Moonwalker Arcade | Retro | Walkthrough | Gameplay | Long Play

Moonwalker Arcade | Retro | Walkthrough | Lets Play | Long Play | No Commentary

Michael Jackson's Moonwalker is the name of several video games based on the 1988 Michael Jackson film Moonwalker. U.S. Gold published various games for home computers, released in 1989, whilst Sega developed two similarly themed beat 'em up video games in 1990; one released for arcades and another released for the Sega Genesis and Sega Master System. Each of the games' stories loosely follow the story of the film, in which Michael Jackson must rescue kidnapped children from the evil Mr. Big, and incorporate synthesized versions of the musician's hits, such as Beat It and Smooth Criminal. The games, particularly the Genesis adaptation, have achieved cult status.

The game is essentially a beat-em-up, although Jackson attacks with magic powers instead of physical contact, and has the ability to shoot magic power at enemies instead of getting close enough for a melee attack. A map of the stage is shown before it begins, and after which, Jackson must get from the start to the end without losing all his health while rescuing all the children and defeating all the enemies along the way.

The game can also be played multiplayer; if the cabinet supports it, up to three people can play simultaneously. All three players play as Jackson, dressed in his suit from the "Smooth Criminal" music video. The first player wears a white suit and hat, with a blue shirt; the second player's character dons a scarlet outfit with a white shirt; the third player's character is dressed in black, with a red shirt. The characters all have armbands: blue for white outfit, white for red outfit, and red for black outfit.

Dance Magic: Arguably the most memorable feature, Sega takes the concept of the "smart bomb" or "screen zapper" and changes it to the form of dancing, in a special attack termed "Dance Magic". Remaining stocks of this are displayed onscreen as the MJ logo which had recently debuted in the film. Once activated, a heavenly spotlight shines on the player, and the player starts to dance several of the high-energy moves that have become Jackson's hallmarks. All of the standard enemies — henchmen, gangsters, guards, robots — start dancing with the player and are destroyed at the end of the dance routine (ostensibly because they cannot keep up with Jackson's dance moves). However, bosses do not dance, but do take a significant amount of damage. Any captive children on-screen at the time Dance Magic is activated are not harmed. There are three different dance routines that may be performed, and the player starts with one to three of these attacks per credit (depending on how the machine is set up).

Bubbles: Part of the peculiarity of this game comes from this unusual power-up. Bubbles the chimpanzee, Michael's real-life pet, appears in each level. Once collected or rescued, the chimp transforms Michael into a robotic version of the pop singer that has the ability to shoot laser bursts and absorb significantly more damage.

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