Developer: Sega Publisher: Sega Release: 08/90 Genre: Action
Before Sonic the Hedgehog Sega relied on celebrities and athletes to bolster the Genesis lineup. Signing a major athlete like Buster Douglas or Joe Montana to endorse a sports game was a no brainer. But their biggest coup was getting Michael Jackson to star in a video game. It was the early 90s, Bad was still burning up the charts and Moonwalker had just released in theaters. So of course the king of pop deserves his own title right? But what kind of game do you make based on a pop star? A side-scrolling platformer of course. Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker is a strange game and while it is not a classic it is oddly compelling.
Moonwalker is only loosely based on the “film” of the same name. I say “film” because it is more of a musical with only the bare minimum of plot stringing its numerous segments together. Mr. Big is a drug kingpin and has kidnapped children and hidden them around the city. It is your job as Michael to find the kids and put an end to Mr. Big’s plot, whatever the hell it is. I am honestly surprised Sega went to the trouble of creating two separate games based off the film. I played the completely different arcade game first and thought this was a home port. To be completely honest I wish it was; while this game is not necessarily bad the arcade game is better.
Although Michael is dressed like a gangster he will not be wielding a Tommy gun. Instead you defeat enemies using his fancy dance moves. Your main attack is a flashy kick or punch that throws a little magic dust as long as your life bar is above 30%. You also have a dedicated dance button that has a few uses. A light tap will cause Michael to do his famous spin. Hold it down a few seconds and he will throw his fedora like a boomerang. If you hold it even longer he will perform an impromptu dance number, forcing all enemies on screen to join in the performance and die at the end. The dance moves use up some of your life but rescuing a single child nearly fills it completely.
The goal in every level is to rescue a set number of kids at which point Bubbles will hop on your shoulder to lead you to the end level boss. I swear I am not making that last bit up. The children can are hidden everywhere, behind doors, in bushes, dumpsters, and disturbingly car trunks. But taking a page right out of Revenge of Shinobi (conveniently in development at the same time) any hiding spot can also contain a bomb. As you progress you will need to save more kids per stage and they become more well hidden. But that more or less sums the game up.
Sega have done as good a job as you can expect with a license this esoteric. They lean in to the oddity of the film and use many of its set pieces as levels. One level you are kicking gangsters in a dirty parking lot and the next you are dealing with an endless stream of zombies and spiders. The sole power-up is a shooting star that requires set conditions to appear. Collecting it turns Michael in to a mecha Michael at which point you can fly around and shoot lasers. It is pretty useless since you cannot collect kids in that form but you can at least explore the level. As if that were not enough in the last level he turns in to a spaceship and the game becomes a shooter. Even describing it makes me sound like a nut job.
As solid as the controls are the game cannot overcome its repetition. The enemy AI is beyond dumb with most enemies barely putting up any resistance. To make up for this each level is filled with tons of them and it becomes tiring to fight the same enemy ad nauseam in every stage. It only gets worse as they become more annoying. Three levels in the same setting is a bit much as well; like Sonic the Hedgehog you will want the game to move on after the second. Even the music, and I love Michael Jackson’s hits, repeats on an endless loop. This is not a long game so it at least is not as bad as it could have been. But Moonwalker would benefit from being a tighter experience.
In Closing
Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker is better than you would expect given the source material. But it is still not necessarily a good game. The novelty of its premise wears off quickly and you are left with a slow, repetitive action game you will probably never revisit after the first time.
