If there was ever an award for the worst game for the NES, there would be many contenders. Games like Friday the 13th and Wally Bear and the No gang would be possible candidates. But today we’re playing something a little different than just a regular bad game. We’re playing 52 of em. That’s right. You know how just one game like JAWS is hard to sit through? Well imagine a game that has 52 mini games that somehow surpasses every LJN, unlicensed, and sports game in the awfulness factor. Well sadly, a game like that exists simply known as Action 52. When the game hit store shelves, it cost $199.99; more than an NES system. The developers boasted ‘52 new and original games’. And let’s do the math ok? It’s $4 for each game. Wow. Talk about a deal. All of a sudden the $200 price tag doesn’t seem so bad after all. Yes; $200 for a technical abomination of a game. And what do you get for $200? 52 broken, unfinished, and downright god awful games. Let’s start this review shall we? Such an awful game, so little time.


Graphics - 2


To begin with where you really expecting a series of 52 games to be even somewhat decent? Whether you had hopes or not, the game destroys any chance of enjoyment the moment you try one of the games. The graphics in each and every game is terrible. The programmers somehow came up with the most putrid colour schemes I’ve ever seen. This is an example of how you DON’T use the NES’ colour palette. When you get over the colours, you’ll be overwhelmed at how bad the stages, enemies, and characters look like. You’ll find many enemies being recycled into other games. The programmers also chose the easiest games to do as at least half of the games are space shooters. Why? Because all you need is a black background where you add white dots to simulate the stars and planets and there you have it; a space shooter. The remaining games still look terrible and show little to no effort at all in the design department. The settings are dull and depressing and the colours are gag inducing. I see blue, green, yellow, pink: it’s like Walt Disney vomited on an NES cartridge. The score is a 2/10 on the graphics department.


Sound - 1


Sometimes games redeem drawbacks like bad visuals with a good soundtrack and music. Well this game takes that idea and chucks it down a flight of stairs. The music is just as bad, if not WORSE than the graphics. The music is among the worst the NES has ever offered. Not one game offers a decent tune. Trust me when I say it’s a joy that you have the option to mute the volume. You’re gonna need it. The games offer 5 second loops that sound tiring at best and make chalkboard grating sound like Beethoven’s 9 symphonies. Never does the music sound even somewhat decent. It varies from game to game; sometimes it’s bad, sometimes it’s just plain AWFUL. That’s why Action 52 gets a 1/10 on its sound.


Story - 3


There is no story in the first 51 games. There is only one story in the entire game and it’s on the 52nd and final game: The Cheetahmen. Alright. The story is that a boy called the “Action Gamemaster” is playing videogames when suddenly, an arm pops him out of his TV screen, grabs him, and pulls him in. Minutes later, he wakes up and sees 3 gigantic yellow bodies. He quickly realizes that they are anthropomorphic cheetahs known as the Cheetahmen. They come to his aid and set off to find the villains responsible for kidnapping. And there you go. To be honest, this isn’t THAT bad of a story; it’s nice to see something other than the “Save the damsel in distress” story. But like the story tellers they are, THEY NEVER MENTION THE KID AGAIN. What happened? Did he spend the rest of his life in the world of the Cheetahmen? Did he die trying to get back home? You get no answers whatsoever. And to be honest, who cares? You don’t care about the kid because he doesn’t have any significance. The reason why it works for a game like Legend of Zelda is because Princess Zelda keeps control and order in Hyrule. But with the “Action Gamemaster” he’s not someone who has significance like Zelda; he’s a kid playing videogames. Not to mention, the Cheetahmen are a blatant Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rip off. And you know the pathetic thing? The company that made this game was planning on making a Cheetahmen FRANCHISE with toys, comic books, and action figures. Yeah, because kids were SO enthusiastic about this game. Overall, I give this game a 3/10 for its story.


Addictiveness - 1


The game is by no means enjoyable. It’s like a bad comedy movie; a borefest that’s uncomfortable to sit through. There is no game in the collection worth playing; each game is boring and unbearable to sit through. If there’s one reason why any kid back in the 90s would’ve even BOTHERED to play this game is because there was a contest over one of the 52 games. The game was called Ooze. The contest was that whoever made it to level 5 of Ooze would be entered into a draw. Whoever won the draw would receive the grand prize of $104,000. But they forgot 1 big issue; Ooze crashes at level 3. Because of that, the prize was never handed out. Talk about a plain scumbag move. You set the game to crash so that no one can win your stupid contest. What a slimy move. It’s already bad enough that the game cost $200 and is unplayable but that just takes the cake. Because of these reasons, this game gets a 1/10 for it’s addictiveness.


Depth - 1


In terms of replayability, this game offers none of that. There’s nothing about this game that makes you want to play it again. Once you play it for the first time, you never wanna play it again. This was one of the few games that made me regret picking up an NES controller. Nothing about it makes you want to come back for more. The graphics are beyond awful and ugly. The music is some of the worst I’ve ever heard on the NES. The controls are horrible and among the worst for any system. And all 52 games suffer from glitches, crashing, and some just don’t plain work. There is nothing in terms of replayability which is why this game gets a 1/10 for its depth.


Difficulty - 5


The game has a polarizing sense of difficulty; some games are plain easy while some of the games are too glitchy to advance beyond the first level. A common issue that the platformers have is that your character dies from falling too great of a height. And it’s not like they die once they hit the ground; I mean they hit the air so hard it kills them before they land on the ground. Another issue that the platformers have is that you press B to jump. Anybody who’s played Contra or Super Mario Bros. knows it’s A to jump and B for actions. And the jumping isn’t even that good. If you move and press B, you don’t jump. You have to press B, THEN move the D-pad. Talk about broken controls at its finest. One common issue that the shooters have is that your aircraft is too fast and that you lose control easily. But then there are games that are so easy that you have no problem playing through the levels; until the game decides to crash and you have to reset your NES. Because of the game’s bipolar sense of challenge, it gets a 5/10 for its difficulty.


Overall - 1.5/10 NOT RECOMMENDED


This is without a doubt the absolute WORST NES game I’ve ever played. Instead of being one bad title like LJN’s Back to the Future, its 52 horrible games rolled into one cartridge. To this day, it remains as one of the worst games ever made along with Custer’s revenge and Shaq-Fu. Nothing about this game supports its $200 price tag. Even if I were a warden at a prison, I wouldn’t use this as a substitution to the death penalty. This game is one of the biggest scams in the videogame industry; to think people were unfortunate to buy this mess. The game was boasted with having “52 brand new and exciting games all for only $4.00 each”. Well after playing this garbage heap, I can tell you that it’s worth the same amount of effort the programmers put into: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! If you have $200, get a collection of GOOD NES games instead of this garbage. My final thoughts: STAY AWAY FROM THIS GAME!



To the Reader: If you liked that review, be sure to check out my other reviews such as my JAWS review, my Ninja Gaiden Review, and Silver Surfer review. As always HAPPY GAMING!!!

Well before I tell you what I think about the review, I'd like to say there was one good song from that game, that's the Cheetahmen theme. I would've personally bumped up the sound score to a 2 because of that one good theme, but that's just me. Now onto your review, I think you did an excellent job explaining why you think this game is so terrible and you added plenty of detail to the review as well. Some people may consider this a "rant" but I don't. I think this is a completely fair and honest review. Great job.

So this is the new review you were talking about. It would say it's even better than Jaws! You have a way of writing about awfulness that might be useful in the future. I mean I have not encountered a game I totally hate - Final Fantasy IX and Dragon Warrior VI did have enjoyable music - but you gave me a good template

I remember mother telling me that this awful game was sold for 104 dollars when it first came out. They figured that they get 2 dollars per game but the QA testers did such a horrible job before this game came out or did they even bother with hiring QA testers? Some of the games did not even work on the actual console or the emulator. Even though Action 52 on the Genesis was just as bad, it was at least better than this. The only highlight of the game was the Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock It takes two sample at the start of the initial cartridge. But anyway, good review and keep up the nice work.

Awesome review. It really did make me chuckle. I did try this game once a few years back and yeah, you'd think maybe a few games would be ok... But no, there aren't any. I can only imagine the disappointment of some kid opening this present and being excited about having so many games to play. And then trying each one. And their heart getting a little bit harder with each let down. And parents probably got roped into thinking it was a good deal too. I thought I got ripped off when I first got Atari2600 Pac-Man. At least that game worked! Half of these you just die it seemed. I rated you a five.

gamerforlifeforever2 : Yeah you're right. The cheetahmen theme isn't that bad. But it's still 1 good theme against 51 horrible themes. Thanks for pointing it out back there. Didn't see that.

I enjoyed reading the review. Good job! Honestly I always kind of chuckle to myself when someone reviews this game, just because of how badly put together the whole thing was.

I will disagree with you regarding your opening Paragraph though. At least Friday the 13th (Decent game, yet flawed) and Wally Bear are bad, they are at least PLAYABLE COMPLETED games.

I would put ALL of the NES bible Games, most Color Dream games and Little Red Hood way before most of those LJN games on the list of worst games on the NES. Alas though, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

Action 52 is by far one of the worst games created for ANY platform. If for nothing else, than because of the mass of crud. It's not just ONE bad game, it's 52 HORRIBLE games, that are designed like a newbie programmer was making them with no idea on how to make a game lol

Jordanv78 : Actually King of Kings was a good Bible game for the NES I thought. Other than that though, I agree with your point.



gorillaz - I've never played this, but I probably will just because I hear so much bad stuff about it. lol Your review here told me more about the game than I ever actually heard, since everyone just screams "it's bad!" for three paragraphs and calls it a review.

I disagree with listing Shaq-Fu as a horrible game. I played through the entire game and found it enjoyable actually. I enjoyed it much more than many of the more popular fighters like Street Fighter honestly. But to each their own.

imamonster : Yep you're right. Guilty as charged. AVGN is an inspiration to some of my reviews although I don't plain plagiarize what he says in his reviews. I've been a fan since 2008. I'd be lying if I denied any influence from AVGN. Thanks for the comments and I'll try next time not to sound like AVGN. Thanks again for the positive feedback as I can always improve. Happy Gaming!!!