Pokémon takes on the typing-tutor game sub genre.

When I was a kid, nobody I knew actually learned anything from Mario Teaches Typing. It was the kind of lazily constructed, “edutainment” game that came pre-loaded on computers in my elementary school’s computer lab. Nobody played it to learn how to type— it wasn’t very useful in that regard, nor did “learning” through a computer game appeal to my elementary school self. Instead, my friends and I would frantically mash the keyboard in hopes that we would hit the correct keys somewhere along the way and advance through the level as though it were a regular Mario game. It felt like playing Super Mario World, had Super Mario World been built by two guys in a basement and required a controller made out of a stick of butter. No fun.

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Enter Learn with Pokémon: Typing Adventure for DS and 3DS, which is slated for release in Europe this September. The game comes bundled with a DS/3DS stand and wireless keyboard for kids to practice and hone their typing skills on. A few questions arise: Isn’t typing on such a small screen a bit of an eyestrain? Why isn’t the game slated for release in North America? Our main question, however, is: what exactly constitutes a “typing adventure”? My Nintendo News explains:

As you take on the role of the latest member of the Elite Typists’ Club, your typing skills will gradually be tested to the limit as you attempt to accurately type the names of any Pokémon you come across on your journey to help Professor Quentin Werty and his assistant Paige Down with their research.

Which, of course, raises another important question: how beneficial to real life is learning to accurately type the names of Pokémon? (Wait wait, don’t answer.)