I bought Mario teaches typing several years ago when I saw it on a clearance sale. After digging through a few of my old games I had for my windows 98 computer I found this and decided to give it a try. I had been typing for several years before this learning on an old typing tutor for the Apple 2. While Mario Teaches typing is sort of fun and might help kids approach the keyboard, but I suggest getting another typing tutor to actually teach them to type, read on to find out why.

Story.
Mario and Luigi has spotted Bowser new castle when a magic typewriter falls into Mario’s hands. All Mario has to do is type a magic spell on the typewriter to destroy the castle. But since Mario’s is a plumber and not a secretary he screws up and types the wrong message, the typewriter then self destructs into 3 pieces. One landing close by in a field, the other landing in the castle moat, and the other landing inside the castle now Mario and Luigi must recover the missing pieces of the type writer.

Graphics.
The graphics in the game aren’t much while they are better then any thing the SNES could produce at the time they stink compared to PC games at the time. The cut scenes have poor resolution and have some pretty clunky animation. The in game graphics are a bit better has Mario moves around for every letter that is type. I really liked the first stage which is a stage that looks like a lot of the originalSuper Mario Bros.

Sound.
A few background tunes from Super Mario World appear in the background. Has well has a few of the sound effects from the older games has well. This game was made in 1996 and the N64 Super Mario 64 was being released so where greeted with the Mario talking head that the game made popular. The voice is the same has the ones found in Nintendo games, but he can get annoying sometimes going on forever cracking jokes and telling how good or how much practice you need when you just want to move on.

Gameplay.
All right the first thing you do is enter your name in the game. And then choose one of 3 characters: Mario, Luigi, and the Princess (note she does not appear in any cut scenes even if you choose her has your character). Then you choose what you want to do. The first choice is to go lesson by lesson, this is the option to choose if you’re new. Then there is a take a test option. In this one you take a test and the better you do the more your rank grows. This is a good option if you have some experience but you don’t know what level you’re on. Finally there is a choose a level if you know how good you are and want to skip to a level.

Ok now comes the 3 levels the games have.

Beginner.
Like most typing tutors they start off with just single letters. Your first lesson is on the home row keys and it moves on to all the letters. In this one Mario runs through a level that is like you see in the original SMB game. Each block and koopa has a letter on him and when you hit the right key Mario will hit the block or run over him. Each lesson here last 2 minutes.

Intermediate.
The 2nd one takes Mario under water where the animation isn’t effected by what letter you type. Anyways intermediate takes us to random words that don’t form whole sentences. You’ll run into chains like sad, dad, Dad. And like the beginner stage you’ll start to hit more complicated keys has the lessons start to get harder and hopefully start to get an idea of what finger hits what button on the keyboard. Lessons last 5 minutes each.

Advanced.
Finally the advanced features full sentences and stories. In this one you go through Bowsers castle every full sentenced you complete moves Mario a little bit forward. In the advance stages the sentences don’t start off easy has your expected to hit all the keys and know where they are by now. Lessons last 5 minutes each.

At the end of each lesson Mario pops up telling you weather you have done a good enough job to move on or if he’s going to hold you back. Then he gives you a report your WPM (word per minute), number of errors, accuracy, and the keys you missed the most in the lesson. I was disappointed that it didn’t give out corrected WPM (-5 for each mistake) but I guess since the lessons here last 5 minutes and even an accuracy of 98% can lead you into a negative corrective speed.

The problems I have with the game. Ok first off the thing that bugged me at first was reading the manual it said that speed was more important then accuracy. This is like telling a police sniper in training that accuracy doesn’t matter but how many rounds he gets off, I don’t think anybody would want to be held hostage in a town that did that. A true way of learning to type is to first hit the keys accurately then your speed improves has you get better at hitting the keys.

I also thought it was kind of bad that they didn’t start the game out with an introduction of where you put your hands on the keyboard. While the game is nice enough to show which finger you use to hit the keys, there is no sort of explanation on the home row keys and where your hands are to position into your type up a few lines explaining this in the advance stage.

Next problem I had comes in with some of the games animation slowed me down and actually caused me to have errors that I wouldn’t have if they weren’t there. While I don’t think this will be a problem for the kids it’s supposed to teaching seeing how according to this thing I go between 70 to 80 WPM (that’s slower then my apple 2 days where I clocked in around 90) but still some of this can be infuriating. The worse comes in Bowser castle during the screen changes the clock still runs and your WPM still get deducted because you’re not pushing any buttons, but there’s nothing on the screen to press.

Finally I was disappointed there was only one test you could take at the beginning of the game I would have liked to test my self in a full paragraph test setting every couple of lessons. Oh and one last thing I don’t know if it’s bad or good or not but when you get errors the thing doesn’t move on rather it waits for you to hit the right button. Your error still get’s counted at the end but unlike a regular word processor which would make you go on, and most typing tutors this one just stays there in till you hit the key. I guess it’s good because kids have to learn the key, but it’s bad because there not reprimanded for there errors.

Final Recommendation.
Mario Teaches Typing 2 isn’t a bad way for kids to learn to approach the key board but they will need assistance since the game doesn’t even tell them where to put there hands. Also I was disappointed by no corrected WPM in the score has well has not being able to test myself. But the graphics and the things that happen on screen are entertaining and it will appeal to young kids.


Note about XP
I should also note that this is an older windows game if your going to run this on your computer your going to have to go through the compatibility wizard and set the screen to 256 colors. I also couldn’t get it to go into full screen on XP


Recommended: No