This was shared with me by a friend from another hoax site. I am NOT the author of this:
This blog post is going to be a little different than what you are use to. I've decided to take an unconventional approach towards investigation and I hope you all can take something really important from this. The information that I will present to you has been around for years, but I've noticed that no one has really mentioned it before, at least not in conjunction with the hoax. Now, with the release of Xscape, it all seems to come together and really make sense. Before I get into the main point of this blog, I'm going to present some pertinent back story. I promise that it will all come together and make sense. Please note that I have inserted relevant links throughout the post. Check them out if you'd like some more information.
For those that don't know me, I'm a HUGE fan of video games, so just about anything to do with them is exciting to me. Now, I also know that Michael is a pretty big video game fan, too! He loved games so much that he partnered up with Sega for the release of Michael Jackson's Moonwalker the video game for home consoles. It was loosely based on the movie and involves Michael using his dance moves to make enemies dance and save the kidnapped children from the evil Mr. Big. The soundtrack of the game uses samples from Smooth Criminal, Beat It, Another Part of Me, Thriller, and Bad. This is important because Michael worked closely with the development of this game and I believe that he wouldn't have signed off on it if he wasn't pleased with any aspect of it, including the sound.
Here's where things begin to get interesting. Michael was also a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog and was interested in helping with the soundtrack of the 3rd game. Sega eagerly brought him onto the project where he and the other sound producers worked on composing the music. Long story short, something happened and Michael walked away from the project uncredited. There's a ton of conflicting stories as to what happened. Some say that Sega dropped him over the child molestation charges that arose in 1993. Others say that Michael was dissatisfied with the sound quality and left the project himself. I'm not going to dwell too much as to what happened.
Brad Buxer was involved in this project as well as a sound engineer, interestingly enough. He actually gave an interview about Michael's involvement in the game in 2009.
The link that I've embedded gives a very comprehensive back story about what happened, for those that are interested. Personally, I want to believe that Michael did not like the sound quality and just didn't want to be a part of the project anymore. Curiously enough, the songs that he apparently worked on were still included in the game and some even have strong similarities to Michael's music. For example, the end credits sounds eerily similar to Stranger in Moscow and the chord progressions of Ice Cap Zone, when sped up, sound like Who Is It. If you find this subject interesting, check out this video!
The point I'm trying to make is that he willingly chose what he did and did not want to be a part of. This brings me to the main point of this post.
Have you all heard of a game called Space Channel 5? It's a lesser known gem that came out in the early 2000s for the Sega Dreamcast. It was later re-released as a two disc set for the Playstation 2 in America. I think that now it's available via Xbox Live and PSN, but I digress. It takes place 500 years in the future and stars a young reporter named Ulala as she investigates an alien invasion that is taking place. A group of aliens, called Morolians, are forcing people to dance and it's up to Ulala to save them as she's reporting. As she digs deeper, all the while competing with rival news reporters from different channels, Ulala discovers that things are not as they seem. In fact, she discovers that the chief of Space Channel 5, Chief Blank, is the mastermind of it all. He brainwashed the Morolians, causing the entire fiasco, for the ratings!! He said that he does not care for the truth and that the whole point of broadcast television is to obtain the highest ratings. He believes that all reporters should feel the same way that he does! Fortunately, Ulala, with support from the general public and even her rival reporters, all join their song and dance energy to defeat him.
That's a pretty heavy message to throw into a video game, I think, but it's a necessary one. It gets better though.
Can you imagine how surprised the team involved in this must have felt when Michael Jackson asked to be involved in this project? Unfortunately, the game was mostly complete by the time he had asked so he was only featured as a cameo.
On her way to confronting Chief Blank, Ulala has to save Space Michael who is being forced to dance by the Morolians. She outsmarts them and is able to heal them to join her side of the battle. I should note that before she found out about the brainwashing, Ulala simply vaporized the aliens, but upon realizing that they did not have control of their actions, she reconfigured her blaster to heal instead of harm. So, anyway, if you manage to save him, Space Michael joins Ulala in confronting the chief and the game progresses.
As a side note, Space Michael's character biography states that he saved the Earth from an alien invasion 500 years prior to this event with the power of his voice and dance moves. Also, his power of song and dance transcends time and space. Interesting...
Now, fast forward a little bit. Space Channel 5 Part 2 was released in Japan, but saw a very quiet North American release a few years later. So quiet, that I was surprised to see it in a store for $5 about 4 years ago. Having been a fan of the first one, I eagerly bought it without a second thought.
So the premise of this game is that a few years after the Morolian invasion, Ulala is confronted by a group known as the Rhythm Rogues which are led by a man named Purge. They kidnap President Peace, the president of the entire galaxy who is known for his powerful voice which unifies people, and once again force civilians to dance. Once again, it's up to Ulala and her crew, led by Space Channel 5's new chief, Space Michael, to save the galaxy with the power of song and dance.
As you can already tell, they gave Michael a much bigger role in this game, mostly because the developers had more time to work with him. He remains in contact with Ulala, up until the point when Space Channel 5 is under attack and he's kidnapped. Once Ulala saves him, he's present for the rest of the game and even becomes a vital part of the team. There are even certain levels where you use his voice to combat Purge. Later on, he can be found encouraging Ulala to keep going during the final battle.
In this case, Purge, the main antagonist, forces people to dance for him because he thinks that people are stupid and unhappy and don't really know what they want. So, because he thinks he knows what's best for society, he forced people to dance for his own amusement.
So.... we have the first game which is about the importance of truth in reporting and the second one is about the misuse of song, dance, and music. Makes you think, doesn't it?
Also, I think it's just interesting to look at the names of some of the characters:
Purge- the villain who wants to "purge" people of their free will, the ability to think for oneself. He holds himself to such a high standard and is apparently of a higher socioeconomic standard, too. He believes everyone else is below him and that he knows the true path towards happiness: by corrupting music and dance and brainwashing the masses.
President Peace- the president of the galaxy, a leader whose song of peace unites the entire galaxy together as one. Apparently his power of song is stronger than Michael's! Purge kidnaps him and intends to corrupt the President's voice power for his own selfish reasons.
And the biggest thing... Michael becoming the new chief for Space Channel 5 so he has control of how news is delivered! You can't get any clearer than that!
Another point: so I didn't realize this until a couple months ago, but I've noticed some people saying this song called "Space Dance" is an unreleased Michael Jackson song that was supposed to be on Invincible. I gave it a listen to and realized that it's actually the music that plays during Space Channel 5: Part 2's Report 4- Save Space Michael the Office Chief! Note: This is a 20 minute video and Michael doesn't appear until around 5:46 and he's there until 17:13 (past this point, you get to see how powerful dance power is), but I encourage you to watch it because I will mention something about this part later. Michael's audio is lower than everyone's so be sure to turn up your volume a bit to hear him.
However.... I recently came across a version of this "Space Dance" song with legit Michael vocals/beat boxing on it. To me it sounds like an unused promo for the video game more than anything (especially because he says "I'll see you soon in Space Channel 5" at the end). I'm probably late to this party, but I never really knew that people legitimately believe it's a stand alone song.
I mentioned earlier that there's a point in both games where Michael is kidnapped and brainwashed to dance and you have to save him. Think about this. WE have to save HIM from an entity that is forcing him to dance! And once we do, he fights by our side. In the first game, if you fail, that's just it, no second chances. He remains a brainwashed dancer. In the second, if you don't save him, you fail the game. Then he guides Ulala throughout the rest of the game.
Now here's something else that's crazy! In the game, Ulala's name is pronounced "ooh-la-la." Michael pronounces it properly in the first game, but in the second game, he continually calls her "You-la-la." Pay attention in the above video clip of Report 4. People didn't think much of it since he's known to incorrectly pronounce some things, but I really think I finally get it. He did it on purpose. He's literally talking to US! There's a point where he says "Ulala, it's time to shout!" and they do a duet, using their voices to combat Purge. It made me think about his song Shout, specifically the words. I'm not sure if this was done on purpose, but each time you have to sing, Michael urges you to SHOUT, not to just sing!
And finally one more interesting point: The last scene in each game has everyone walking or dancing across the galaxy together on a pathway made of stars. The credits of the game are dedicated "for all the people who want peace in the universe."
Such a shame this game is so relatively obscure. It had a powerful message! If you all are interested, I strongly encourage you to either purchase this game and play through it or to watch a play through of both part 1 and 2 on YouTube. There may be things that I'm missing because I haven't played this game in so long.
The following is just for completion's sake. These are other games that Michael was involved in and although they may not be relevant, I still think it's good to at least mention them. If anyone has information regarding them, I'll be more than happy to hear!
Michael wanted to be involved in Space Channel 5 and he even lent his voice to it, indicating that he took the time and effort to be a full part of it. This is important because his likeness was used as a secret character in a boxing game called Ready 2 Rumble: Round 2, but he did not record his voice for it, instead having someone else do the voice work. He even did the motion capture work for this particular game.
Here's something I found funny, though.
So as the game loads between matches, there will usually be a screen showing a picture of the boxer, their name, and their general stats.
When a player chooses Michael, this is what it says:
Michael Jackson
Hometown: Gary, Indiana
Age: Unknown
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 125 lbs
Reach: 74"
So according to this (if we decide to accept these measurements as the truth because I doubt the developers cared about accuracy), back in 2000 when this game came out, a 42 year old Michael was pretty underweight for his height. But this was also around the same time as the 30th Anniversary Concert he had at Madison Square Garden. I'm probably stretching too much with this, but I just found it funny that Michael's build in the game is slightly bulkier than the skinniest guy in the game who is 5'11" and weighs 128 lbs. They both should be underweight for their heights! But like I said, I might just be nitpicking at this point, so you can gloss over this. I don't really think this matters. Just having Michael in the game was pretty funny to begin with; his taunts and lines had me laughing hysterically!
Moving right along, this brings me to Planet Michael and Michael Jackson: The Experience. I looked into Planet Michael a bit more and found out that it was originally supposed to be out in 2012. It was supposed to be a free-to-play massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG) where gamers and fans alike could be united through music, dance and charity. Apparently some of the things we do in game would have real life consequences, resulting in a donation to charity or some other humanitarian work. It's interesting that the website is still up and running despite there being no more updates: You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login. It's a shame that it never happened, but I guess the Estate and SEE Virtual Worlds were promising too much. I'd like to think that there's something important we should take away from the ideals of this game though.
Sadly, I can't say the same for Michael Jackson: The Experience because I played that game with fangirl goggles on (at least I'm honest). About MJTE, the one consistent thing that has annoyed me about this game (besides some of the song choices and overall lack of extra songs), has been the Wikipedia page. Like this game was milked to every console possible to the point that any old person just went on there and said "Oh yeah, so this version will have songs x, y, and z, while the others won't." Like, seriously? It makes me wonder if the Wikipedia page looks that way because Ubisoft (the company in charge) planned to have downloadable content, but it got scrapped due to poor reception of the game. Or they just like to encourage false stories that were so rampant in Michael's life. I did notice that Money was wrongly credited to be on Blood on the Dance Floor instead of HIStory. That's quite the glaring mistake for the developers to leave in the game. Also, it's interesting that no matter what era the song was made, Michael appears to be lighter skinned. For example, when choosing Thriller, Michael has lighter skin, but is otherwise dressed as he was in the video. And finally, the game includes a section where you can learn some of Michael's most iconic dances from various songs. They have three choreographers, Travis Payne, Maryss from Paris, and Brahim. We all know who Travis is, but maybe we should take a look at the other two.
Addendum:
I came across a video which confirmed Michael's involvement in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Just like I speculated, he left the project because he did not like the audio quality of the Genesis. So he left his music in the game and just refused to be credited. This just really helps to drive the point home that Michael really did pick and choose his business investments very carefully. He wouldn't lend his name to a project if he wasn't proud of it or at least passionate. Please keep that in mind when going through Space Channel 5. I feel as if that game was something that really excited him.
Alright, so I'm actually going to take a serious look at Michael Jackson: The Experience. The first song that I'll start with is Money, because it's the cheapest song in the entire game because the sensor never recognizes the movements. Check out the link to watch the dance routine.
So, besides the overall cheapness, the biggest thing that got to me is the portion where you're trying to hit those two gold moves: when Michael does the sign of the cross towards the end of the song.
If you notice, the point of the game is to mirror Michael's dance moves, particularly the movements of your right hand. You can literally stand there and just move your right hand about with the remote and you'll be fine.
Now, what's interesting here is that because you have to mirror Michael's hand movements, you virtually end up performing the sign of the cross backwards in the sense that you have to bring your hand to the right shoulder and then the left instead of the usual left and then right shoulder movement that Western Christians are accustomed to. I did a little digging and discovered that this right to left movement is common in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Check out this Wiki article about the sign of the cross
It's truly fascinating stuff. Now consider this. Imagine that you're holding the Wii-mote (or PS3 Move controller) in your right hand. Give it a try with a TV remote control. Do you notice the position of your fingers? I'm going to assume that your index and middle fingers are touching your thumb in some fashion. It's almost like the way the Eastern Orthodox Christians make their sign of the cross! I hope I'm making some type of connection here... or maybe I'm a weirdo that holds the Wii-mote wrong, but we'll see how it goes.
Anyway, I'll continue looking into other songs in the game and I'll get back to you all with my findings.
Honestly, if you made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read this lengthy blog post. I hope you enjoyed yourself! I'm looking forward to seeing what you all have to say about this. =)
