Rest in Peace, MJ - Micheal Jackson in Games

As cliche as this might sound, today is a sad day in history. Think what you want of him, but undoubtedly Micheal Jackson is one of the greatest musician that ever lived. As an 80s baby who grew up with his songs, I'm deeply hurt by his death. Moreso for people who are still listening to his songs till this very day, like Zaido.

Before I continue, I would like to say, Screw all MJ haters.

I guess this is supposed to be where I put music videos of him and rank them. Well, you can find that in thousands of blogs on the Net right now. Or if you're like me, just go to Micheal Jackson's YouTube channel and reminiscence on his rockin' songs, his sleek dance moves and well-produced MTVs. Good times, man.

Instead, I'm going to pinpoint the legacy he left behind in video games. That's right, his contributions go well beyond music.



Take, for example, Moonwalker for the Megadrive. I didn't grow up with console games, but I fondly remember the time when Dzaid and Daim showed it to me. It's very well animated and the artists did a good job bringing MJ's spirit into digital design. MJ closely monitored the game too and even requested to have more enemies so that it'll be more awesome!

As such, many gamers deem this game a classic.



Never seen the arcade game before, but it sure looks kewl.



There was quite a controversy revolving around Sonic 3's music. A board claimed that MJ created the music for it but due to scandals, his music got changed... a little. I dunno what to think of it, but there's no doubt that Sonic 3's music is heavily influenced by MJ's style. No wonder it was superb. View the popular documentary here. (Damn disabled embedding)



Sega still loves MJ though. In one of my favourite music games ever, Space Channel 5, you control a cute reporter to save Space Micheal by mimicking and outdancing the enemy! MJ voiced Space Micheal himself and the dance+song used for the rescue sequence is packed full of MJ style.

I used After Effects to cut the above sequence out of the full gameplay footage and uploaded it to YouTube. That shows how much I wanna blog about this!



And finally, his popular song ABC used in Elite Beat Agents.

I would like to end the post by showing you how much NicoNicoDouga users love MJ. Just type Micheal Jackson in the search box, and you'll see a bunch of MAD videos.



No doubt, this is the most popular one. It's Hare Hare Yukai, after all. Love the timing!

Rest in peace, MJ. You'll be forever remembered.