We’ve already played and reviewed Michael Jackson’s Experience on the Wii last year December and at the time we said that game is for Michael Jackson fans but it wasn’t really as good as Just Dance.
So now that it’s out on the Kinect does it give Dance Central a run for it’s money or is this just another fan title?
Over the weekend it was my nieces birthday party and thanks to the abysmal weather I received a phone call on Saturday morning asking if I can bring the Kinect around and some games to keep the 20 8 year old girls entertained.
Seeing that my review copy of Michael Jackson’s Experience had just arrived it seemed like the perfect title to lug over there.
I got there early and setup the Kinect and then took the title for a spin before everyone arrived. The first thing I noticed was the menu system.
The menu is simple yet effective, you see a picture of yourself beamed onto the screen (No that’s not me above) and then you hover your hand over a selection and then a second menu item appears just under it. You then need to hover over that to select it.
Simple, effective and seen somewhere before. So it’s not entirely original but it works and that’s all that counts really.
Your options are solo, party or the Michael Jackson school. The school seems to be the same as what’s in the Wii version and is simply a set of videos that are meant to help you learn how to dance like MJ himself.
The game itself can be played either as a dancing title, a singing title or a mixture of both.
As a singing title it’s not as good as Lips or Singstar and really that’s all there is to it. If you want a singing game then this really isn’t what you want. It works, but it’s rough and won’t keep you entertained for to long.
Onto the dancing, as in the Wii version you have a ton of original Michael Jackson songs that you can select from with each having a different difficulty level.
You select a song and then get going, you’ll see yourself projected onto the screen with the upcoming moves being displayed on the bottom right. And then you start and it’s pretty much like any other dancing game. The moves come quick and fast and only the supremely elegant can actually pull off most of the moves.
Then just when you think it can’t get any more embarrassing you are put into a compromising situation and the Kinect takes a picture of you. Awesome…
The accuracy of the Kinect is very impressive and I would say it’s as good as Dance Central when picking up your movements.
However it’s not all perfect as the biggest problem is still that it only has Michael Jackson songs which means that it can become quite repetitive pretty quickly, that is unless you are a massive Michael Jackson fan.
On the plus side the high score list uses those compromising pictures which is a great idea and makes these jump in styled games easier to keep track off.
Scoring:
Gameplay: 8.5/10
It’s a solid dancing game at heart and if you have played one before you know what to expect but added to that it now has a mini Singstar game built in which gives it an extra couple of points over the Wii version.
Presentation: 8/10
The way that it projects your image on the screen is very well done and the menu’s and graphics are far superior to the Wii version
Sound: 9/10
If you love the Michael Jackson back catalogue then this game is going to be a great addition to your collect, however if you never got Michael Jackson’s music then this will be a sort of pop hell for you, or in other words it’s exactly like the Wii version.
Value: 8/10
You’re getting a dancing game and a singing game in the same box, both of which work which makes this great value for money.
Overall (not an average): 8.0
As in the Wii version this game is made for true blue Michael Jackson fans, however with the Kinect integration and singing it does appeal to a larger audience. It’s good clean fun and kept the party going while the rain kept coming down.
Last Updated: April 18, 2011
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