Texting of the Bread Review

Thumb typing on the iPhone has never been as difficult to learn as typing with all ten digits on a regular keyboard, but the touchscreen does have a learning curve. Enter Texting of the Bread, a cookie apocalypse game that makes you type to save the world.

Gingerbread men of all sizes are running amok in the city, and it’s your job to take them out with your milk-squirting Gatling gun. Rather than aiming and pressing a button to shoot, however, in this game you must type the words that appear above the enemies’ head. This is an awesome game mechanic, and it's way more fun than texting your boring friends.

Typing the whole word kills the enemy. Missing a letter doesn’t make you restart the word, but it does let the sinister gingerbread men advance while you fumble with your thumbs. When the gingerbread men reach you, they whittle away at your health meter with their sugary attacks. If you’re feeling overwhelmed and your milk gauge is full, you can shake your device to unleash a wave of milk that wipes out everything on the screen.

The game isn’t perfect. The gameplay becomes repetitive after about 20 waves, and all of the enemies are gingerbread men. They come in a few different shapes and sizes, but we’d like to see a little more variety. On the plus side, there's a campaign mode and a survival mode, along with leaderboards and achievements (though they're not through Game Center or OpenFeint).

If you’re looking for a fun, clever game that actually will make you a better iDevice typist, Texting of the Bread has you covered. Actual entertainment and real-world application: what more could you want from a game?