The PS3 version of Michael Jackson: The Experience is like the older brother of the Wii version. It uses the same set of live action dance sequences superimposed over themed backgrounds. You're free to sing or dance to 29 of Michael's tunes using the PlayStation Move controller and a compatible USB microphone (neither peripheral included). You can rock the stage solo or play with up to three of your friends by picking two singers and two dancers. It's the best of the motion-based Michael Jackson games, but it's still not the full-body, robust package that Michael Jackson fans deserve.
If you're in a dancing mood, you pick a song and watch as guide diagrams slide up the side of the screen. By using these as reference points and following the on-screen dancer, you'll earn points for dancing along with the music. If you're more eager to grab a mic, the song lyrics will appear on the bottom of the screen, along with a pitch meter to give you some feedback on your performance. This all makes for a simple premise that's not quite as effective as I hoped.
The biggest problem with Michael Jackson: The Experience on PS3 is the same problem inherent to the Wii version: the PlayStation Move isn't reading your entire body. Even though it encourages you to dance along with the choreography, you're only being scored on the movement of your hand, which deflates the whole idea. Thankfully, the PlayStation Move is a much more accurate device than the Wii Remote.
I performed Billie Jean several times in different ways to see how the controller reacted. In the Wii version, I could generally shake the controller in time with the music and score about the same as performing seriously. With the PS3 version, shaking my hand along with the music only earned me about 1,000 points. Performing with my whole body, I scored more than 7,000 points. Lastly, I played Billie Jean a third time but only followed the dancer's hand motions. The result was a slightly higher score than my full-body performance, but this variation could be from my growing level of comfort with the choreography.
In short, the PlayStation Move reads your dancing well enough through your arm movements. It's not as accurate as I would have liked because some moves that I know I nailed registered as a "miss," but it works most of the time. It's nowhere near as immersive as something like Dance Central, but that's okay because Michael Jackson: The Experience also doubles as a karaoke game.
You can sing along to any of the 29 included songs, and your score will depend on how accurate your pitch is. Michael Jackson: The Experience doesn't register your pronunciation of the words, unfortunately, so you can cheat by humming along if you so desire -- perfect for those unfamiliar with the words or too tipsy to care.
The dancing here is the weaker of the two options, mainly due to the lack of a proper input method. Even still, a great deal of this choreography is tricky and the guide diagrams don't help much -- especially when they stop appearing during the performance and assume you can keep following along until the next diagram comes around.
The most fun I had with Michael Jackson: The Experience was playing with three other friends here at IGN. While two of my buddies screamed out Smooth Criminal and disrupted the rest of the company, News Hound Jim Reilly and I swung our Move controllers with bravado. It was good, silly entertainment, and I could see a bunch of friends getting a kick out of the experience without the stress of "failing out."
CLOSING COMMENTS
I'll always have a personal connection to M.J.'s tracks, and performing them with a bunch of friends should be entertaining -- even if the PlayStation Move controller isn't ideal for a full-body dancing game. Despite the poor input method, difficult choreography and nebulous guide pictures, Michael Jackson: The Experience can make for some silly fun. It's worth checking out if only to see some of the dancers perform -- they're pretty fantastic.
Source: IGN.com
Source: IGN.com