Okay, we put off covering Action 52 for some time. Basically it’s been covered endlessly online, perhaps most notably by the iconic Angry Video Game Nerd.
There’s nothing new or clever about us pointing at this 1991 multicart title, a notorious disaster of badness, and going, “OMG! Look! It’s crap!” But if you’re not a gamer then this will all be news to you and that makes us look dead smart and ahead of the rest!
Anyway, onto this one. As here was a bodged attempt to cash in on NES-era gaming, with some 52 games on one gaming cartridge at the price of $199 ($400 in modern cash). And they’re all rubbish. Hurray!
The Iconic Disaster of Action 52
This is one of those things plucked from obscurity thanks to the glory of the internet. A relic of an era where gaming was pretty misunderstood and considered as only a kid’s hobby.
Above is how the game is presented. Players jam the cartridge in and arrive at a menu screen, at which point they randomly pick one of the 52 games (there’s no indication on the menu screen what the games may be).
It turns out it’s a mishmash of space shooters, platformers, and other genres that can barely be named.
They are all terrible, some don’t work, and there are 52 to wade through. Famously, Action 52 is more of a chore than any form of light entertainment.
The ones that do work and you’ve got this level of quality.
It may seem inconceivable to create 52 terrible games, but that’s what you got here.
The game was developed by Active Enterprises for the Nintendo Entertainment System and was an unlicensed game (meaning Nintendo hadn’t cleared it for launch).
So, yes, the AVGN covered the game in emphatic fashion 13 years ago. The full video went viral and is famous for its savage onslaught of the 52 games. It now has over 14 million views, bringing a considerable level of fame to this obscure title.
The main thing James Rolfe (the AVGN) flagged up:
- The game was clearly rushed and incomplete
- Some of the 52 games don’t work
- A lot of them are variations of space shooters
- Players can’t progress very far in some of the games
Primarily, the extreme low quality of the game now brings a sense of humour to everything. That era of NES gaming was notorious for several things:
- Extreme difficult levels imposed by developers to make games appear longer than they were
- Stunningly poor quality games
- Weird levels of experimentation (some more successful than others)
There were also fantastic NES games from the era, but technological limitations mixed with high difficulty standards (just look at the notorious Ghosts ‘N Goblins) now covered the NES era with a particular reputation. And Action 52 stands as a beacon of rubbishness amongst it all. A glorious relic of how gaming once was.
The Story Behind Action 52 and Why it HAD to Exist
Businesswoman Vince Perri from Florida was behind this notorious title. One day saw his son playing an illegal Taiwanese game with 40 games in one cartridge.
As that title was very popular in his neighbourhood, Perri decided to try and recreate that excitement in his own, legal creation. Thus, Action 52 was born.
You can see what was going on. Businessman senses opportunity to make a lot of money. Perri didn’t know anything about the video game industry, but he sensed an opportunity and moved on it. The thing, this could have been a hit—if it’d been good.
Instead, the story of Action 52’s development is plagued with terrible errors. He hired inexperienced staff, set difficult targets to meet, and the game launched when it wasn’t really finished.
Arcade Attack interviewed one of the Action 52 staff members. Mario Gonzalez had this to say.
“When initially agreeing to do the project with Vince, he never indicated that we were on a tight schedule or any timeline for that matter. It was only when we were given contracts to sign that all this was laid out. In our excitement to actually get the opportunity to work on games for the Nintendo console, we said, ‘What the Heck! Let’s do it!’ and we were on board. Vince flew us to Salt Lake City, Utah where we received one week’s training on the Nintendo Dev Kit from a company that was working on a Star Wars game. I knew the task at hand was very daunting, given the time constraints, so I came up with the idea of only creating a hand full of engines and a template for the graphics to facilitate a smoother development cycle. We still spent countless hours at the music studio now converted to a game design studio, and got very little sleep while surviving on coffee and donuts. The music portion was the most difficult. I had to compose each song on external equipment, dump the music into data, and then manually input the data into the programming. Overall, the guys and I got along great and made a great team.”
With the team in place and getting on, that was a good start. But, as you might expect, one week of training isn’t enough to master the complexities of NES game programming. This was the big issue for Action 52—it was a rush job.
All concerned gave it their all, but the mixture of inexperience and having to rush like crazy was only ever going to result in one thing.
In game development, what’s known as “crunch” time is notorious. It’s about compulsory overtime to get a game to the finish line for launch. That means long, long hours, stress, unpleasantness, and all for extended periods of time. Many employees in the industry don’t get paid for that, either.
Notes on The Cheetahmen
The big selling point push for Action 52 was its centrepiece game. This was The Cheetahmen, which comes across as a Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles rip-off. From the same interview Arcade Attack as above, Mario Gonzalez added this.
“Well into the project, Vince came to me and advised he wanted a team similar to the Ninja Turtles. Since there was no arguing with Vince, we went with the Cheetahmen. Vince became enamored with the characters and the story and quickly began shifting the focus of the cartridge to having the Cheetahmen as the main selling point. Vince began to talk about a stand-alone game, toys, a cartoon, and maybe even a movie.”
Starring three anthropomorphic cheetahs, the hope for a lucrative franchise didn’t materialise.
The first game was very poor quality. In fact, it’s often cited as one of the worst games of all time. Here it is in action (all nine minutes of it before the game crashes abruptly after defeating the final boss).
We covered this in our Eliminator Boat Duel retrospective, but the NES sure did have some weird title screen card type things. This one from Cheetahmen being a prime example.
Two planned sequels (Cheetahmen II and III) were in active development, but never released. Largely as developer Active Enterprises didn’t last long as a business and dissolved in the early 1990s.
UFO 50 and the Legacy of Disastrous NES Games
Thanks to the AVGN, we revisited many NES games and have become fascinated with that era of gaming. We lived through, and played through, it all. It didn’t strike us as odd at the time as that’s just the way it was.
But many NES games were just stunningly, stunningly difficult. Designed by game devs to turn what would be a 10 minute romp into a 60 minute one.
Ghosts ‘N Goblins is a classic example of that. It’s actually difficult to complete the game’s first level. Try and make it 60 seconds into the game and you’re doing well.
Action 52 steamrolled into that environment and attempted something different, but was derailed by rushing everything spectacularly. It’s easy to call the attempt cynical, as it was, but with time this actually been a good game people would have wanted to play.
The game’s online legacy has now led to the excellent UFO 50 (2024), which launched at the end of 2024. It takes the concept and delivers on it, with a brilliant mix of 50 fun-filled games.
UFO 50 shows what a time and experience can deliver to a project. Seven game designers worked to craft 50 mini-titles together in an amazing charm offensive of a title we just love.
That Action 52 would lead to this? Well, that’s one positive, eh?
