Michael Jackson: The Experience

Dance Central still reigns supreme as the best Kinect game six months after the launch of Microsoft's hyped device. And it's not due to a lack of competitors, we've already got Dance Evolution and Dance Paradise with Let's Dance with Mel B on the way. And then there is the subject of this review, Michael Jackson: The Experience, a game loosely based on Ubisoft's monstrously successful Just Dance series.

And Ubisoft have gotten the basics right. Michael Jackson was one of the most complete artists of all times and when it comes to combining song and dance, there are few if any artists that come close to the same range. Thus, the concept for the game comes as completely natural and one that has all the makings of a great game.

Perhaps you would have been able to dance your way through his childhood with Jackson 5, pull off a number of Motown moves and head on to Thriller and his continued career. You might imagine performing in front of sell-out crowds, appearing on TV shows, and acting in some of his most famous music videos, and naturally there would be plenty of extras for die-hard fans.

The truth of the matter is something else. Michael Jackson: The Experience, is an extremely barren game that lacks most of what the brilliant Dance Central offers. In fact it's so barren that apart from singing and dancing to Jackson's hits there isn't even a proper training mode.

What makes it even stranger is the fact that we're supposed to be able to copy the moves of Michael Jackson, and that man knew how to move. To expect millions of Kinect players to be able to step onto the living room floor and pull of a moonwalk without a well constructed training mode is just bizarre.

Instead of a proper interactive tutorial there are some videos where skilled dancers show us Michael's most technical moves. It's all very well, but it's not enough. There is no built-in feedback to tell me where I'm making a mistake. For my part it may very well be that all I do is wrong, but I've played the game with several others, including Dance Central aces. Everyone complains about the lack of feedback.

I'm not expecting every dance game to copy Dance Central, but to have been able to slow things down and be given clear indications just where your mistakes are made would have been a major improvement. I don't have the patience to watch long videos, this is a party game after all.

On the other hand there is no real consequence to what you do. Just try and keep flailing around to the best of your abilities and sing along on higher difficulty levels. It's impossible to fail and the points keep on rolling in no matter what you do. And the lack of online leaderboards result in little reason to try and improve your scores.

Singing is flaw in similar manner. There are tracks that you have to sing, regardless of whether you want to dance or not, and there is no proper feedback to see where you go wrong. A system that lets you see the pitch (like in Rock Band) would have been of great help, and I would have appreciated the option of deciding what songs to sing and/or dance myself.

Another issue with dancing is the lag that Ubisoft haven't been able to avoid unlike Harmonix. You are recorded and placed among a number of other dancers, but the problem is that your movement are completely out of sync and it just looks awkward. The result is that you always feel like you're doing something right and you're trying to find a balance between hitting the moves in the list and keeping up with the other dancers.

I've been complaining a lot, but Michael Jackson: The Experience is not without strong points. You cannot get away from the fact that the track list is stellar. Hits such as Beat It, Rock with You, The Way You Make Me Feel and my personal favourite Remember the Time crowd a list of 30 odd tracks. And even if the game is a disappointment it's difficult to be bored when you're moving to songs like these.

There are also good multiplayer options. There is both co-operative and versus play and up to four players can take part. You're likely to have the most fun looking at your friends as they attempt to moonwalk, but it still manages to entertain in some way.

Michael Jackson: The Experience is a great concept that could have been so much more. A proper career mode, well crafted tutorials, and lots of bonus material should have been in there. Michael Jackson lived an incredibly rich life, so why am I forced to suffer through this barren experience when I could have been dancing in front of full arenas and starred in iconic videos? None of it is here, and that's the main problem with this experience.