Aaron | 
June 29, 2009 | 
“Experience the baddest game ever.” – from the box
The story of Moonwalker “The Game” is exactly the same as the movie. For those who don’t know, Moonwalker the movie was a series of music videos or short clips with MJ’s own “Moonwalker” film starting in the middle. The movie and game are about “Mr. Big” (played by Joe Pesci in the flick), a drug dealing, kidnapping gangster who uses the drugs on the children and turning them into his own personal slaves. It is up to you (MJ) to use your magic power of the dance to stop Mr. Big, and get the children out of harms reach.
(Michael’s popularity was enormous at the time. He was such a huge star, SEGA was counting on his arcade to Genesis port to help carry their new system. Check out this three page add, the first part of which read – “SEGA Does”.) UPDATE: See our retro Rewind: Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker (Arcade) for some info (video included) on the coin-op version of the game. 
Moonwalker on the Genesis is a 2D beat em up. You move the “King of Pop” from left to right and up and down staircases or elevators. The five stages have a total of three levels within them for a grand total of 18 stages (not including the very last battle). Every stage is fairly small and very puzzle like. This is because Moonwalker is half puzzler or, maybe just half annoying – I’ll explain.
The main object of the game is rescuing the kidnapped children, a different amount per level. Every single kid is a small blond girl referred to as a “Katy”. Katy is one of the kids from the movie. It’s pretty easy finding the scattered Katys. Want a clue? Every single one of them is hidden in back of an object on screen. Whether it be a closet door, the trunk of a car, or even a gravestone, there isn’t much mystery as to where to look. Add this repetitive gameplay to the game’s shorter level design, and Moonwalker becomes very average, very fast. 
This brings me to the game’s biggest negative, and that is, the way MJ’s special moves are linked to his life bar. Yes, to break out into a dance or even throw your cool exploding hat requires life. Without a life bar you can’t dance, and without dancing, you have about two moves. It’s true that for each Katie you rescue, your life will be recovered a little, but you still won’t feel safe dancing up a storm and will most likely stick with Michael’s basic “fairy dust kick” to dish out most of your damage. If you couldn’t guess, the fairy dust kick never feels like it hits anything.
The game succeeds at being different to say the least - you get to do the “beat-it” dance with a group of dogs, MJ can be hit by “secret” flying comets which transform him into a giant robot, and the game’s final confrontation is reminiscent of an Star Wars X-Wing battle, something I certainly wasn’t expecting. Check it all out in the video below. Let’s dance!.
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The game did suck but he was the King of POP. Also Ebay is a joke check this out.. Nice to see LOT owns the actual cart (check the gallery). R.I.P MJ..
http://www.n4g.com/gaming/News-352798.aspx
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yeah, it stunk overall but something about it made it fun. Maybe sega can release it on xbla or psn soon
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Wow Rudesole, I had no idea the original cart was going for that much! I had checked just after he passed away when writing the review and the game wasn’t reaching those prices yet.
I’m very happy to have mine (and my brothers
) original copy because I would NEVER pay the $255 price tag I saw one go for yesterday. Fun game but $255, is just Off the Wall!!
I saw a story posted somewhere that a playstation signed by MJ was found on ebay selling for like $20,000.
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This may sound far fetched to many of you guys but when I was a young boy I actually met the King of Pop and he carried me around on his shoulder for a few mins before the Press attacked him. =D
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That is one incredible story man! Besides baseball card shows which had specific players set to show up to give autographs, Jose Canseco is the only star I’ve seen at random and in person. He was walking around a local mall. Where were you when you saw MJ?
He was actually at a jewlery store in Queens look for a setpiece for his music video “black or white”. According to my parents who retold the story to me, he was using the bathroom before he came out and pulled me up lol. XD
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This brought me back to playing the game myself…one of the only games i did play…..i loved the little girl saying “MICHAEL” every 3 and a half seconds.
He will be missed, great job with this trip down memory moonwalk lane.
Rest In Peace MiJack, You deserve to be at peace now !
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Great memories… I didn’t have this game but played it over my friends house quite a few times (so Thanks for the “flash-back”, lol). I must admit… being so young when this game came out- having the “King of Pop” be the main character was pretty awsome, and having the “Beat It” and “Smooth Criminal” music playing through out was an added bonus. Not the best game- but great for those nostalgic thoughts
Thanks for giving us this review to rekindle some of the “good old” MJ days…
R.I.P. Michael Jackson, we Love and Miss you!
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The arcade version of Moonwalker is sooo much better. 3 player co-op, better sound (you can actually hear Michael yell “Whos Bad?” on the Bad music track). Also find Bubbles and you transform to Mecha-Michael! A true classic… Brings back fond memories of my youth and of course MJ… As in Starry Starry Night lyrics “The World was never meant for one as beautiful as you” He’s in heaven now where he can be a child again.
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So true….Thanks for the great review !
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woooooooooo dont stop till you get enough
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whoa, I didn’t know joe pesci was in the movie…I might have to watch it just for that. As for the game, It’s fun for the first 10 minutes while you’re laughing your ass off at it, then it gets boring.
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