- Michael Jackson: The Experience
-
Michael Jackson: The Experience 
European cover artDeveloper(s) Ubisoft Montreal (Xbox 360)
Ubisoft Montpellier / Ubisoft Paris (PS3)
Ubisoft São Paulo (DS/PSP)Publisher(s) Ubisoft, Triumph International Platform(s) Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Vita Release date(s) Genre(s) Music, Dancing, Singing Mode(s) Single-player, Multiplayer Rating(s) CERO: A
ESRB: E10+
PEGI: 3, 12 (Wii)Media/distribution Wii Optical Disc, Nintendo DS Game Card, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD, PC-ROM[citation needed] Michael Jackson: The Experience (マイケル・ジャクソン: ザ・エクスペリエンス) is a music video game based on Michael Jackson's music and songs. It was licensed by Triumph International, developed by and published by Ubisoft, and was released on November 23, 2010 for the Wii, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation Portable.[2][3] It was also released on April 12, 2011 in North America and April 15, 2011 in Europe for Xbox 360's Kinect and PlayStation 3's PlayStation Move. The game features many of Michael Jackson's hits, such as "Bad", "Thriller", "Beat It", "Billie Jean", Rock with You", "Smooth Criminal", "Black or White" and "The Way You Make Me Feel". Initial launches of the game included a limited edition replica of Jackson's famous sequined glove.[4] It was revealed that it will also be released for the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS.
Contents
Gameplay
There are three modes of play in the Wii version of the game. The first is "Classic" where everybody follows the on-screen Michael Jackson avatar. The second is "Duo" which is used for duets (such as "The Girl is Mine") or videos with two main characters (such as "The Way You Make Me Feel."and "In The Closet") The player(s) can choose to dance as either Michael or the other character. The third mode of gameplay is "Crew," which features Michael and two backup dancers (five during some songs.) Players can opt to dance as any of the three. After performing songs, players will be able to unlock training videos in the "Dance School" where they are taught some of the more difficult moves from several of Michael Jackson's music videos and stage performances.
Four player multiplayer is available on the Wii and Move enabled PlayStation 3 but the Kinect will be limited to one player at a time. The game will also feature singing on the Kinect version on Xbox 360, and optional on-screen lyrics on the PlayStation 3 with will also feature singing and Wii versions. On the DS version of the game there is a cartoon version of Michael on the top screen and the player follows along by tapping the bottom screen with the stylus to the rhythm of the music, a style similar to the Nintendo DS game, Elite Beat Agents. It is also revealed that on the Wii version you can play as Michael or the Back-up Dancers. The game was displayed at New York Comic Con at Ubisoft's booth.
Kinect features
The Kinect version of the game features full body tracking, and entirely different choreography to the Wii version,[5] along with several other changes and additions. This version uses a technology called Player Projection, which puts the player's own image in the game allowing them to star in their own Michael Jackson video. The Kinect version includes two game modes: "Solo" and "Party". Solo mode features one player and Party mode features 2-4 players. In Party mode, there are two options: "Co-Op" and "Battle". Co-Op mode is a "every player for themselves" mode as players take turns jumping in and jumping out in order to complete the song. Battle mode is a team mode where two teams face off to get the highest score. Battle mode is a little different than Co-Op mode as each team performs the song together and the song gets broken down into two parts in which one player dances and the other player sings. Party mode only features Dance Mode, Performance Mode and Master Performance Mode. There are four symbols to reperesent each player: Michael's glove, Michael's hat, Michael's shades and one of Michael's jackets. Several of the songs in the game will not feature any moves to perform, instead becoming "Singing Only" songs, with Earth Song being the first song confirmed as Singing Only. There are certain songs that have moves that can be taught in a practice mode called "MJ School". Similar to the Wii version, you will be scored on how well you sing and dance. You can get five different grades. Perfect, Good and OK increases your score and Almost and Miss make you lose your current score. Your points add up at the end of each song along with the rating of stars you receive and a photo you take during your performance. You can either use the Kinect's built-in microphone or an atttached mic/headset to sing.[5] The game does include the option, however, to choose a "Dance Only" version of the song, which means the player will not be asked to sing.[5] The Kinect version will also feature a mode known as Master Performance, which will require the player to both sing and dance to a set of choreographed moves that are harder than the normal moves, and "as close as possible to the videos".[6]
PlayStation 3 and Vita features
In addition to the singing and dancing found in the Xbox 360 version, the PlayStation 3 version allows the player to sing or dance at the same time as other players.[7] There is also the option to record the video clips of the player's performance, and allowing saving or uploading to sites such as Facebook.The Vita will feature augmented reality the 2 cameras will be use for full body tracking there will be 2 options AR Kinect with will feature singing and dancing and AR PS3 with has the option just to dance or sing or both at the same time with the use of the speakers or microphone on the Vita.The Vita will also 4 options Solo with is single player Near is the multipliplayer using the Vita's GPS for Near service AR Kinect with is augmented reality Kinect version and AR PS3 with augmented reality PS3 version. The Vita version will also have DLC when it releases.
List of songs
Song Album Year Wii DS and 3DS PSP Xbox 360, PS Vita, and PS3 Difficulty Another Part of Me Bad 1987 Yes (only with Wal-Mart or HMV Special Edition) Yes Yes Yes (only with Wal-Mart Special Edition or as DLC) Medium Bad* Bad 1987 Yes Yes Yes Yes Medium / Medium Beat It* Thriller 1982 Yes Yes Yes Yes Medium / Hard Billie Jean* Thriller 1982 Yes Yes Yes Yes Medium Black or White* Dangerous 1991 Yes Yes Yes Yes Hard / Medium Blood on the Dance Floor Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix 1997 No No No Yes Hard Dirty Diana Bad 1987 Yes No No Yes Easy / Medium Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough* Off the Wall 1979 Yes Yes Yes Yes Medium / Medium Earth Song HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I 1995 Yes No No Yes Medium Ghosts** Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix 1997 Yes No No Yes Hard / Medium The Girl Is Mine (featuring Paul McCartney) Thriller 1982 Yes No Yes Yes Easy / Easy Heal the World Dangerous 1991 Yes Yes Yes Yes Easy I Just Can't Stop Loving You (featuring Siedah Garrett) Bad 1987 Yes (not playable; plays over the credits) No No Yes Easy / Easy In the Closet Dangerous 1991 Yes No No Yes Medium / Medium Leave Me Alone Bad 1987 Yes Yes Yes Yes Easy Money HIStory; Past, Present and Future Book I 1995 Yes No No Yes Medium Remember the Time** Dangerous 1991 Yes No Yes Yes Hard / Hard Rock with You* Off the Wall 1979 Yes No Yes Yes Easy Smooth Criminal** Bad 1987 Yes Yes Yes Yes Medium / Easy Speed Demon Bad 1987 Yes No No Yes Hard / Hard Stranger in Moscow HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I 1995 No No No Yes Easy Streetwalker Bad: Special Edition 2001 Yes Yes Yes Yes Easy Sunset Driver The Ultimate Collection 2004 Yes No No Yes Hard They Don't Care About Us* HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I 1995 Yes No No Yes Hard / Medium Thriller* Thriller 1982 Yes No Yes Yes Inhuman / Hard Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'* Thriller 1982 Yes (Also plays on the Main Menu) Yes Yes Yes Medium The Way You Make Me Feel* Bad 1987 Yes Yes Yes Yes Medium / Medium Who Is It Dangerous 1991 Yes No No Yes Easy Will You Be There Dangerous 1991 Yes No Yes Yes Medium / Easy Workin' Day and Night Off the Wall 1979 Yes No No Yes Medium - A "*" indicates that there's a dance teaching video of that song.
- A "**" indicates that there's a three-part dance teaching video of that song.
In the Wii console version of the game, "Money" is incorrectly credited as a song from the album Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix which was released in 1997. This would be true if the song in the game was a remix but it is the original version of the song, released on HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I in 1995.Aside from all music released prior to Jackson joining Sony Music, the Grammy-nominated Man in the Mirror, as well as the international number one You Are Not Alone, and several of his other singles were absent from the game, yet several non-singles did make the cut. Also, no songs from "Invincible" were included in the game.
The Vita version will feature Downloadable Content. The songs will be:
- Another Part of Me (December 1st 2011)
- Man in the Mirror (December 1st 2011)
- Scream (December 1st 2011)
- You Are Not Alone (December 4th 2011)
- Dangerous (December 4th 2011)
- You Rock My World (December 4th 2011)
- Jam (December 7th 2011)
- P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) (December 10th 2011)
- Come Together (December 10th 2011)
- 2 Bad (December 10th 2011)
- She's Out of My Life (December 10th 2011)
- Liberian Girl (December 14th 2011)
- Is It Scary? (December 14th 2011)
- Give in to Me (December 14th 2011)
- Cry (December 14th 2011)
- Heartbreaker (December 21st 2011)
- Break of Dawn (December 21st 2011)
- Butterflies (December 21st 2011)
- Hold My Hand (December 24th 2011)
- This Is It (December 25th 2011)
- Human Nature (December 25th 2011)
Reception
Reception Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings 66.14[10] Metacritic 66[11] Review scores Publication Score Eurogamer 8[7] GameSpot 5/5 GameTrailers 5.1[12] IGN 6.5/10 Official Nintendo Magazine 59%[13] Official PlayStation Magazine (UK) 6/10[14] Play Magazine 2.6[15] PSM3 85[16] VideoGamer.com 7/10 Destructoid 6/10 Metro 5/10 The Guardian 3/5[17] Daily Mail 3/5[18] Daily Star 75%[19] The Sun 4/5[20] The Irish Independent 5/10 The reviews for the Wii have been mixed. IGN gave it a 3.5 saying that it does not give clear instructions on how to dance and also criticized the controls.[21] GameFocus said that they failed at making a masterful game that matches the King of Pop.[22] Metro gave it 5/10, describing it as "perfectly good party fun if you don’t care that the controls don't work."[23] Videogamer.com gave the review a 7/10, stating that the music overplays the responsiveness difficulty.[24] CNET gave the game 5/5, writing that the game is "extremely easy to pick up and play" and "the choreography is amazing"[25] The Escapist gave the game 4/5, noting that the game "is not meant to be played by yourself."[26]
For the DS and PSP versions, the reviews were average, with a slightly better score for the DS version, IGN gave a 6.5/10 for DS[27] and 5.5/10 for the PSP.[21] Destructoid gave a 6/10 for the DS version.[28]
Of the different formats, both GameRankings and Metacritic awarded the highest scores to the PlayStation 3 version.[10][11] Eurogamer thought that the XBox dance routines "feel a little slower and more simplistic than those in the PS3 game",[7] while the Daily Star said that "the Move seems a touch more sensitive".[19]
The game has since sold over 3 million copies worldwide, and is on course for matching sales of The Beatles: Rock Band and has sold an additional millions after the release of the Move and Kinect versions.[29]
References
- ^ Brudvig, Erik (August 18, 2010). "Gamescom: Ubisoft's Michael Jackson Game Uses Kinect". IGN.com. http://au.xbox360.ign.com/articles/111/1113895p1.html. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
- ^ Frum, Larry (June 16, 2010). "Game will let you sing, dance like Michael Jackson". CNN.com. http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/gaming.gadgets/06/16/michael.jackson.game/. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
- ^ Fritz, Ben; Martens, Todd (June 14, 2010). "Michael Jackson is coming to the video game world". The Los Angeles Times. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2010/06/michael-jackson-is-coming-to-the-video-game-world.html. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
- ^ Winslett, Ryan (November 2, 2010). "Michael Jackson: The Experience Launches With Limited truee Edition Glove". Joystickdivision.com. http://www.joystickdivision.com/2010/11/michael_jackson_the_experience_1.php. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
- ^ a b c "Michael Jackson: The Experience (Kinect) Hands-On". Everybodyplays.co.uk. March 12, 2011. http://www.everybodyplays.co.uk/preview/360/Michael-Jackson-The-Experience-Kinect-Hands-On/525. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
- ^ "Michael Jackson: The Experience (Kinect) Interview". Everybodyplays.co.uk. March 12, 2011. http://www.everybodyplays.co.uk/feature/360/Michael-Jackson-The-Experience-Kinect-Interview/524. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
- ^ a b c http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-04-25-michael-jackson-the-experience-review
- ^ "Michael Jackson: The Experience Song List / Soundtrack". IGN.com. http://faqs.ign.com/articles/116/1161817p1.html. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
- ^ "Michael Jackson: The Experience song list revealed". Everybodyplays.co.uk. November 22, 2010. http://www.everybodyplays.co.uk/news/Wii/Michael-Jackson-The-Experience/386. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
- ^ a b http://www.gamerankings.com/ps3/997725-michael-jackson-the-experience/index.html
- ^ a b http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/michael-jackson-the-experience
- ^ http://www.gametrailers.com/game/michael-jackson-the-experience/13376
- ^ http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/21701/reviews/michael-jackson-wii-game-review-review/
- ^ Official PlayStation Magazine (UK), 06/01/11
- ^ http://wii.nowgamer.com/reviews/wii/9590/michael-jackson-the-game
- ^ PSM3 magazine, July 2011, p.94
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2010/dec/08/michael-jackson-the-experience-review
- ^ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/reviews/article-1377088/Michael-Jackson-The-Experience-lets-step-King-Pops-dancing-shoes.html
- ^ a b http://www.dailystar.co.uk/posts/view/186517/Michael-Jackson-The-Experience-360-PS3-49-99-/Michael-Jackson-The-Experience-360-PS3-49-99-Michael-Jackson-The-Experience-360-PS3-49-99-Michael-Jackson-The-Experience-360-PS3-49-99-
- ^ http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/fun/gaming/3515249/The-Sun-reviews-Michael-Jackson-Experience-on-Xbox-and-PS3.html, 15 Apr 2011
- ^ a b Clements, Ryan (December 6, 2010). "Michael Jackson: The Experience Review". IGN.com. http://uk.psp.ign.com/articles/113/1138754p1.html. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
- ^ "GameFocus: Michael Jackson The Experience Review". N4G.com. http://n4g.com/news/658204/gamefocus-michael-jackson-the-experience-review. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
- ^ Hargreaves, Roger (November 25, 2010). "Games review – Michael Jackson: The Experience is bad". Metro.co.uk. http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/848417-games-review-michael-jackson-the-experience-is-bad. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
- ^ Smith, Jamin (November 24, 2010). "Michael Jackson The Game Review". Videogamer.com. http://www.videogamer.com/wii/michael_jackson_the_game/review.html. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
- ^ Walton, Mark (December 10, 2010). "Michael Jackson The Experience (Wii)". Gamespot. CNET.com. http://reviews.cnet.com/wii-games/michael-jackson-the-experience/4505-9993_7-34130706.html?part=cnet&subj=Michael+Jackson+The+Experience+(Wii)#reviewPage1. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
- ^ Tito, Greg (December 1, 2010). "Review: Michael Jackson The Experience". Escapistmagazine.com. p. 2. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/8389-Review-Michael-Jackson-The-Experience.2. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
- ^ Clements, Ryan (December 7, 2010). "Michael Jackson: The Experience Nintendo DS". IGN.com. http://ds.ign.com/articles/113/1138952p1.html. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
- ^ Holmes, Jonathan (December 10, 2010). "Review: Michael Jackson: The Experience (DS)". Destructoid.com. http://www.destructoid.com/review-michael-jackson-the-experience-ds--189144.phtml. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
- ^ Orland, Kyle (April 7, 2011). "Michael Jackson: The Experience Reaches 3 Million Worldwide Sales". Gamasutra.com. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/34002/Michael_Jackson_The_Experience_Reaches_3_Million_Worldwide_Sales.php. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
"Kids" games Just Dance Kids • Just Dance Kids 2Spin-off games Dance on Broadway • Michael Jackson: The Experience • ABBA: You Can Dance • The Smurfs Dance PartyJapanese games Just Dance WiiCategories:- 2010 video games
- Kinect games
- Michael Jackson-related games
- Musician video games
- Nintendo 3DS games
- Nintendo DS games
- PlayStation 3 games
- PlayStation Move-compatible games
- PlayStation Portable games
- PlayStation Vita games
- Video games developed in France
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