Michael Jackson's Moonwalker
Sega Genesis
I was a huge Michael Jackson fanboy back in the early 90's. I had all his albums, I had Michael Jackson shirts, I had his posters on my bedroom wall. It was a passing phase in my life, but definitely one that everybody in my family remembers. When my mom took me to the video game store to pick something out for my 10th or 11th birthday - and I saw this on the shelf - my mind immediately made itself up. I was going to get this game, and I was going to love it. And love it I did.
It has been quite some time since I've played this game. Twenty years? More? While I did enjoy the brief amount of time I spent with the game as an adult, it is hard for me to fathom how this game held my attention for so long as a kid. I mean, the game is short. Like, REALLY short. It is also very easy. I beat the game in under an hour. Until I reached the final battle where you have shoot down Joe Pesci's star ship (yeah, really) I had only died one time.
How this game occupied my time for months on end as a kid, I have no idea. Now that I am done with the game, I don't really have any particular urge to play it again. Ever. I had a decent time while playing it, and it was definitely a fun trip down memory lane. But if I try to cast nostalgia aside and look at the game on its own merits, it is mediocre at best.
I don't have an instruction manual or anything, so I can't really tell you what the story is about. But using context clues gathered while playing the game, it seems that the game's main villain (Joe friggin' Pesci) is going around kidnapping children for God knows what reason. Presumably he is out to conquer the world, as most super villains are wont to do. But why he needs kids for this, I don't know.
As we all know, nobody loves little children more than Michael Jackson. Naturally, Joe Pesci's actions have completely triggered Michael. So he embarks on an epic quest to rescue the kids and end Joe Pesci's reign of terror once and for all.
What a concept.
The game plays out in standard 2D side scrolling fare. Aside from the directional pad, you only use three buttons. Attack, jump, and a spin/dance combo button. Your basic attack is a kick that sprays magical stardust at your enemies. The spin attack renders you invincible and kills most of your enemies instantly if they touch you, but this attack drains your magic gauge. Your magic gauge is also your health gauge, so if you run too low on health, you lose your ability to spin. It also takes away your ability to spray magical stardust, and you have to resort to very ineffective punching and kicking physical attacks.
Release the spin button and Michael throws his hat at his enemies, which can be a very useful attack. But hold down the spin button indefinitely, and all your onscreen enemies bust out into a dance routine with Michael. When the dance ends, your enemies drop to the floor and die. Savage!
Occasionally a shooting star will streak across the screen, and if your grab it - Michael turns into a giant robot that can fly around and kill enemies with lasers from his eyes. There are only a handful of levels where you can do this, but it is always a fun little treat when it happens. Although it is ultimately useless because you can't collect children while you are a robot. And all of the enemies you kill as a robot respawn anyway. But at least it is a fun little distraction from the game's usual style of play.
The game is broken down into 5 levels. Each level has 3 stages to it. All of the stages are pretty short, so it takes no longer than 10 minutes or so to clear all of them and advance to the next level. Each stage has a certain number of children you must rescue. When you have rescued them all, everyone's favorite monkey Bubbles arrives and hops onto Michael's shoulder, where he directs MJ to the exit. Upon reaching the exit, Joe Pesci's character arrives to taunt you. When he leaves, you must fight a series of enemies that stand in as boss characters. The only one I had trouble with (resulting in my one death) is the boss battle where you are attacked by a pack of dogs and you have to kill the white one to advance.
Each stage has its own unique feel to it, complete with authentic Michael Jackson background music. The club stage has you rocking out to Smooth Criminal. The inner city streets I believe the music is Beat It. The zombie stage is Another Part of Me (although why it is not Thriller, I have no idea). The caves are Billie Jean. The enemy base is Bad. This is the Sega Genesis, so the audio quality is not the best. But I think each tune is recognizable to its real life counterpart. They did an admirable job making it work for a video game system very limited by its audio capabilities.
Expect to hear lots of Michael Jackson's signature sounds while playing the game. Many high pitched "owws" and "oooooohs" are to be heard here. But why there is no "ee hee" I have no idea. Again, not the greatest audio quality here. But it is enough to get the point across. And I am sure for 1990 or 91, whenever this was released, this was considered state of the art.
Graphically, the game is decent. It is very basic looking but I can appreciate the small details that went into it all. For example, there are many things you can interact with. You can kick over chairs, open doors and windows, break machinery, destroy fire hydrants. By no means does the game look amazing, but by no means does it look ugly either. Again, as with the music, I am sure by early 90's standards this game was top notch.
As I said, the game is very short and very easy. It could be that I had such an easy time because I have played the game before (albeit twenty years ago). But I feel that if this was the first time I played it I still would have beaten it on my first attempt.
Did this game leave a huge lasting impression on me? No. Is there hidden stuff to seek out and collect that add replay value? No. Was the game challenging in anyway whatsoever? No (well, aside from the final space ship battle, which didn't make a whole lot of sense to me). Is it a classic that I will seek out to replay every couple years or so, on the same level as the Mario or Sonic games? Hell no.
But the game is very unique. If you are a giant Michael Jackson fan it is worth a play through, if only for nostalgia's sake. If you are a hardcore gamer looking for a challenge, you may be mildly entertained by this but you won't love it. For its time, I am sure it was excellent. But playing it now in the year 2016, I only just kinda enjoyed it. Definitely worth the play through but I likely won't be returning to this any time in the next twenty years, if ever. It is the definition of average.
Overall:
C
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