation of the full game. That said, I do have to applaud it for trying to do something fairly unique in a space that’s already loaded with some pretty niche titles. Would I ultimately recommend it, though? Sure. If you already enjoy typing games to any degree, it’s worth checking out just for the unique concept alone.
Be sure to check out Keyboard Warrior for yourself on Steam. You can also check out the game’s development updates on Grouch’s YouTube page.
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