Action 52 is an unlicensed multicart video game compilation developed by Active Enterprises for the Nintendo Entertainment System and by FarSight Technologies for the Sega Genesis.
[2] The "featured" game is The Cheetahmen, which was part of Active's failed attempt to create a franchise similar to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
[4] The NES version of Action 52 includes games that cover a variety of genres, the most common types being vertical shooters set in outer space, and platformers.
[2] The games have major programming flaws, and some of them freeze or crash, while others include incomplete or endless levels, confusing design, and unresponsive controls.
The creator of Action 52 was Vince Perri, a businessman from Miami, Florida, and the owner and founder of Active Enterprises.
He overheard Perri talking to the owner of the studio about him wanting to create a cartridge similar to the bootleg one his son had that contained 52 original games.
González informed Perri that he and his friends, Javier Pérez and Albert Hernández, were into making games; the trio created a Tetris clone called Megatris as proof of their abilities.
The developers, who used an Atari ST, were given three months to complete Action 52, leaving little time for playtesting and fixing bugs.
He says that Perri, inspired by his neighborhood's reaction to the Taiwanese compilation, fully intended, at least in the beginning, to create and market a legitimate multicart.
However, Perri knew little about the video game business when he launched his venture, and as a result made serious errors, such as entrusting the project to programmers who had too little experience, and giving them an insufficient length of time to develop Action 52.
Perri's expectation that the multicart would launch a multimedia Cheetahmen franchise was similarly not well-founded, given the game's low quality.
The Sega Genesis version of Action 52 was developed by FarSight Technologies, under the direction of Jay Obernolte, using a Macintosh LC.
Mark Steven Miller and Jason Scher of Nu Romantic Productions composed the music for the Genesis version, in 48 hours.
Despite his comedic exaggerations, the review pointed out severe cases of repeating themes, crashing or non-functional games, critical bugs, and misleading titles.