E3 2010: Michael Jackson and Tetsuya Mizuguchi Team Up With Ubisoft

Michael Jackson, you say? Well, yes, at least in videogame form. Ubisoft held its annual E3 press conference in front of a packed crowd at the Los Angeles Theater, and there were certainly some pleasant surprises throughout the evening.

While Ubisoft unveiled a number of interesting titles including Driver: San Francisco, Ghost Recon: Future War, and a new Rayman game with a sweeping orchestral soundtrack, the highlights of the evening were the first and last titles shown: Child of Eden and a game titled Michael Jackson.

Hit the jump to find out what Ubisoft had to say about these two titles.

The first thing we were greeted by at the press conference was pumping techno music and pop vocals. There was a man on stage who was waving his arms around, controlling the shooter-based action on the screen. This white-gloved man turned out to be game creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi himself (responsible for titles like Rez, Lumines, and Space Channel) showing off his new game for Microsoft’s newly-named Kinect platform.

In terms of gameplay, Child of Eden actually looks a whole lot like Rez with its geometric shapes, psychedelic colors, and lock-on shooter mechanic.  Mizuguchi pointed towards the screen, moving the reticule across the screen to lock on to enemies and waving his arm to unleash a volley of laser beams to dispatch them.  All of the attacks generated sound effects that were synchronized to the music in Rez-like fashion.

Interestingly, there were some pop vocals included in the background, and even the image of a computerized female singer leading me to believe we were hearing the Genki Rockets.  It definitely sounded like her voice.  In any case, this looks like a pretty unique use of the Kinect technology, and I’m looking forward to hearing more about the game. You can check out our gallery of photos from the event below.

At the end of the conference, Ubisoft’s CEO personally unveiled a game simply titled Michael Jackson.  He noted that many people were interested in dancing, and that it would be most appropriate to learn from the master.  With that, the screen displayed a silhouette of Michael Jackson on stage with a “Beat It” sign overhead before the song started up and real-life dancers rushed to the stage to act out the music video.

I admit at this point I was very confused, as I was watching people act out a music video on stage, leaving us with no idea of what the game was actually supposed to be.  Was it a new dance game for Kinect, or was it a platformer? I had no idea, but upon searching for information about it online, it turns out that Ubisoft put out a full press release about the game, and it will be a multiplatform (Wii, PlayStation Move, Kinect, etc.)  singing and dancing game covering key moments in Michael Jackson’s career. I’m pretty sure that Audun is going to flip out when he hears the details on this one.

What do you think of Ubisoft’s showing at E3?  What games are you looking forward to the most, and more specifically, what do you think of Child of Eden and Michael Jackson?