Michael Jackson the Experience on the PS3 and Xbox 360

MJ the Experience has been out on the Wii for 5 months and has sold over 2 million copies. This week on April 15, 2011 Ubisoft releases it on the PS3 and Xbox 360. How do the 3 versions compare? Lets break it down.



All three versions use their respective consoles latest motion controller. This a good test of each controller but the game components are a bit different for each so an accurate comparison is still a bit skewed.

The Wii uses the Wii Motion Plus and pretty much sucks in a game that follows body movements like Just Dance and MJ: The Experience. You have to hold the controller and MJ follows the movement of the controller and that's it. No cameras like the PS3's Move and Xbox's Kinect to see an accurate image of the gamer.

The Move controller for the PS3 is far more accurate than the Wii's. The camera picks up your every move, if you dare to call then that. The game play is the same as in the Wii. A virtual Michael moves as you do and you have two back up dancers. It's as though you are controlling the music video of MJ.

The PS3 does have the ability to SING, that the Wii doesn't have. Four people can perform at the same time in any combination. You could have one person singing while the other three dance, or maybe two singers and two dancers, you do the math.

This makes a great addition to family gatherings. Grandpa sings while those without a new hip can get down and funky. Awesome!

The Kinect version is different from the other two in several ways. The first you notice right away. You do the dance moves on the screen not MJ. The system uses "Player Projection" where the gamers is replicated in 3D on the screen.

It could be to date the best use of Kinect since the controller free motion device launched. Instead of using the music video style of the Wii and PS3, on Kinect it’s based on a live performance; complete with a stadium full of excited fans and a stage themed around the visuals from each of Michael’s videos.

The Kinect version also includes the option to sing along, although it works slightly different to its PS3 counterpart. The microphone on the Kinect device itself can be used, as can any of the currently available mics. A few songs in the game only allow for singing, but all of the others allow you to choose how you want to play.

Songs can also be broken up into singing and dancing sections. So the opening parts will have you throwing some shapes, followed by the chance to put those vocal cords to the test. Combine this with the live performance visuals and it really does make the Kinect version the ultimate Jackson experience.

When it comes to multiplayer and playing with friends the PS3 has the advantage. On Kinect there is just two different modes when it comes to multiplayer. There is a jump-in jump-out mode where a song is chosen and the There is a jump-in jump-out mode where a song is chosen and the specific parts of that song. So you may get chosen to do the first part of a routine before being swapped out with another player who will perform the second part. The other multiplayer mode is basically playing through an entire song and the person with the highest score wins, which can be played as either 1v1 or in a team of 2v2. Although both modes are a lot of fun to play, during my time with the game I can’t help but feel the PS3 version is better suited to party play.