Keys of Fury: Typing Action Preview By PixelHunted 🔑👊 @elecorn #IndieGame #GameDev

“Typing Action” as a genre is an acquired taste, but whenever a new entry appears on my radar, I’m always excited. The roots of the genre lie in Sega’s The Typing of the Dead, but have flourished in the indie space with the likes of Western Press, Epistory: Typing Chronicles, and Outshine.

If the extremely entertaining preview build is anything to go by, Keys of Fury: Typing Action could position itself at the top of this pile. It dons the skin and aesthetics of a retro beat-em-up, but instead of bashing out punches and kicks with button presses, you rapidly tap out words below enemies to deliver a blizzard of martial arts mayhem.

The preview covers the first three levels, introducing you to the art of “Key-Fu” and emphasising that success is about accuracy rather than speed. Unlike many other typing action games, Keys of Fury doesn’t test your words-per-minute speed, but on completing words without typos.
Each typo costs you one of your five hearts, so slowing down and being precise is practically mandated. This means if you are a fast and accurate typist (hi), Keys of Fury is rather easy. I sailed through the three levels on offer with relative ease in about thirty minutes, so I hope the difficulty is cranked up as the story progresses.

The only other wrinkle right now is that having to be focused on typing out each word or phrase means you’re not actively watching the kung-fu action on screen. The fighting is ultimately something that happens in the background behind the words and, at least for me, fades away as I concentrate on perfectly nailing the keystrokes.

But there’s a whole bunch of reasons to be optimistic about this one. The pixel art and animation are excellent, there are already several fun minigames (dinosaur racing! Stand-up comedy!), and the chorus of cartoonish thwacks and oofs that play with each letter typed is deeply satisfying.

I’m also a big fan of the game being entirely typing-based - if you want to start a new game, you type “Play”. If you want to quit, type “Exit”. Gotta respect the consistency.

Keys of Fury is listed for release in 2025 but with the end of the year rapidly approaching, it feels like it’s going to land in 2026. Here’s hoping the story mode can stick the landing - my typin’ fingers are crying out for a workout! 

[Edit: It's just come out on 24/11/25]