Have you played Elite Beat Agents? Maybe Parappa the Rapper if you?re a little old school? Then you?ll be right at home with Michael Jackson: The Experience HD on the PlayStation Vita. This feels like any other rhythm based game prior to Kinect sensors, Guitar Hero controllers, and other devices that have changed the way we think about rhythm games. Just replace the standard face button controls found in Parappa the Rapper or Umjammer Lammy, and put them on the touch screen instead.
The Experience contains just a little over a dozen of some of the most well-known Michael Jackson songs around. You?ve got Thriller, Beat It, Billie Jean and a lot more. There are some notable absences, no Man in the Mirror for instance, and some odd inclusions that even I wasn?t very familiar with. But overall it?s a decent track list, but at 15 or so tracks, you?ll buzz through what the game has to offer quickly.
Because of the need to replay these songs over and over again, this is definitely a game that I can only recommend to big fans of Michael?s back catalogue. You probably could?ve guessed that, but as a fairly casual fan, I found myself growing bored with replaying a handful of the tracks over and over again, so the appeal is definitely limited.
As far as the touch screen controls, the game is remarkably responsive, and picks up on your actions pretty well. The movements you?ll use are simple swipes in 8 different directions, small taps, half circles, and full circles. The direction of these movements is dictated by where they appear on screen, and occasionally you?ll need to double up with your movements, which does take some adjusting depending on how you hold the Vita.
But again, this is a game with limited appeal. You?ve got to be an M.J. fan going in to really get much enjoyment out of this, and on top of that you?ve got to be O.K. with some really repetitive gameplay. It would have been really nice to at least see his catalogue of music blown out a little more here, as it stands there?s very little content for the asking price. If you enjoy older style rhythm games, you?ll probably get a little bit of fun out of this, but I highly urge you to wait for a discount or price drop before taking the plunge.
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