Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker
System: SMS
Release Date: May 1991
Developer: Sega/Arc System Works
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Action
Save our precious planet from falling into the nasty grasp of Mr. Big in Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker! The King of Pop is back in an 8-bit rendition of his most excellent 16-bit adventure. Mr. Big has kidnapped children from all around and it’s up to Michael, the champion of love and peace, to take charge. Rescue the children on each of 15 levels and then put an end to Mr. Big for good.
Most levels are set up just like their 16-bit big brother. Club 30 looks just the same with doors, pinball machines, stairs, and Michael opening by throwing a coin in the jukebox. There isn’t a meter with strong stardust attacks in blue and weakly thrown punches in red. You have a regular health meter that decreases as you take damage. Michael kicks with Button 1 and jumps with Button 2. You’ll have to get adept at knowing when to do a ducking attack and when to do a jumping attack. Otherwise, you’ll take damage.
The goal of each level is to find all the children. Just open every door, window, car trunk, and cave you find. Be careful, because sometimes enemies are behind doors and they’ll zap your hit points without a chance for reprisal. This really sucks and you’ll hate it. When you save the last child, you’re immediately teleported to the end level fight, but with full health. You can hold Button 1 to do dance magic, but with only a couple enemies on screen at once, it’s a waste.
Hidden in levels are little yellow suit Michael minis. These replenish three units of health, which is often welcome. Finding an orange suit mini Michael gives you the hat attack, which replaces kicks. This leaves you incredibly vulnerable, because you’re frozen while attacking. Being a sitting duck sucks and will cause you to die more than you’d like if you aren’t perfect.
The different levels are all there, but they’re dumbed down to work in 8-bit. There is a new two-part final boss battle. The first part has you killing 30 of Mr. Big’s minions in a Shinobi ninja star style stage. You have to avoid their shots while taking them out. The second part has you going up against four lasers that keep coming in and out of a mountain. It took me waaaaaaaay too many tries to finally succeed here, but after hitting the lasers a few time each, Mr. Big was done and Michael danced through the credits.
Graphics: 2.5
You’re missing a lot of frames of animation, but it’s decent for 8-bit.
Sound: 2.5
Look, I appreciate that Michael’s tunes made it to the Master System, but they sound tinny and awful.
Gameplay: 1.0
It’s hard to get the moonwalk to work, getting stuck with the hat throw sucks, and the dance magic is worthless.
Difficulty: 1.0
Placement of enemies behind doors when you open them is stupid. The dogs are stupid. Collecting the hat powerup makes the game harder.
Fun Factor: 1.0
This is a boring representation of Michael’s adventures.
Overall Rating: 1.6
Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker earns a C-. This is not a very good game and it’s a horrible demake of the Genesis version.