One of the greatest questions in the history of music has always been who is the best between Michael Jackson and Michael Jackson. On one hand, Michael Jackson released Thriller, but on the other hand, Michael Jackson is also the man behind Off The Wall. Thanks to Aaron Meyers, there is finally a way to settle who is superior: a new fighting game called Michael E Michael, which pits Michael Jackson against Michael Jackson in a brawl to the death.
The game’s description reads, “You are Michael. The other player is Michael. Face off against one another using your fists, your lasers and your dance moves. May the best Michael win.” Player 1 uses W, A, S, and D to move and Space to attack, while Player 2 uses the arrow keys and Enter. Michael E Michael is available to download on Mac and PC, and it’s about as close to Zoolander-style break-dance fighting as we are going to get.
Michael E Michael was created as part of a contest called “Gamemaking Frenzy: DUPLICADE,” and the contest rules shed some light on the questionable legality of an unlicensed Michael Jackson game:
The game must tread dangerously into the intellectual property of an existing game or game franchise, but be cleverly altered and culturally mangled enough to not be worth the effort to sue. (Seriously: don’t get sued. Also, it’s funnier the further you get from actually ripping off your source).
So let us revise our description of this game, then: due to international copyright laws, Michael Jackson is not a playable character in this game, but the two fighters are named Michael and they dress and move like a certain deceased pop star used to.
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Featured image courtesy of Aaron Meyers