Michael Jackson: The Experience HD is becoming a little like the “Ride Racer” of rhythm games and has danced its way on nearly every major game platform this generation and the newly released PS Vita is no exception. The popular rhythm title has found its way onto Sony’s new handheld and ends up being a pretty decent launch title, especially if you like the King of Pop.
The Vita Lounge - Ah Michael Jackson. The King of Pop. One of the most talented and fascinating people the world has ever seen. Some may say “What a waste” as he tragically died due to his negligent doctor back in 2009. An artist so famous and reported in the media so heavily he was mentioned in 15% (about 5000, thanks wikipedia) tweets after his death, with his music selling 35 million albums in the twelve months post-death, and a record breaking 2.6 million of his songs were downloaded in a single week in 2009, making him the best selling artist of the year. Like Princess Diana or 9/11 it ranks has one of those defining moments in history that is so significant most will remember where they were and what they were doing (I was having a cigarette with my now husband outside of a bar in Manchester while thinking the person who told us was playing porkies). As record labels always seem to do in memory of the stars that filled their pockets, Michael Jackson suddenly became relevant again and received a string of re-releases and his very own game across nearly every platform in existence: Michael Jackon: The Experience (MJE). The console and handheld versions of MJE are quite different in that the console versions require you to dance and sometimes sing a la Dance Central or Just Dance whereas the DS version featured tapping the bottom screen in a similar fashion to Elite Beat Agents. The PSP version featured using the buttons on a timeline to the beat, whereas the Vita version however is unique from all of the other versions as instead of playing out like the DS or PSP games, the Vita has you follow a series of taps, swipes and swirls on screen (still with me?).
Michael Jackson was an iconic legend to the music industry, though unfortunately like the game's console brethren, the experience is nowhere near as memorable as it should be. Find out why the spark doesn't capture our hearts like Michael did to the world.
Michael Jackson The Experience has made it onto everyone gaming platform I can think of, there’s a Wii, Xbox360, PSP, iPad and PsVita version where you’ll be tapping and dancing to the beat. Now I’ve player the Wii and Xbox360 version prior to playing the PsVita and have to say was highly impressed with the Wii version which looked good and was great fun, unfortunately the Xbox version was a let down but enough of them because this review is about the screen tapping PsVita version.
