Action 52/YMMV

Alternative Character Interpretation:
- The main character of Non-Human and Micro Mike and the enemies of Spread Fire are perfect for Rorschach tests.
- The Action 52 Owns remake for Non-Human makes the player character a little guy in a Mini-Mecha, which looks somewhat similar.
- And what about the fellow from Sombreros? Some thieves steal a bunch of hats in such a rush that they drop them all over the place. This prompts our hero to pick up a gun, walk down the middle of a road into oncoming traffic, shoot a bunch of innocent cars (which explode) for getting in his way, and try to shoot the unarmed culprits dead while they try to frantically escape his line of sight, all to get said hats back.
- Then there's the company itself. Some people say they are a waste of time, others say they are unsung heroes of the industry for inspiring other game companies to spur themselves to greater heights.
Awesome Music: To quote a comment on YouTube, "The only good thing about Action 52 is the music."
- The theme from Cheetahmen. No one is sure how it happened, especially when every other song on the cartridge ranges from "mediocre" to "ear rape", but it did. Additionally, it got many, many remixes on the Japanese video site Nico Nico Douga.
- The theme for Ooze on the Genesis version, which was done by Nu Romantic Productions, who were responsible for Kid Chameleon and Toejam and Earl's soundtrack.
- The Dam Buster's theme. Northernlion approves!
- The remake of the Illuminator theme from Action 52 Owns turns an other wise crummytheme into something really awesome. Hear for yourselves.
- The remake of Non-Human has awesome stage music as well as boss music. The original music only appears at the end section of the game.
Bile Fascination: Everyone knows how horrible Action 52 is. Despite this, years later, players are still delving into the games in this title, using emulators to beat the ones that are unbeatable (or to actually play the ones that normally crash immediately upon selection), and even posting tips and tricks for the games on YouTube.
Crack Is Cheaper: The cartridge cost $200 on release, though it was targeted for the rental market.
Demonic Spiders: Most games include at least one type of it, and frequently more. Some deserve a special mention:
- Hairdryers in Fuzz Power, which shoot nearly impossible-to-dodge stuff at player at random. Made worse by the fact that main character has only a melee attack.
- Balls in Hambo (especially bowling balls) which spawn onto tiny platforms, often making the game Unwinnable. Dynamite that spawns on top of ladders also qualify. That you start with only one life doesn't help.
- Tiny red spheres in Micro Mike can spawn in random parts of the screen and then home in on the player. Since it's only possible to shoot forward, getting hit is guaranteed when these spawn above, below or behind the player.
- Starting from stage 3, many enemies in Bleeps 'n Blips have incredible speed and homing ability, allowing them to hit the player in a fraction of a second. It doesn't help that your character can only shoot in the direction it's moving (and not diagonally).
- Almost every enemy in the 5th level of Cheetahmen has these traits. They either move so fast and lock on to the player that there's only 0.2 seconds maximum to shoot them down, or they're just too low to hit (Apollo can't duck).
- Pretty much any enemy in Haunted Halls, due to their random spawning, Goddamned Bats behavior, and the fact that you can't crouch. The worst one may be the "Skull of Doom".
- The literal Goddamned Bats in the later levels of Illuminator. They home in on you at high speed, are nearly impossible to hit before they hit you, and you're a One-Hit-Point Wonder to boot.
- Spiders in Dedant. If they come down to your level, they stay down there till they get you, and you can't shoot diagonally or sideways.
Game Breaker: Debug Mode in Alfredo and the Fettucini. It's also required for the final boss, the original Alfredo.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The background music in the Cheetahmen game has become popular in the Japanese videogame remix scene.
Goddamned Bats: Of course, these games have quite a few of them:
- Sharks and especially jellyfish in...Sharks.
- Enemies in later levels of Storm over Desert.
- Droplets in Ooze. To defeat them, just wait for them to fall. Slowly. Many times in some stages.
Good Bad Bugs: Glitches to get around the glitches. There are many of them, some of which have to be used to complete the level:
- In Manchester, you can't pass a certain point because of flames being in a way. However, you can fall through the floor and walk past a huge stack of note blocks.
- These are also found in Underground. While walking into the walls is sort of amusing, the ability to fire through the walls (properly utilized) takes the game all the way to "genuine fun" territory.
- In Dedant, the player can only shoot upwards. If enemies reach the bottom row, death is almost guaranteed unless you hide at the edges of the screen where no enemy or their projectiles (not even the homing ones) can get you.
- Aries (in the 2nd level) and Hercules can jump in mid-air by pressing jump just after attacking. This trick carried over into Cheetahmen II.
- In many games, Bottomless Pits actually make the character reappear at the upper side of the screen. In Lollipops, attacking in mid-air while falling will reset the falling height and cause the character to reappear in the sky, allowing you to skip a few sections of the map.
- In several games, the number of enemies spawning can be reduced by firing a lot of projectiles or not killing current enemies on screen. Often it's also possible to scroll enemies off the screen which is extremely useful in Haunted Halls which stops the enemies spawning behind from getting you.
- In Chill Out, when jumping constantly, edges of the screen can be used to get up without using ladders. This helps to get up and shoot the enemies relatively safely.
- In Slashers, you can walk around the enemies so you don't even have to fight them.
- Certain actions in Fuzz Power make the main character unable to do its attack, but in return, make him invulnerable.
- In Non-Human, you can jump and stand on the mouths of the green Elton John heads without dying. It is possible to bypass the entire level this way.
Junk Rare: Getting an actual cartridge of either Action 52 or Cheetahmen II will cost you upwards of at least $300, making it one of the most expensive NES games. But $300 for a unfinished glitchy mess of a game? Not worth it unless you're a collector.
Memetic Mutation: The Cheetahmen games (especially part II, which was in its own cartridge) are the subject of several parodies and tributes on the Japanese video site Nico Nico Douga.
Misattributed Song: The music from Silver Sword, French Baker, Fuzz Power, Streemerz, Time Warp Tickers and Ninja As(s)ault were actually composed by Ed Bogas. Ed's work is used without approval, and un-credited.
Most Annoying Sound: The jump sound effect in Manchester.
Nightmare Retardant: In Non-Human, after fighting waves of weird-looking mutant horrors, you then start facing off hungry cyclopean heads. They look like adorable smiling orange dog/cat/hamster heads, which takes away any creepy factor.
Polished Port: The Sega Genesis version, while still by no means a good game, was a marked improvement over the NES version.
Suspiciously Similar Song: The level 1 theme from Lollipops is a variation of famous song called "Something Stupid".
That One Boss: In the Action 52 Owns remake:
- The Giant Enemy Crab/Bug thing in the Hard mode of Non-Human. It has two heads as the weakpoints, the top head fires out a bouncy energy ball while the bottom fires out one that travels across the floor, then moves up when under you. Both of these attacks hurt a lot, and then there's the fact that the boss is constantly advancing towards you and limiting your space. Your solution is to shoot the heads to push him back, easier said than done because the crab can use his claws to guard either the top or bottom one!
That One Level: For the curious, if a single game on the cartridge were to be chosen as the worst of the lot, it would probably be safe to go with Micro Mike. As for individual levels themselves, there are quite a few candidates:
- Levels 3 and up in Bleeps and Blips.
- Level 1 and 2 in Billy Bob.
- Level five of Cheetahmen.
They Just Didn't Care: Apart from the obvious signs, many of the descriptions in the manual range from mentioning things that aren't in the final product to clearly being for completely different games.
- Spelling their own franchise game's name wrong twice (in the Cheetahmen I intro and on Cheetahmen II's cartridge) or having three different names for main character of game 23 (Rosy, Rosie, Rossie) are other clear signs.
  - Also, one of the games is called Crytical Bypass.
- Parts of the manual are in Engrish. Usually, that's acceptable. Not for this, since the game was supposedly made in the United States.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Check out the Cheetahmen commercial. Great animation for late 80's, the Cheetahmen's personalities stand out, and they have great voice actors. Seriously, this was BEGGING for an Animated Adaptation right off the bat. If the games were any good this would have been a no brainer. Here's an 80's show theme done for fun.
True Art Is Incomprehensible: About the only thing that can possibly justify the existence of Timewarp Tickers, other than... well, you know..
Unfortunate Character Design: In the third screen of the NES Cheetahmen's intro sequence, one of the trio's tails is sticking between his legs in a way that looks more than a little phallic. The illusion is made even worse by the fact that we only see the Cheetahman from about thigh-up in that screen.
What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?