Michael Jackson – The Experience

Michael Jackson – The Experience Rom runs on the Nintendo Wii through the Dolphin Emulator, and it’s a dance game where you copy Jackson’s moves with a single Wii Remote. No Balance Board, no extra junk plugged into the console. You hold the remote and the game watches how your arm matches what the dancer onscreen is doing. Most rhythm games on the Wii wanted you to buy three peripherals before you could play. This one skips all that.

One Remote Doing All the Watching

The whole thing leans on that one controller reading your timing, which is both the smart part and the weak part. It tracks your arm, not your feet, not your hips. So you can technically pass a routine while standing mostly still and just flailing your wrist on beat. That’s the gap. But when you actually commit and move, the live-action dancers stitched into each 3D stage sell the fantasy better than I expected from a 2010 Wii title.

The Songs Pull From the Real Videos

Each stage copies the look of the actual music video for that track. Smooth Criminal has the lean. Thriller drops you among the zombies. The list runs long too, twenty-six songs including Bad, Billie Jean, Black Or White, and deeper cuts like Streetwalker and Sunset Driver that most people forgot existed. Heal The World and Earth Song are in there if you want the slow ones. It’s a fuller setlist than the trimmed versions on other consoles.

Career Mode Walks Through the Decades

Career mode strings these together starting from the 80’s and moving forward through his run. It’s not deep. You unlock songs, you play songs, that’s roughly the shape of it. And honestly the training mode does more for you than the career framing does, since it plays video guides of each move before you attempt the routine. Good for the harder choreography in something like Thriller.

Four People, One Living Room, Some Chaos

Up to four players can jump in at once, and that’s where this thing actually earns its keep. Nobody’s grading your form too harshly in a group. The party falls apart in the good way when four people try Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ in a space built for two. Running it on Dolphin means you’ll want your remotes synced properly before anyone starts, because emulated motion tracking can drift if the controllers aren’t calibrated right.