Michael Jackson and Moonwalker spawned several games of this title. The concept is available on numerous ports and was released for the home computer by Emerald Software, Ltd. and was released at the height of Jackson’s solo-career popularity in the late eighties.
The PC version of the game has virtually no relationship at all to the other platforms that were released. While the others put the King of Pop in the role of a magical superhero who is trying to free children from the notorious drug dealer, Mr.
Big (and save the world from his doomsday weapon that he is constructing on the Moon), the PC version focuses more on real world Michael Jackson issues.
The game has four levels of play, each with a unique problem. The first is a top-down view of a maze that represents Michael’s studio. The level is based on the “Speed Demon” video short and features Michael collecting numerous pieces of a silly rabbit costume, which he will use to disguise himself from his crazed fans. The final piece to collect is a motorcycle that Michael uses to escape from the studio. This level is timed. After procuring the motorcycle, Michael escapes to Michaelsville, which is not his final destination. He must run about the town
collecting power up orbs that will transform his everyday motorcycle into a cool super Stratos car that can leap the barrier at the end of town. Upon leaping the barrier with the newly made car, Michael can reach the lake and escape on a jet ski.
In level three, Michael is the hero in a side-scrolling adventure based on the “Smooth Criminal” hit. Michael is inside a popular club (Club 30), and must collect ammunition and shoot at Mr. Big’s gangsters who continually peep out from the openings in the ceiling above. Finally, Michael changes into a super robot to continue shooting at Mr. Big’s thugs and attempting to destroy his plasma laser doomsday device in order to save the world and the children, generically known as Katies.
In all, Moonwalker is a mediocre game. The user has twenty lives with which to work, and the first two levels only see danger in the form of running out of time. When the action finally picks up in the final two levels, many gamers may be bored of this one. The sound track features a few of Jackson’s songs and they seem to do nothing more than remind the gamer that this is Jackson in the game, not a ho-hum protagonist. Of course, there will be some people who will be offended by the premise of having an alleged child molester attempting to rescue children, but at the time the game was released, Jackson was still considered a wholesome pop star with charitable interests.
