US Gold/Emerald
£9.99 cass, £14.99 disk

Based on the movie of the same name, Moonwalker is the story of young Michael Jackson seeing shooting stars and trying to stop the antics of villain Mr Big. Scene one sees Michael on a film set being chased by his fans: a maze type affair viewed from above, Gauntlet style. To escape you must find seven parts of a rabbit suit and four special objects, whilst avoiding the fans. If they catch you, you lose one of your precious platinum disks (these act as lives and you start with twenty). There's a radar at screen bottom, not very detailed and not much help, just dots to tell you who is where.

Level two is set in Michaelsville. There's no escaping your fans: Mr Big tells them where you are, and the chase resumes. The maze radar format is used again, but this time you are on a motorbike in search of glowing green orbs. Collect all of them and the bike turns into a sleek sports car (but only for 10 seconds), which must jump a road block. The town splits into four sections and you must search for the orbs four times (the fourth sees your bike traded in for a let ski).

The third level sees Michael in Club 30 and up to his neck in trouble. Mr Big's goons are outside and you guide Michael from left to right across the club, dodging the gunmen who appear at the windows. Along the way a tommy gun and ammo can be collected to blow out windows and kill villains (I thought Mr Jackson was against violence).

The final showdown takes place in Mr Big's lair, an arena. Kelly (one of Michaels friends) has been kidnapped and is being used as bait. But Mr Big gets more than he bargained for when Michael turns into a huge robot and lays into all and sundry with his laser cannon. Apart from the hitmen, a huge plasma cannon must be destroyed before Mr Big's empire crashes around his ears. Mission accomplished, 'Whacko' turns into a spaceship and blasts on into the sunset.

Graphically and sonically the game is good, with some impressive renditions of songs from the 'Bad'album. The main letdown are the first two levels: I tried matchsticks, I tried strong coffee but nothing could keep me awake.

Overhead maze games are old hat now. But the Club 30 and the Arena are great fun and the sagging game picks up, albeit loo late to save the day.

MARK [68%]

You know I'm bad, I'm bad. Well in fact, at this game I'm quite good! Moonwalker is the latest 'biggy' from U.S. Gold, they've even had it on the telly! The game is fun to play too, which is quite a novelty for big licences. The idea is a little bit Pacmanish: you as Wacko run around the film set (I think that's what it's supposed to be) dodging fat people on motor bikes and collecting parts of a rabbit suit. Once they have all been collected you jump onto your own bike and speed off to level two which is the same! Luckily levels three and four are totally different. Fans of Wacko Jacko will be happy to hear that there are three of his hit songs playing in the game namely BAD, Speed Demon and Smooth Criminal. Fans of the Spectrum will know that they won't sound anything like the originals! Moonwalker is a fun game even if it does resemble Pacman a lot. It's the terrible multi-load that spoils it. If you think your tape recorder can stand the strain take a look at Moonwalker.
NICK [72%]

US Gold
£9.99 cass
Reviewer: Matt Bielby

Well, let's be honest about this, I wasn't expecting too much here. I mean, Michael Jackson, he might be a very 'talented performer' and everything, but he's a bit of a... well, he's a bit 'funny', isn't he? And did you see his film?!!? Blimey! Words fail me. (Except for these ones, of course - "What a load of old crap!")

But (but! BUT!), having said all that, Moonwalker the game's actually not too bad. Or rather, it's really, really, really 'bad' (in Michael Jackson speak) which means 'quite good' to the rest of us. In fact. It's so 'bad' (meaning 'good') it's bloomin' terrible!

Quite how has this rather spooky state of affairs come about then? How can you take what even Katy, Sean, Zeke and Skipper the dog (Michael's pals in the movie) would admit was a pretty atrocious film and turn it into a half way decent computer game? Well, it's simple, innit? Moonwalker has such a slight plot (basically one long chase dotted with fight and dance sequences) and so many expensive set pieces that it's pretty simple business to pick out the good bits. You then just pick out some more good bits (but this time from old games like Gauntlet and Op Wolf), sort of squish them all together and 'Roberts es tu tio' (as they say in Spain). (Er, that's 'Bob's your uncle', readers. Ed)

The first two levels are rather Gauntlely. In Numero Uno, you (as Wacko) are on the run from a whole host of grotesque tourists, fans and journos. It's one of those scrolling, overhead view maze jobs and what a massive one it is too. So large you sort of vaguely remember bits when you come back to them, but can't quite figure out how it all fits together. The idea is that Michael needs to disguise himself to escape the mob. How shall I do that, he thinks. Should I dress as something inconspicuous like a cleaner and just slip out the back? No, I'll go as a giant rabbit! No one'll spot me like that! Quite a subtle plan, eh? So Michael has to pick up the bits of a giant rabbit suit from all around the place (plus some other odds and sods), spotting them by watching the dots on the map thing at the bottom of the screen. The ones that are moving are either baddies or Michael himself, but if one just sits there chances are that it's a piece of bunny clothing. Great! Now you know where it is, you just don't know how to wiggle through the maze to reach it.

Working out how, if you ignore Michael's rather odd running action, is a surprising amount of fun. The tourists are suitably grotesque, the dodging-around-obstacles and avoiding-being-caught-up-a-dead-end bits are quite challenging and, all in all, there are a lot worse ways of spending 20 minutes. The Bad soundtrack is (just about) recognisable too.

Michael escapes from this on to Level Two, a rehash of the first, only this time divided into four sub-sections populated with bullet-firing hoods and other spooky bad guys. You're mounted on a motor bike and must crush stashes of drugs and collect crystals. Get ten and you turn into a super car and can then jump over a barrier wall out of one sub-section and into the next. This is all very well but having to do the whole process four times soon becomes as tedious as, erm, a very tedious thing. Next level quick!

Phew! Level Three happily moves away from mazes into Op Wolf territory. This bit's really bizarre and quite clever. Clever in that even though it's basically a horizontal scroller it doesn't look like one. Your well-animated Michael sprite runs around the edge of a nightclub dance floor in a loop (jumping on to tables should he feel like it), so eventually you'll come back to the same bit again. Behind you the walls and windows come closer, then receed, giving the whole thing a feeling of depth. And behind the windows lurk the baddies, which is where the really bizarre bit comes in! Michael's got a gun! And he shoots people with it! I mean, strewth! I mean blimey O'Reilly O'Rourke!

Michael picks the gun up, collects some clips lying around the floor, then pulls the trigger and ratatatat! A little cursor appears, he spins round to hit a baddie and... all the bullets run out. Phew! The baddies are relieved ('cos Michael wasted all the rounds moving the cursor about) but the thought was there! As soon as he (er, you) get the shooting process sussed out there'll be baddies littering the place, as well as a few of your kid pals, who the bad guys tend to hold up in front of them as hostages. Oops! Imagine - Michael in Murder Shock! It's a scandal.

So is Level Four, in fact, which is another cursor shoot-'em-up jobbie, but this time with baddies appearing in doorways around a giant Michael robot. You (the robot) take pot shots at them all, as well as a rather f'nar-worthy giant laser in the top corner of the screen. It's quite playable but again rather repetitive (yawn), though the animation sequence at the start (Michael walking on screen and turning into the robot) and the end pay off (the robot turning into a space ship and taking off) do go some way towards making up for it.

In fact, Moonwalker has more than its fair share of little animation bits. For instance, it begins brilliantly. Here come Michael's feet in a spotlight, tippy-toeing on to centre stage. Then (fizzle fizzle!) he does a funny little dance, all glittering tinsel stuff falling out of his trousers and (sptang!!) turns into a prancy text Moonwalker logo. Fabulous! It has to be one of the neatest intro sequences I've seen in yonks.

That's the game all over really. Smoothly implemented but rather repetitive gameplay, coupled with the occasional neat and watchable animation sequence. All in all, a rather nice surprise.

Label: US Gold
Author: Key Punch Software
Price: £8.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

Old plastic nose is back! Michael Jackson, the world's most famous chimp-lover, has finally achieved the ultimate accolade of being pixelised in a computer game. The dancing about and posing is all done quite convincingly; someone's obviously been watching old Jacko videos and doing lots of little sketches.

Unfortunately, someone's also been watching the movie Moonwalker too because the game is based pretty closely on this box-office megaflop, and as a result has the sort of episodic, meandering quality of the film.

There are four stages in Jacko's quest to save all the lovely-wovely kiddies form the big bad giant (well, I simplify, but that's the basic plot.) in Part One, the Film Studio, Michael has to collect seven parts of a rabbit suit to disguise himself from his fans (glurk...) As he moonwalks through the horizontally-scrolling background, a radar displays indicates the location of each section of the suit, and Michael has to fend off attacks from Japanese tourists and guards.

Section Two, Michaelsville, sees old rubberlips piloting a motorbike; collect enough energy orbs and he can transform into a flying sportscar and leap over barriers.

Section Three, Club 30, is where the violence really begins; Mickey grabs a machine-gun and grooves his way around the nightclub, gunning down goons and collecting kiddies to lead them to safety.

The last bit, The Arena, is the nicest-looking, though it's pretty static; Mikey-baby takes the form of a huge glittering robot and sits in the middle of the arena, picking off stormtroopers who pop up to take a potshot at him from the balconies. Every so often a giant plasma cannon slides into view, and you must laser it before it blows you to bits.

So that's your lot; four unremarkable sections, strung together with a little gloss and a lot of crossed fingers. While most licences at least have a successful film to ride on, the extended pop video which was Moonwalker probably won't entice too many people to go for the game. The best part of the package is that it comes with a free Michael Jackson oxygen tent (Jim swears it's a plastic bag, but I just know it's something extra special because Michael is so wonderful.)

Spectrumm £9.99

Who's bad? Whacko and his moonwalking in this game. The first two levels suffer the same problems as all the versions reviewed so far: they're boring. The rest of the game isn't too bad and the graphics look pretty. But that isn't enough. You'll have more fun playing a Michael Jackson album than this game.