Michael Jackson, the entertainment world’s most influential singer and dancer, the most controversial celebrity, has died on thursday in Los Angeles at the age of 50. Michael jackson,  the record-breaking artist known as “King of Pop”, has a small but important footnote in video game history as well.

Jackson, in addition to being a bestselling pop artist with The Jackson 5 and as a solo act, was also featured in a number of video games, including one based on his short film Moonwalker. Developed by Sega for the arcade and Sega Genesis, the excellent Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker was the begining of a relationship that would see the musician later appear in Space Channel 5 and Space Channel 5: Part 2. Moonwalker was a revolutionary step and got a lot of attention as it had a real-life celebrity appearing in a video game. It also had digitized versions of some of MJ’s famous tracks.

The plot of Moonwalker was quite interesting. Jackson had to rescue the helpless children from the crime boss names Mr.Big. Jackson’s special attack was a dance move, and when activated, a spotlight from the heavens illuminated him as he pulled off some signature spins and kicks, destroying many of the onscreen enemies. He also featured in Space Channel 5 which is a music video game series published by sega. The gameplay features a system where the player is supposed to copy the sequence of the dance steps performed by the computer. Michael Jackson, appears as a cameo in the first game, but becomes a fully involved character in Part 2. After being rescued by Ulala from the Rhythm Rogues, Michael uses his singing skills against a singing robot.

This year, the King of Pop was planned to have auctioned off a large number of items from his Neverland Ranch estate, including a wide variety of arcade games and consoles. At the time of his death, rumors had surfaced that Jackson was involved with a new video game project for the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3, but the game was never officially confirmed.