History VideoGame / Action52

''Action 52'' was revealed to the world with a press release, proclaiming the upcoming release of a variety of spin-off material, including action figures and a "Creator/{{Disney}}-quality" SaturdayMorningCartoon based on the game's flagship characters, ''The Cheetahmen'' as well as the [[http://www.consoledatabase.com/consoleinfo/actiongamemaster Action Gamemaster,]] a portable system that would play games from nearly every console available at the time. None of these products ever came to fruition, as ''Action 52'' was not commercially successful enough to fund any of them, and Active would quietly leave the gaming industry not long following the game's release.

* AllTheWorldsAreAStage: Sort of. The last game, ''Cheetahmen'', uses an array of {{Palette Swap}}ped enemies from previous games. A few of them are actually based on bosses, [[DegradedBoss but they don't put up any more of a fight]].

''Action 52'' is a compilation of 52 games for the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]], with a second version for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis released by Active Enterprises and advertised in the back of many gaming magazines of the day. It was famously sold for the unusually high price of $199 US, which would make the cart cost roughly $4 for each included game.

Several years after the game was released, a protoype for [[VideoGame/CheetahmenII an unfinished sequel]] to ''Cheetahmen'' on the UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem was discovered. ''Cheetahmen II'' had been programmed onto hundreds of crudely relabeled ''Action 52'' cartridges, but was never officially released. Only around 1,500 copies of ''Cheetahmen II'' are known to exist, making it one of the rarest and most expensive NES carts.

*** ''Go Bonkers'' = ''Diamonds'' (UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh game)

*** ''Firebreathers'' = ''{{VideoGame/Combat}}''

''Action 52'' is a compilation of 52 games for the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]], with a second version for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis released by Active Enterprises and advertised in the back of many gaming magazines of the day. It was famously sold for $200, which would be a real bargain for 52 games worth playing. However, these games... weren't.

It all started when the head of Active, Vince Perri, saw his son playing a pirated NES multicart he borrowed from a friend of his that had 40 games on it. It immediately became quite popular with other kids in the neighborhood, who were amazed that so many games could fit on one cartridge. This provided him with a revelation; if programmers in Taiwan could produce multicarts, why not programmers in America? Instead of putting in games from other companies, why not put in original games you couldn't find anywhere else? Thus ''Action 52'' was born.

The truly amazing part? Perri was apparently a big dreamer, and accompanied the grand unveiling of ''Action 52'' with a press release, proclaiming the upcoming release of ''Cheetahmen'' action figures and a "Creator/{{Disney}}-quality" SaturdayMorningCartoon, and the [[http://www.consoledatabase.com/consoleinfo/actiongamemaster Action Gamemaster,]] a portable system that would play games from nearly every console available at the time. None of these products ever came to fruition, as ''Action 52'' was a commercial failure, but it has gained a new lease on life in the Internet age as the subject of many video game reviewers' mockery.

# Fire Breathers – [-The one game on the cartridge that is two-player, and there '''needs''' to be two players to really do anything with it.-]

Several years after the game was released, a protoype for an unfinished sequel to ''Cheetahmen'' on the UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem was discovered. ''Cheetahmen II'' had been programmed onto hundreds of crudely relabeled ''Action 52'' cartridges, but was never officially released. Only around 1,500 copies of ''Cheetahmen II'' are known to exist, making it one of the rarest and most expensive NES carts.

* {{Descriptiveville}}: ''Sunday Drive'' in the Genesis version has an endless number of exit signs that read "SegAVILLe - NeXT eXIT". You never make it to the next exit, however, so you never get to go to Segaville.

* {{Descriptiveville}}: In the Genesis version, Segaville in ''Sunday Drive.''

* EndlessGame: Most of the games loop back to the first level upon completing thhe final one, if they don't crash first.

* ExcusePlot: Most of the games that have ones that are explained in the manual, with ''Cheetahmen'' being the only one to have an opening cutscene.

** In Level 5 of "Cheetahmen'', accessing the [[DungeonBypass hidden level skip]] results in the player being sent to Level 10, where the game completely glitches out.

* InconvenientlyPlacedConveyorBelt: Conveyor belts are present in level 4 of ''Cheetahmen''.

* InvisibleWall: Especially bad in the game ''Sombreros.'' The first level requires you to walk down a very narrow street against the flow of traffic and avoid getting hit by cars. For some reason, it's completely impossible to step on the clearly visible ''sidewalk'' where there are no cars!

%%* DemBones: Skeletons from ''Bits 'N' Pieces.''

# Challenge (aka Action 52 Challenge) – [-Not so much a game in itself; rather, it's a trial run of the most difficult level of the other games in random order.-]

** In some games, enemies appear in random places. In some games, a bad enemy placement means death, or an {{Unwinnable}} situation, e.g. in ''Under Ground''. ''Hambo'' is probably the worst offender for this, as not only do you start the game with just one life, it's possible for enemies to spawn right on top of Hambo, killing him as soon as the level begins.