Michael Jackson's Moonwalker Review

    Michael Jackson. The name brings up all kinds of controversy involving the man's life choices and events that lead to his unfortunate death. One thing that is never debated though is the effect that he had on the music industry. Michael Jackson is a complete legend in the music world and the video game industry decided to jump in on the Jackson action. The most recent of these was Michael Jackson the Experience where players got to dance to Michael Jackson songs just like Michael.... or his backup dancers.... Either way you danced. Before that though, Michael Jackson found a home in the arcades, the Sega Genesis, as well as other systems with the now well known game called Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. For this blog I'll be taking a look at the Sega Genesis version of the game.

    Michael Jackson's Moonwalker was developed by Sega and released on the Sega Genesis on August 24th, 1990. The game is loosely based on the movie entitled Moonwalker. The Sega version sees Michael going through a series of levels rescuing children from Mr Big. Other than that there is not much of a plot so let's dive into the game itself.

    In the graphics department, the game isn't anything special. Michael and his enemies look and move fluidly. The levels look nice and some of the special effects like dancing and becoming robot Michael Jackson (yeah you read that right) all look pretty good as well. Where the game lacks in graphics though is the variety. Outside of a few backdrops though there isn't all that much to see. In addition the enemies are all very similar to one another. They are all basically people working for Mr. Big, with the biggest graphical differences being their color. Overall the game feels lacking in the graphics. The ones that are there are nice and all, but the game really left me wanting to see at least some more variety.

    In the sound department the game actually excels to an extent. All through the game various Michael Jackson songs can be heard from the Thriller era. Songs such as Billie Jean, and Smooth Criminal actually sound great on the Sega Genesis despite being in MIDI form. Thriller though, for whatever reason, was not included in every version of the game. The Thriller dance makes it in all of them, but not the song. Weird. Outside of the music, there really isn't anything special about the sound effects. The sounds of Michael's attacks sound like a typical magic sound that you would hear in a lot of games of the time. Honestly, one of the most entertaining sounds in the game is Michael Jackson's OOH scream. Not really sure why, but I crack up almost every time I hear it.

    As far as the gameplay goes, it's again, nothing special. As I mentioned before, you progress through various levels trying to locate and rescue children. Once you find them all on a level, Bubbles will jump on your shoulder and point you in the direction of the boss. Honestly I have no idea why they did this. My best guess is that Michael Jackson wanted to see Bubbles in the game and this was the easiest way for them to incorporate him. None of the levels are really big enough to warrant a guide leading you to the boss, but hey, it's still kind of cool to have a monkey on your shoulders for a bit. 

    The controls are not complicated at all. Michael can jump, move, and attack. He also has a special attack that he can use that involves spinning and throwing his hat. While he spins though he loses life, so it's best to be careful with how frequently it's used. If you spin long enough you will cause Michael to dance along with all the enemies on screen. At the end of the dance the enemies are all defeated. All of Michael's other attacks are just dance moves from his various dances that send blue glitter at his foes. The only other gameplay highlight, and it is most certainly a highlight is the presence of robo Michael Jackson. Yes you read that right. In certain levels, rescuing a specific child will send a star down to Michael. Upon touching that star he will transform into a massive robot that is capable of shooting lasers out of its eyes and even use a jet pack. It's actually quite a bit of fun to play as the robot. Once you've seen the dancing a couple times and played as the robot though, there really is nothing else to the game which is a shame. 

    On a scale of 1 to 10 I give Michael Jackson's Moonwalker a 5. The music is great, the graphics are fine of the Sega Genesis, but the gameplay and replay value of this game really suffers. The game ends up being very one dimensional with the same thing going on level after level. Yes it is based off of an arcade game, but the arcade game is so much better than this and can be played with four players. After about three levels of this game it begins to feel like groundhog day. It's just the same thing over and over. It is a lot of fun in the beginning, but the fun and novelty of the game wears out quick, which is not something I can say for the arcade version. If you like Michael Jackson, check this game out. It's worth a try, but don't expect to be sucked in for very long.     

    Thanks for reading! I am going to continue to hold off my itch to do more Rareware/Donkey Kong Country stuff as long as I can and instead return to the Kirby Series. So my next blog will be Kirby Superstar on the Super Nintendo. I'll be taking a look at the games within so depending on how long it is, it may end up as a two part blog. We shall see. Also I will not be comparing it to the DS version of the game in this blog. That's a story for another time.