Action 52

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Action 52
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Active Enterprises
Developer: FarSight Technologies, Nu Romantic Productions (sound)
Game total: 52
Sound driver: GEMS
Genre: Compilation
Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code US 1992-05 $199.00199.00

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Action 52 is an unlicensed collection of 52 original games on one cartridge which was originally released on the NES by Active Enterprises. It was originally sold for $199 US dollars under the guise of each game being worth $3, and all of the games are infamous for being of terrible quality. Later in 1993, Active contracted FarSight Studios to create a new Action 52 for the Sega Mega Drive.

A Super NES version was also advertised in the same year, but it was cancelled presumably due to Active Enterprises' bankruptcy.

Games included

Each game is color coded, with a legend on the first screen when the cartridge is booted up: Expert, Intermediate, Beginner, Two Player, Special.

	1: Bonkers (expert)
	You control a green ball that will bounce all the way up and all the way down on a vertical field. You can move it left and right with the D-pad. The ball will destroy blocks of matching colors; touching a grey block with a different color will change the ball's color (however, the ball cannot be changed back to green using the gray blocks with green in the middle). Hitting a grey block with a black + in the middle will make you lose one ball and revert the ball color to green. After all colored blocks are removed, simply remove the remaining blocks with green in the middle to clear the level. Also worth mentioning, this is one of the few games of the cart to have a title screen.
	2: Darksyne (expert)
	You are a ship stuck in a room with enemies. As in Asteroids, you are bound by gravity, and holding and using the D-pad will allow you some limited form of motion. Holding gives you a shield with limited energy. shoots. Destroy all the enemies without hitting the walls of the level to move on to the next.
	3: Dyno-Tennis (two player)
	Simple tennis game. Player 1 is the orange dinosaur; Player 2 is the purple one. and move. swings. Most points after 10 sets wins.
	4: Ooze (expert)
	Platforming run-and-gun where you play as the Ooze Boy. shoots (notoriously, Ooze Boy is not able to shoot while jumping); jumps. crouches; moving while crouched crawls. Falling from too high a slope will kill Ooze Boy. You are tasked to collect keys throughout each level, in order to progress to the next.
	5: Star Ball (expert)
	Simple pinball game. flips the left flipper; flips the right. There appears to be multiple tables; the manual mentions that collecting all bonuses and destroying all the enemies you can, will take to the next table.
	6: Sidewinder (expert)
	After Burner/G-LOC clone, except you can move freely to the left and to the right (with scrolling too!). fires.
	7: Daytona (expert)
	Simple 3D racing game. Hold to accelerate; let go to brake. Steer with and . Hit to switch gears. The only real goal appears to be "get 3 laps" but the game has no indicator telling lap count or finish line — the level will just fade out.
	8: 15 Puzzle (expert)
	...15 puzzle. D-pad to move cursor; to move block.
	9: Sketch (expert)
	Line art canvas. D-pad moves the pencil. Hold to draw. changes line thickness. changes line color. This is similar to Art Alive! by using the same pencil sprite and other features.
	10: Star Duel (two player)
	11: Haunted Hills (expert)
	Known as "Haunted Hill" in-game.
	12: Alfredo & the Fettucinni's (expert)
	Known as "Alfredo" in-game.
	13: The Cheetahmen (expert)
	14: Skirmish (two player)
	15: Depth Charge (expert)
	16: Minds Eye (expert)
	17: Alien Attack (expert)
	18: Billy Bob (expert)
	19: Sharks (intermediate)
	20: Knockout (two player)
	21: Intruder (intermediate)
	22: Echo (intermediate)
	23: Freeway (intermediate)
	24: Mousetrap (intermediate)
	25: Ninja (intermediate)
	26: Slalom (intermediate)
	27: Dauntless (intermediate)
	28: Force One (intermediate)
	29: Spidey (intermediate)
	30: Appleseed (intermediate)
	31: Street Skater (intermediate)
	Known simply as "Skater" in the game.
	32: Sunday Driver (intermediate)
	33: Star Evil (intermediate)
	34: Air Command (intermediate)
	35: Shootout (intermediate)
	36: Bombs Away (intermediate)
	37: Speed Boat (beginner)
	38: Dedant (beginner)
	39: G-Force Fighter (beginner)
	Referred as "G Fighter" in-game
	40: Man At Arms (beginner)
	41: Norman (beginner)
	42: Armor Battle (two player)
	43: Magic Bean (beginner)
	44: Apache (beginner)
	45: Paratrooper (beginner)
	46: Sky Avenger (beginner)
	47: Sharp Shooter (beginner)
	48: Meteor (beginner)
	49: Black Hole (beginner)
	50: The Boss (beginner)
	51: 1st Video Game (two player)
	Referred as "First Game" at the in-game menu. The game itself is a rendition of Pong (which post-dates the first "video game" by many years).
	52: Action 52 Challenge (special)
	Simply referred as "Challenge" in-game, is an endurance test which puts the player into a random series of the highest levels of the other remaining 46 single-player games.

All games have pause with  START ; hitting while paused returns to the title screen.

Promotional material

Print advert in GamePro (US) #54: "January 1994" (199x-xx-xx)

Print advert in Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #57: "April 1994" (1994-xx-xx)

Print advert in EGM² (US) #5: "November 1994" (1994-1x-xx)
also published in:

• Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #65: "December 1994" (1994-xx-xx)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source GamePro (US) 40 №56, p52

	40
Based on 1 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 40 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 40

	40
Based on 2 reviews

Action 52

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 29ff58ae MD5 4adf124ff9d111cb3946a65020918d5e SHA-1 1d5b26a5598eea268d15fa16d43816f8c3e4f8c6	2MB	1993-05	Cartridge