Backspace Bouken

I was really impressed by the combat for this game. Not only does it encourage you to be fast and accurate at typing but there are a few thoughtful additional mechanics. The "limited spaces" component encourages you to explore the map, and the optional contractions to extend the use of your spaces both are really smart ways to tie the dungeon crawler and typing aspects together. A lot of typing games feel like the game part is just a nice aesthetic around the typing, but this does feel very much like a game as well.

This game was a delight! It's a short, but fun combination of old school dungeon crawler and typing game. I enjoyed the quirky writing, and pun-filled sentences, and I found the soundtrack pretty soothing. Not a very stressful game, since you can dodge any attacks if you aren't a fast typist, but a fun challenge to try to keep up your speed and accuracy for people who do enjoy typing like myself. I did like that the (free) post-release content that was patched it was a little more challenging in terms of allowed time, and some sneaky symbols. The only real downside I have is that there is no way to view your map, other than what is displayed on the mini-map. I realize this is probably meant as a throwback to old school games, but it made it a lot harder to tell where I had been previously, when trying to fill out full maps, and go for 100% completion. Definitely recommend if you like typing and are looking for a short burst of fun for an evening or so. I look forward to future games from this team!

DISCLAIMER: I'm a retired medical transcriptionist who types 90 WPM, so my impression of this game is likely quite different from gamers who are not professional typists. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Backspace Bouken is quite good. Not perfect, but good enough that I played to the end and I had a fun time with it! The dungeon-crawler aspect of the game is just a thin veneer, so gamers looking for a dungeon-crawler will likely not be impressed. No weaponry or armor to find, no skills to level up, and only a paper-thin plot. I'm only casually into dungeon-crawlers, so I didn't mind at all. What kept the fun alive for me was the reasonably good variety of difficulty (short words and sentences, long words and sentences, punctuation), and the pleasant playful humor. Nothing laugh-out-loud funny, but a solidly constant kooky stream of punny wordplay. Aside from the puns, the sentences are quite real-worldly. Stuff that a transcriptionist of casual speech would be right at home with. The only two negatives I have about Backspace Bouken are both fairly mild negatives: 1. The collection of backspaces. I never needed them, and I can't imagine anybody except flat-out beginner typists needing them. Not a biggie, though, because reading the texts before collecting the backspaces usually got an amused smile out of me. 2. The Final Boss (on both Tower of F8 and the Christmas-themed section whose title I can't remember) is pretty much impossible to beat without making heavy use of dodging via an arrow keystroke. I disliked that because that's something that doesn't exist in the real typing world. Hard to practice typing skills this way. CONCLUSION: I had a real good time with Backspace Bouken. The fun typing gameplay and nonstop punny humor kept me engaged. Should there ever be a sequel, I'd certainly be interested. Great job, RNG Party Games!!!

madou monogatyping sim

Do you like typing games? There aren't many of those, and this is a decent one, so you should get it.

A mashup of genres I didn't know I needed in my life till I tried it. An absolute delight.

Do you like puns? If so, consider this an immediate purchase! It's a neat little dungeon-crawler, full of weird little quirks and jokes and a couple okay puzzles here and there. Once you learn about the dodging mechanic, it's fairly easy, but there's still a good number of little secrets and details that make it worth running through. With the DLC it's a bit over two hours long-I didn't 100% the game, but I came darn close. It's a pretty tightly designed two hours, though. Charming little piece, and extremely recommended if "typing game based on classic Japanese first-person dungeon crawlers" sounds like it's up your alley.