Michael Jackson The Experience

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This is the first time I've ever played a dance game, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect, however, Michael Jackson: The Experience proved to be a fun time right out of the box. The moves can be difficult to follow and a little confusing, but if you mirror what the dancers are doing on screen, you'll get the hang of it. This is not a game you can really pick up and expect to do well at right away, but it is a lot of fun trying. The moves seem to have to be very well placed and timed to get a "perfect" score. The MJ Experience let's up to 4 players dance to the classics of the King of Pop and what's even more hilarious is watching the "best of" videos of you and your friends dancing after the round. Overall I think it's a great game as long as you're not taking it super seriously. It works great as a party game or when you just want a decent workout. It provides a lot of replay value if you're the kind of person who strives to get everything perfect, as it will take some practice on each song just to get the moves down.

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I haven't played this game for the Wii or the X-Box 360, but I've read that the 360 version is better, so if you have both the PS3 and the X-Box 360, you might want to look into the differences between the two before you buy.

I, however, got this for the PS3 and have been really enjoying it since. The dancing is fun and the singing is cool too (although the singing is harder than it ought to be since Michael's voice is so high). As a Michael Jackson fan, I'm happy that the songs are all his (although I could see how someone who isn't quite as much of a fan might want a bit more variety... especially since the dances are so hard).

The visuals are nice. I wouldn't really call them graphics since the visuals are made up entirely of non-interactive videos with the dancers' faces kind of blurred out to hide the fact that it's not actually Michael dancing. Perform perfectly and Michael will perform perfectly, put the controller down and do nothing and Michael will still perform perfectly with no change to the video (the only thing that will change will be the area that tells you whether you got the move perfectly, good, OK or not at all). The videos are great though; they're rendered in 1080p and have a great attention to detail. Michael's outfits from the individual short films are all present and accounted for (even that ridiculous dollar-store-looking plastic thing from Remember the Time). Songs that have back-up dancers (like Bad and Thriller) have back-up dancers here and ones that don't (like Billie Jean and Earth Song), don't. The backgrounds do their best to mirror the videos (Bad is in the subway station, Thriller is in the graveyard and Leave Me Alone has rotating tabloids). My personal favorite detail was in the Ghosts video when Michael transforms into the skeleton about 3/4 of the way through.

The music comes though great as well. The box lists it as Dolby Digital (without any further specifics) and my receiver lit up as PCM 7.1, but I believe it was upscaling as I didn't really hear any kind of directional cues to make me think it was playing in discrete surround sound. Still, I wasn't expecting a surround track, so the lack of surround effects wasn't missed, and the most important thing was just that the music sounded good, which it did.

But all of that really means nothing without gameplay, so I'm happy to report that the game is fun... ***HARD***... but fun. The Move controller/Eye track your movements, and while I'm sure you *can* just waive your hand in the defined movements, why would you want to? There aren't any locked songs or music videos so it's not like you're going to be pressured to get through the songs for the sake of the unlockables. Even the trophies are mostly unlocked by simply playing the game (with only a few for doing it well). After a weekend playing the game, I'm beginning to learn the moves, and even though I still look pretty bad, at least it's giving me a workout while I'm learning. If you are one who needs unlockables to keep you moving through the game though, you're going to be disappointed as the only unlockables are the videos that teach you how to do the moves (why aren't they available before you start doing well?) and still-pictures with text (lame).

The game's songs are: Don't Stop Til You Get Enough, Rock With You, Workin' Day and Night, Beat It, Billie Jean, Thriller, The Girl is Mine, Wanna Be Startin' Something, Bad, Dirty Diana, I Just Can't Stop Loving You, Leave Me Alone, Smooth Criminal, Speed Demon, The Way You Make Me Feel, Streetwalker, Black or White, Heal the World, In the Closet, Remember the Time, Who Is It, Will You Be There, Earth Song, Money, Stranger in Moscow, They Don't Care About Us, Blood on the Dance Floor, Ghosts, and Sunset Driver (with Another Part of Me as a Walmart exclusive). At first I was disappointed by the inclusion of the slow songs, but after playing it, I'm happy they were included because they make for better singing songs.

We were promised day-1 DLC, which didn't happen, but I'm sure it's coming (hopefully on Tuesday the 19th)... so it would be great to see more dance songs added like Jam, Scream, Threatened and Breaking News, and more singing songs like Man in the Mirror, You Are Not Alone and Human Nature because, after a while, I did start to feel like I wanted a lot more than the 20-something tracks included in the game.

So if you're a fan of Michael Jackson's music, this is a lot of fun. Much like the Wii version, you have to unlock the videos that teach you the moves (which is REALLY stupid), but it doesn't kill you since you can follow along without them. The difficulty level is very high, but you can't fail out of songs (like in Rock Band) and there are no real unlockable goodies so it's not frustrating when you're not doing well... and at least you're moving.

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This game was my first for the Playstation Move. I was very hesitant about the game at first going by the reviews. Being an MJ fan I figured I'd take a shot. The game was indeed fun, especially with more than one person. It's seemed a bit too tough and at times I felt like throwing in the towel. I seemed to barely get 'Perfect' moves and mostly got 'Good' and 'OK'. Then, I figured out the problem. Depending on what type of TV you're playing on, the game will have a lag like the Rockband or Guitar Hero games. I played with the Audio Sync settings and had to set it on -0.07 seconds. After that, I was hitting Perfects left and right. So my advice if you're having that problem, it might just be your audio sync.

I really think it's a fun game and I like it a lot, but I had to give it 3 stars for not including enough songs. It may change in the forseeable future, but for now this is my score. Since the game was released it only has one extra song for DLC and there are tons of MJ songs they could have used for this game. They really need to release more.

Overall, the game is worth it, especially here on Amazon. It's fun and definitely a good addition for MJ fans. The game really makes you work up a sweat so you will get a good cardio workout. lOl Just remember if the game isn't picking up your movemnets very well mess around with audio sync. Every TV is different and it can make a huge difference.

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You can trust the other great reviews this game is getting from the public. I am usually more of a 1st person/3rd person shooter i.e. modern warfare, resident evil, action adventure games.. However, my wife is a huge michael jackson fan, so I figured we would give it a shot. The game song tracks are awesome and the moves are pretty darn close to the real michael jackson moves.

I give the game 4 stars b/c of the design of the game. Nobody usually likes to sit through tutorials and such, but if you're not a dancer; these tutorials can be very handy. The game basically makes you jump straight into dancing to michael's moves or the backup dancers if available. The only way to unlock the dancing tutorials is to gain stars. You gain stars by how well you do when dancing to the songs. For a beginner, you'll be lucky to get an average of 2 stars per song.. It takes 250 some odd stars to unlock the thriller tutorial! Kind of a bummer, but the good news is by the time you have that many stars, you'll probably be pretty darn good. (I know what you're thinking, 1 full star off for not having the tutorial available...? Well, you will understand if you buy the game. Dancing does not come natural to the majority of people.. So something for game developers to think about.)

PROS:

Fun for 1 4 players (local)

Only need 1 move controller (doesn't allow/need the use of two move controllers)

Dance moves are accurate

Multiple Songs

Great workout as well

Singing, it is cool that they allow you to choose whether you want to sing or dance in the game. However, this is no Rock Band when it comes to singing. It's just a simple kind of sing along. Words are provided and a gauge to see if you are on key. A great option if your friends don't like to dance or more over, look like a fool trying to dance!

CONS:

Tutorials should have been available from the beginning.

Awesome game overall. I would recommend this product!

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This is the best game ever!! I'm a huge Michael Jackson fan so this game was a must have for me. The graphics are absolutely amazing on this game. I almost bought this game for the wii but I waited the extra time just so I could get it for the Playstation 3 and it was well worth the wait. I bought the Michael Jackson Experience w/Walmart Exclusive Track, which includes the song "Another Part of Me." The game has many of his greatest hits like Smooth Criminal, Thriller, Billie Jean and Beat It. The sets and backgrounds that were created for each song will totally blow your mind! The creators did an excellent job with the special effects, lighting and audio. This game overall is just plain amazing and fun. You can play with up to 4 players using the Playstation Move. I played with my husband, 10 year old daughter and 8 year old son. There is even a Michael Jackson school where you can learn how to do the Moonwalk if you don't already know how to. I will say that some of the moves aren't exactly easy to pick up but once you get the hang of it then it's smooth sailing from then on out! I normally don't review too many games but had to with Michael Jackson the Experience because my family and I had so much fun! We ended up playing it for several hours!