Wizard of Id's WizType

The Good
This game features most of the characters from the comic book; but this time they appear in a video game from Sierra On-Line, teaching you how to improve your typing skills. There are two gameplay modes, with one of them featuring the Wiz and an evil spirit who throws either a bunch of letters or proper words at him, depending on your selection before the game begins. I find it much easier with words rather than letters. I would type much quicker meaning that I get watch the Wiz make the evil spirit disappear.

The second mode has you typing paragraphs, trying to beat Bung at his own game. What I like about this is that you may type sentences that are new to you. When I was a kid, I only learnt two lines to Mary Had a Little Lamb, but as I was typing out that nursery rhyme, I realized that everyone couldn't be assed teaching me the full rhyme.

The graphics are not bad, with all the characters drawn like they are in the comic book. The animation of Bung using his pogo stick is pretty neat. When it comes to the first section, I like how the Wiz frowns when he is about to be toasted, and the spirit morphing himself into a dragon looks very scary. This may spook some children if they make too many typos.

Speaking of typos, I happened to make too many of these as I wanted to avoid the Wiz being flamed. Many times did I look at what letters/words appear on screen and enter them only to get beeped one or more times. And when I finally managed to enter them correctly, it was too late. In conclusion, this was frustrating but I like a bit of a challenge every now and then.

Sound-wise, I enjoyed listening to the melody as each word appears on the screen, and the sound that is heard when the Wiz manages to make the Spirit disappear.


The Bad
Nothing.

The Bottom Line
WizType is the perfect title for children to learn to type efficiently, and any person who enjoyed reading The Wizard of Id as a kid will definitely enjoy this one. The animations are very good, as are the sound effects and the little pieces of music here and there. From what I experienced, not playing this on a day-to-day basis will cause you not to remember the full nursery rhymes you used to know as a kid.