Summary

Cheetahmen II is a notorious unreleased NES sequel that only surfaced when a forgotten stash of 1,500 copies was unearthed in a Florida warehouse in 1996. Every cartridge was a repurposed Action 52 board, often marked with a tiny gold sticker that reads “Cheetamen II”, making the original physical game one of the rarest Nintendo artifacts today. Players rotate between the three Cheetahmen—Apollo, Hercules and Aries—after each two‑level boss, but a programming bug locks the Aries stages unless the ROM is patched or a freak glitch occurs. A community‑sourced patch by PacoChan finally repaired the show‑stoppers in 2011.

The fixed version, titled Cheetahmen II: The Lost Levels, was crowdfunded on Kickstarter in 2012 and manufactured on genuine NES cartridges, though the campaign drew criticism for its handling. Only six of the ten originally planned levels were actually included, and the game’s side‑scrolling graphics and music remain a curious mix of charm and crude execution typical of the Action 52 era. Despite its troubled birth, the title has achieved a cult following and is widely available as ROMs online.

Storyline

In Cheetahmen II, Dr. Morbis appears at the very start, creating the Ape‑Man to face the Cheetahmen. He also serves as the boss for the Apollo section, running repeatedly to the right until the player defeats him. The final confrontation is with the Ape‑Man itself, which Hercules battles; once the Ape‑Man is defeated the game soft‑locks. The Aries levels reuse content from the original game (levels 2 and 3), where the boss is Cygore, a creature that runs back and forth and also causes a soft‑lock after being defeated.

Edited by Maya Carter