Game Review by William Smith
My adoration for Michael Jackson’s music wasn’t uncommon. His fourth album, “Dangerous,” was the first CD I ever purchased. “Thriller,” still the best-selling album worldwide at 66 million copies, was my second.
I even purchased the incomparable feature-length music video “Moonwalker” on VHS, which the arcade and Sega Genesis are based on.
Ironically enough, working arcade versions of the Moonwalker arcade game aren’t nearly as common. Developed by Sega, the game’s arcade board ran on the company’s suicide battery, which rendered the game unplayable at the end of its lifespan.
Nothing truly dies in the digital age.
A typical beat-em-up with an a-typical, isometric perspective, the laughable lunacy that defined the music video is faithfully adapted here, to a disturbing degree. Jackson shoots blue lightning from his hands like a Sith Lord — your main means of attack. Reach a certain point in the game’s five, beautifully rendered (if annoyingly brief) levels, and he turns into a killer robot.
He later transforms into a futuristic (by 1980s standards) prototype sports car. Then a silver spaceship.
If you have a special attack stored up, Jackson forces all the on-screen baddies to dance with him in unison, causing them to explode. It’s usually to the strains of “Bad,” but there are some earlier songs in there too.
Like the majority of the gorgeous beat-em-ups that populated arcades at the time, the game ends 20 minutes after it starts. Mr. Big, portrayed by a cartoonishly top-knotted Joe Pesci, is finally vanquished.
It’s a blast while it lasts, lacking the challenge of a continuous system that would erase the player’s progress. Once you die, just pump in a few more quarters to pick up right where Michael and his chimpanzee Bubbles (who’s in the home version as well) left off. Each death replenishes your dance attack, layering the game with a macabre subtext that certainly wasn’t intended. Those moves are too slick not to die for.
Thanks to the modern conventions of the MAME arcade emulator, it doesn't cost anything to play now. And if that makes you feel guilty, just remember the arcade machine was designed with a timed kill switch, much like Jackson’s legacy.