English of the Dead creeps on DSes this May

Scratch off the vague spring 2008 release window for English of the Dead. Sega has the innovative House of the Dead 2 English training mashup set to come out on May 29. The title is mostly played by spelling words on the touch pad. Boss fights vary by adding comprehension challenges. When fighting Judgment, the giant suit of empty armor controlled by a darting imp at the end of stage 1, players need to read a statement in Japanese on the top of the screen and select the correct translation on the bottom. Later Strength, the chainsaw zombie that chases players on level 4, forces players to identify a correct word out of six choices.

Both of these are probably unnecessary if you’re hoping to use English of the Dead to brush up on your Japanese. However, there is a game in the training mode, which has players translate katakana in more familiar English. Perhaps, this along with hours of casual character recognition while furiously spelling words to kill zombies can assist a student trying to master Japanese.