Action 52

Action 52

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About

Action 52 is a unlicensed multicart video game that was made by Active Enterprises and was released for the NES in 1991 and the Genesis in 1993[1] that contains 52 games in one cartridge. The game was panned by several critics for the poor controls and several glitches

History

The concept of the game was developed when the creator saw his son playing an illegal product from Taiwan with 40 games in it. The creator decided to make a legal version of a product similar to that, which turned into Action 52 which was released in 1991. In 1993, he showcased Action 52 at the International Winter Consumer Electronics Show.

Plagiarism

Several of the songs from the NES version of Action 52 were plagiarized from example tunes included in Activision's The Music Studio for the Atari ST. The games with plagiarized music include Fuzz Power, Silver Sword, French Baker, Streemerz, Time Warp Tickers and Ninja Assault. Additionally, the music code of Action 52 was analyzed, and it was found that it matched a music engine programmed by Sculptured Software. Also, a "Yeah! Woo!" drum break sample from Rob Base's song "It Takes Two" is used in the opening sequence of the NES version.

Sega Genesis

The Sega Genesis version of Action 52 features a largely different lineup of games, some with more effort put into design and fewer technical issues than the NES version. Each game is color-coded on the main menu screen; "Beginner" games are green, "Intermediate" games are purple, "Expert" games are yellow, and multiplayer games are blue.

Several new games were introduced in the Genesis version, a number of which share their names with games from the NES cartridge, but are different in terms of content. The Genesis Haunted Hills, for instance, has a male protagonist and is set outside a haunted house, while the NES Haunted Hills has a female protagonist and takes place inside a haunted house. A new version of The Cheetahmen was included, in which the Cheetahmen rescue captured cheetah cubs from Dr. Morbis and his minions.

Reception

The game was a commercial failure and was panned by critics due to the poor controls and massive amount of glitches that are in the games, even with 2 of them often not starting and breaking the game.

Angry Video Game Nerd

In 2010, The Angry Video Game Nerd uploaded a review of the game, panning the game for the poor controls and amount of glitches as well. He noted the fact that the price listed on the box is $199 dollars, and the fact that a good portion of the games are space shooters.

Original Boxed NES Prototype Cartridge

In August 2012, one of the original developers of the game surprised the gaming community with a very rare original boxed NES prototype cartridge of the game that contained Action 52 and Cheetahman posters and artwork, it was auctioned on eBay at the price of $97,000

Planned SNES Release

A version of the game was planned to be released on the SNES, but it was cancelled for unknown reasons, most likely for how poorly the NES and Genesis versions did

Search Interest

External References

[1] Wikipedia – Action 52.

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