Popular visual novel Needy Streamer Overload is a jaded look into the world of niche e-celebrities and a chronically online generation who grew up with unrestricted internet access.
The series centers around the messy protagonist Ame and her online streaming persona, OMGkawaiiAngel, who profits off of her parasocial relationship with her viewers while navigating substance abuse and an obsessive relationship with her boyfriend, the player.
Needy Streamer Overload has gotten popular enough to receive a couple spin-offs, one of which is a typing game that we’ll be looking at today, although looks can be deceiving.
NEEDY STREAMER OVERLOAD: Typing of The Net
Developer: WSS playground, mumimumi, veryOK, Atree, kabocha renga
Publisher: WSS playground
Platforms: Microsoft Windows (Reviewed)
Release Date: January 20, 2025
Players: 1
Price: $7.99
First of all, it’s impossible to review this game without spoiling its main twist, since it actually makes up the majority of its short runtime. This spin-off doesn’t have that much substance and doesn’t seem to expand upon the original game’s story in any way, but if you want to remain spoiler-free, this is where you drop off.
Needy Streamer Overload: Typing of the Net is a short typing game where players spell out niche internet terms and jargon. The game’s entire vocabulary, including OMGkawaiiAngel’s dialogue and the words that the player has to write, consist of mid-2000’s memes, internet slang and chan lingo, as the game is filled to the brim with references to internet culture.
The player is even given a brief description of what each term is when typing it, although a lot of the flavor text is jokey and non-descriptive, so if you are actually new to internet culture then this is not going to teach you that much. That said, there aren’t that many deep cuts, so there’s a good chance most millennials and older gen z already know most of these terms anyway.
As for its gameplay, Typing of the Net consists of three different stages, each being formatted as a YouTube video that lasts a little under five minutes. The words don’t require any capitalization or spaces, so anyone with a decent typing speed is bound to complete the game easily.
Not to show my power level or anything, but the game is incredibly easy, and pretty much anyone used to playing things like Typing of the Dead or ZType is going to S-rank the three short levels without even trying.
It’s a shame that the player can’t unlock a harder or endless mode as a challenge, since Needy Streamer Overload‘s typing portion is shallow and somewhat boring, with its only quirk being the fact that you are spelling internet slang instead of conventional words.
After completing the game’s three stages, players gain access to Endless Nightmare, which is accessed by searching its name through the YouTube-like UI the game takes place in. Endless Nightmare is, surprisingly, not an endless typing level, but instead a 2D platformer in which the player moves through five stages collecting pieces of their idol outfit.
Each stage is composed of short platforming sections and combat rooms, which lead to a boss fight at the end. The player has to collect different parts of the OMGkawaiiAngel outfit to unlock the final boss fight, and they are usually found by moving through invisible walls or solving simple puzzles.
Endless Nightmare takes around 45 minutes to complete, making up the majority of Typing of the Net‘s runtime. This part of the game flirts with a darker aesthetic, featuring a chainsaw-wielding Ame as its playable character, but it doesn’t do a lot with its premise.
Endless Nightmare is very reminiscent of the early Momodora games, although a little clunkier and lacking in difficulty. Most enemies just sort of stand still and let you attack them, while the platforming has some weird quirks, like your momentum only carrying forward if you move the joystick while jumping.
The level design is incredibly straightforward and each stage mostly follows the same pattern of platforming challenges, light puzzles and locked combat encounters, punctuated with a boss fight at the end. Endless Nightmare is not bad by any means, but it is also somewhat forgettable.
The end of stage bosses are possibly the best part of Endless Nightmare, featuring fun fights that use the game’s mechanics creatively. The last level is a bullet hell shoot ’em up section, where players perform a magical girl transformation and fly around chasing what looks like an evil version of OMGkawaiiAngel (sadly, I am not caught up on the Needy Streamer Overload lore).
Typing of the Net feels like the kind of game that would come bundled with a blu-ray release of an anime, although in that case it would be mostly seen as an extra rather than a full product, which would grant it some leniency.
As a standalone product, however, Typing of the Net is disappointing, featuring very little content and mostly looking like a poor attempt to cash into the original game’s popularity. Even with its low price, it’s difficult to justify paying for a game that is so short and not necessarily that unique.
Typing of the Net and Endless Nightmare are possibly novel experiences for those who are really into Needy Streamer Overload and simply want more of its characters, but as someone who is not that invested into the series, it just sort of falls flat as a below average typing game and a mostly alright 2D platformer.
NEEDY STREAMER OVERLOAD: Typing of The Net was reviewed on Microsoft Windows using a game code provided by WSS Playground. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. NEEDY STREAMER OVERLOAD: Typing of The Net is available on Microsoft Windows (through Steam).
