Play Action 52 Online

Summary

Action 52 is the infamous NES multicart that tried to cram fifty‑two "new and original" titles onto a single cartridge. The pack boasts a mishmash of vertical shooters, platformers and oddities like Storm Over the Desert, where you pilot an M1 Abrams in a cartoonish Gulf War setting. The centerpiece, The Cheetahmen, was meant to launch a franchise rival to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but the whole collection suffered from glaring programming flaws—freezes, endless levels and unresponsive controls that turned many games into unplayable demos. Active Enterprises pushed the cart at $199, even advertising a contest tied to the buggy game Ooze, only to have Level 2 crash on every console. Despite the disaster, the cartridge’s rarity has turned it into a collector’s curiosity, celebrated more for its legendary status than its actual gameplay.

Storyline

Action 52 is a notorious NES cartridge that bundles fifty‑two unrelated titles into one package. The featured game of this version is The Cheetahmen, which occupies the 52nd and final slot and serves as a bizarre showdown where characters from the preceding fifty‑one games return as enemies.

One of the more memorable entries, Storm Over the Desert, drops players into a crude top‑down view of the Gulf War. You control an American M1 Abrams tank, navigating a desert landscape while gigantic caricatures of Saddam Hussein pop up at random. The tank can either blast the oversized foes or simply run them over, adding a chaotic, tongue‑in‑cheek twist to the otherwise simple shooter premise.