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Action 52

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NES

Action 52 features 52 different games in a single cartridge. The games are selected from one of three menus and are mostly side scrolling, platform or shooter action games. The games included are: Fire Breathers (2 player vs only) Star-Evil Illuminator G-Force Fighters Oooze Silver Sword ...

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Developer
Active Enterprises

Released on
1991

Size
1–2 Players

Version
NES

Requirements
Nintendo Entertainment System

Downloads
Compilation

ESRB Rating
Not Rated

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Description

Action 52 features 52 different games in a single cartridge. The games are selected from one of three menus and are mostly side scrolling, platform or shooter action games. The games included are:

Fire Breathers (2 player vs only)
Star-Evil
Illuminator
G-Force Fighters
Oooze
Silver Sword
Critical Bypass
Jupiter Scope
Alfredo and the Fettucinni’s (crashes on most NES models, but works on most emulators)
Operation Full-Moon
Dam Busters
Thrusters
Haunted Hills of Wentworth
Chill-Out
Sharks
Megalonia
The French Baker
Atmos-Quake
Meong
Space Dreams
Streemerz
Spread-Fire
Bubblegum Rosie
Micro-Mike
Underground
Rocket Jockey
Non-Human
Cry Baby
Slashers
Crazy Shuffle
Fuzz Power
Shooting Gallery
Lollipops
The Evil Empire
Sombrero’s
Storm Over the Desert
Mash-Man
They Came From Outer Space
Laser League
Billy-Bob
City of Doom
Bits and Pieces
Beeps and Blips
Manchester Beat
Boss
Dedant
Hambo’s Adventures
Time Warp Tickers
Jigsaw (crashes on most NES models, but works on most emulators)
Ninja Assault
Robbie and the Robots
The Cheetahmen (The Action Gamemaster)

Action 52

Overview & History

Released by Active Enterprises in 1991 for the Nintendo Entertainment System at an eye-watering retail price of $199, Action 52 is legendary for all the wrong reasons. Promoted as a massive cartridge containing fifty-two distinct games in one, it was actually a monumental engineering and design failure masterminded by Vince Perri. Originally slated for a wider release, the game suffered from atrocious programming, widespread bugs—such as the infamous un-winnable Level 2 in 'Cheetahmen'—and shoddy manufacturing. Despite its catastrophic commercial failure and critical panning, it has achieved mythic status among retro collectors and bad-game enthusiasts as a bizarre artifact of the late NES era.

Gameplay Features & Mechanics

The cartridge presents a primitive, digitized menu screen where players can ostensibly select from fifty-two different action, puzzle, and platforming titles. In reality, many of these games are rudimentary clones or broken proof-of-concept demos utilizing recycled assets and grating, out-of-tune music composed with basic square-wave frequencies. Most games, such as 'Fire Adventure', 'Bubble Buster', and 'Ooze', task players with navigating crude scrolling screens, dodging erratic hitboxes, and firing projectiles at generic sprites. The crown jewel of the collection, 'Cheetahmen', features rudimentary side-scrolling platform action where players control anthropomorphic cheetahs wielding crossbows to fight mutants, plagued by sluggish jump physics, abysmal collision detection, and screen-flickering chaos.