Michael Jackson: The Experience released on the Wii back in November of last year. It followed the same format of Ubisoft’s super successful Just Dance series, but obviously themed around the King of Pop himself. It has since gone on to sell well over 2 million copies worldwide. Now, almost five months on, it’s not just Fulham FC that are getting their Jackson on, as Ubisoft are set to release Michael Jackson: The Experience on PlayStation Move and Kinect for Xbox 360. What I was expecting where shinier HD versions of the Wii game. What I actually got to try out for myself was something that went way beyond what I expected – especially the Xbox 360 Kinect version.
For those of you that have no idea what Just Dance or Michael Jackson: The Experience are all about, then let me give you the basics. Each game presents you with a number of songs, each with their own dance routines. You perform the routine by following the actions of the on-screen dancer. A final score is awarded for how well you performed each move and kept in time. As you might have guessed, each of the games are best when others join in; making for an undeniably enjoyable party game.
One thing the Wii version of Michael Jackson: The Experience suffered from was accuracy. Even with Motion Plus, many of Jacko’s routines were simply too much for the poor Wii Remote to cope with. Getting hands-on with the PS3 version, the first thing that stood out was just how much more accurate the game was at picking up my moves – I use the word “moves” in the loosest possible terms! Visually, the PS3 version follows the same formula as the Wii, using the stylised video backgrounds with a virtual Jackson and a couple of dancers.
The biggest new addition, however, is that you can now choose to sing, or if joined by three friends then any combination of singers and dancers can be chosen. So for example, you could have one person singing while the other three dance, or maybe two singers and two dancers. It’s this feature alone that makes the PS3 version the best choice when it comes to parties. Speaking of parties, shorter versions of each song can be chosen for a quick rotation should you be lucky enough to have more that three friends to join you. The PlayStation Eye won’t only just sit there tracking your movements either, it will record your performances and take photos along the way. Pics and be saved to the hard drive and then uploaded to social networking sites; while movie clips can be copied to PC and uploaded to video sharing sites like YouTube.
On Kinect, MJ: The Experience uses a system called “Player Projection” which places a real-time 3D mesh representation of you in the game, making it the most immersive version yet. This is similar as to what Ubisoft used in their recent Kinect fitness title, Your Shape. The 3D version of yourself on-screen has the trademark style neon glow of the Just Dance characters, with extra added sparkles and glittery effects. To say it works well is a bit of an understatement really, and it immediately became apparent that this could be the best use of Kinect since the controller free motion device launched. Instead of using the music video style of the Wii and PS3, on Kinect it’s based on a live performance; complete with a stadium full of excited fans and a stage themed around the iconic visuals from each of Michael’s videos.
Dance school makes a return on both the PS3 and Xbox 360, although it teaches some of Michael’s most famous moves rather than entire routines. If you want to improve your score on a particular song then practice mode is the place to head. Each track is broken up into several chapters that can be practiced for however long it takes you to master the section before moving onto the next. Each section will also be scored, so you can see which parts you need to work on in order to top the leaderboards.
The Kinect version also includes the option to sing along, although it works slightly different to its PS3 counterpart. The microphone on the Kinect device itself can be used, as can any of the currently available mics. A few songs in the game only allow for singing, but all of the others allow you to choose how you want to play. Songs can also be broken up into singing and dancing sections. So the opening parts will have you throwing some shapes, followed by the chance to put those vocal cords to the test. Combine this with the live performance visuals and it really does make the Kinect version the ultimate Jackson experience.
However, when it comes to multiplayer and playing with friends the PS3 has the advantage. On Kinect there is just two different modes when it comes to multiplayer. There is a jump-in jump-out mode where a song is chosen and the game will pick each player in a random order to perform specific parts of that song. So you may get chosen to do the first part of a routine before being swapped out with another player who will perform the second part. The other multiplayer mode is basically playing through an entire song and the person with the highest score wins, which can be played as either 1v1 or in a team of 2v2. Although both modes are a lot of fun to play, during my time with the game I can’t help but feel the PS3 version is better suited to party play.
Michael Jackson: The Experience on the PS3 and Kinect for Xbox 360 is also looking to be the ultimate in fan service. After the Wii and DS versions, the development team listened to community feedback, from not only the gamers, but also the legions of Jackson fans. Both games now feature exclusive pictures from the Michael Jackson estate, as well as fun trivia facts and details. But the most important thing I got from the preview is that each version takes full advantage of the hardware. For me, the Xbox 360 Kinect version delivers the better Jackson experience, looks the best of the bunch and is the version I am most eager to play more of. But the PS3 is miles ahead when it comes to good old fashioned party fun.
Michael Jackson: The Experience releases on PS3 Move and Xbox 360 Kinect on Friday 15th April. Be sure to check back very soon for some exclusive in-game videos and our full review.
El redactor parece que le ha gustado mas la version Kinect pero la version Move/PS3 tiene algun modo multijugador mas.
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