Michael Jackson, As Viewed Through His Video Games

With the news that Michael Jackson: The Experience on Wii has topped the three million sales mark, the history of the king of pop’s obsession with video games are offering new insight into his life.

Besides having his likeness featured in several video games (Moonwalker of course, Space Channel 5 as Space Michael, buff-boxing iron-Mike in Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2, and the obscure Sega AS-1 Shuttle as Commander Jackson ) he is rumored to have been one of the world's biggest collectors of video games, spending over $500,000 on his amusement arcade. It's suggested that his collection began after being denied playing games as kid performing with the Jackson 5.

He more than made up for lost time.

In April 2009, and allegedly short of a few quarters, MJ put the amusement arcade up for auction (the 242 page catalogue of the sale makes for an interesting read). At the last minute, the whole auction was canceled, perhaps because of sentimental value the games had to him. If that's the case, then it might be worth speculating if the games reflected anything about MJ beyond him being a hardcore games buyer. The machines were generally in a pristine condition which suggests they didn't get a lot of use.

In a highly unscientific analysis it seems they run some curious parallels.

It's the first stage of his collection that is most iconic. The collection begins in 1979 with the Atari trilobite, Basketball, and the same year the legendary album Off The Wall came out. The arcade hall of fame are all present: Ms Pacman, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Super Mario Bros, Karate Champ. All this at a time when “Thriller” and the Moonwalk pretty much defined the world.

Not much change in the arcade, since MJ was too busy recording commercials for Pepsi and and shifting 30 million copies of Bad. However, the film Moonwalker was to change all that…

To furnish his $100million Neverland bachelor pad, a decent amusement arcade must have seemed a basic necessity. Thus begins the return to gaming with the release of Moonwalker video games. In the auction catalogue, Moonwalker was a glaring omission. It's rumoured MJ owned three or four full sized cabinets but being of utmost importance, these were never considered for the sale.

During the early-’90s, the gaming collection entered the next level. All the key-16 bit consoles are accounted for. Specialist display rigs of Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and the big bad Neo Geo sat alongside the biggest gaming cabinet of all time, the gyrocopic Sega R360. It's the perfect superstar game: so big it needs a metre exclusion zone and an attendant present at all times because it could "easily kill… or decapitate". 1992 also saw the purchase of the first of three Konami Lethal Enforcers games. Luckily, the 32 million selling Dangerous was adequate to fund this gaming splurge.

With the allegations of child abuse in 1993 and a marriage in 1994 , MJ took his eye off the A-list releases when poor choices appeared in his arcade including Midway's Time Killers, a doomed 3DO, and a brainstraining VirtualBoy to play with.

With the release of HIStory, a two part-greatest hits album, MJ must have been reminiscing over a better time. His purchase of Ultracade, a MAME based arcade of the greatest 1980's hits is a sad psychological mirror. The arcade grew most rapidly in these withdrawn years or perhaps the new role as father unleashed his inner child? He obtained twenty more cabinets — including the first of three Crazy Taxi cabs. Most of these were the deluxe/sit-down versions as befits a man who had recently closed a deluxe/sit down $95 million upfront music deal.

The collection finishes abruptly in 2003 when MJ decided to leave Neverland, in order to better spend his time between Las Vegas and Bahrain shopping for gaudy furniture and toying with Islam.

Seven years later, and eighteen months after his death, Ubisoft's Michael Jackson: The Experience was released on the Wii. Much like the final years of MJs life, a lukewarm critical reception seemed insufficient to deter fans. Single-handedly (single-glovedly?) reviving the dance game genre, it is being released for PS3 and Xbox 360 next week.