Who's Bad?

Michael Jackson has been in the news a lot lately. A few days ago I remember hearing that he was hospitalized with a mysterious illness; then came the news that Jackson wants a super-mecha Vegas robot in his own likeness that shoots laser beams (seriously). Today I saw video of him taking daughter Paris out for her ninth birthday-- festivities included the touching father-daughter bonding ritual of "private casino shopping spree while wearing a black sock over my head." And there's been a lot of chatter today about Jackson memorabilia being sold at auction, apparently against his wishes.

Anyway, the re-emergence of Jacko into the gossip wire limelight after a post-molestation trial hiatus struck a chord of memory-- anyone else remember the totally bizarre Genesis game, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker? You fight enemies by dancing and emitting Jackson's signature shrill "whoo" war-cry, and the object of the game is to rescue half-naked, teddy-bear toting tots from weird places like car trunks and cabinets. The kids gratefully coo, "Michael!" before speeding away on a "star magic" comet.


...Yeah. I had this game as a kid, and thus was raised on a perception of Jackson as some star-shooting space-age hero who just loves children. A lot. When a few years later the first in a slew of creepy allegations against him began to surface, I was shattered.

The Thriller level was totally awesome, though.