Perhaps the most infamous game on the NES is Action 52, despite not being that well known. This game contains 52 Games in one NES Cart, and many of the games are of different genres. Sounds like good fun, yes? Ha Ha Ha...THAT'S WRONG!
Action 52 has got to be the worst thing I have ever seen to appear on the beloved NES. The games are buggy, difficult, and just not much fun. However, the real reason I'm covering this game today is because of Number 52 on the cart: The Cheetahmen.
Cheetahmen was the result of some genius' idea to cash in on the whole animal hero craze from the 90s. Needless to say, that someone found that it was harder to accomplish than expected. A whole line of merchandise was planned for Cheetahmen, but due to Action 52's failure, it all fell through. Cheetahmen is a disgrace, not just to gaming, but to everything in general. It's just...wrong.
Oh, and it doesn't stop there. Active Enterprises, the Developer of Action 52 got the bright idea to develop a sequel, Cheetahmen II.
Fortunately, this tragedy was stopped. Despite the game being mostly complete, A.E. decided not to release it, and for good reason. The world was safe from the Cheetahmen once and for all...right? WRONG...AGAIN!
In 1996, someone discovered 1,000+ Copies of the game in a warehouse. Oh, joy.
They were put up for sale on the secondary market, and sold rather quickly. Now, why would anyone want this game? It's simple: The number of copies of it. There were not many, and now it is now very hard to find. In fact, one copy sold for over 1000 Dollars, and a box of the game sold for over 400 Dollars. Needless to say, this game is valuable, despite it's lack of quality.
So, you may be asking yourself: Is there ANYTHING good about Action 52? Yeah. The cartridge looks pretty cool. Here's a picture of it.
[img width=300 height=306]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a136/DarkTheThief/action_52_nes_game.jpg[/img]
Anyway, on with the story. I decided that I want to own this game, if only for the reason that I'm trying to get as many NES Games as humanly possible. Knowing that it was an awful game, I figured I could find it cheap on eBay. I could not have been more wrong. It was 400 Dollars. Of course, I could never afford this, so I'm left with the option to get a Repro of it, if making one is even possible.
Something else comes to mind: ROMhacking has made many unplayable games playable and actually fun over the years. Sometimes I think to myself, what if someone hacked Action 52 and fixed it? Would it really be any better? Only time will tell if this happens.
On a funnier note, check out the following video. It's a Cheetahmen II Rap made by the very talented Duane and Brand0.
Man, these games are awful. I honestly feel sorry for anyone who has played either of them.
That's it. Thanks for reading!
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Finally picked up a CIB NES Action 52 around a year or two ago, and it really is as bad as everyone claims. A classic conundrum for fellow collectors: why do we spend money on games we know are terrible, and something we'll never play? Oh sure, it has that 'hey, check out how bad this game is' quality, but that's akin to tasting something horrible and then convincing your buddies to try it to. 
Anywho, fun post.
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@slackur
Good question. Why do we do that? I honestly don't know the answer. Must be something in our programming that compels us to do it. 
Personally, I do not collect games for the sake of collecting them, but I collect them so that I can play them, and if the game is unplayable, it kind of defeats the purpose.
How much did that CIB Copy of Action 52 cost anyway? The ones I saw were cart only, so I imagine it was pretty expensive, yes?
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@ReddMcKnight:
If I remember correctly I got it as part of a larger trade, though it didn't hit as hard as I was afraid of, otherwise I wouldn't have sprung for it ;p
Many/most of my more expensive acquisitions were the results of trades from my pile of doubles I found on the cheap. I don't often go after trade bait on purpose, but I'm always out 'on the hunt,' for the collection and if I find something valuable I already have that's worthwhile and only a few bucks, I sometimes grab it just in case.
Games I want for the collection yet expect not to really enjoy, I can't justify spending much on. But if I can trade a few extras I have that I didn't spend much on, it's much easier to find a way.
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@ReddMcKnight:
I got my copy of Cheetahmen II for $3.
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@Shadow Kisuragi:
*Urge to knock unconscious and rob rising...RISING...remembers human decency and general sense of goodwill and community as well as happiness for the good fortune of others...envy still fuming...remembers how Cheetahman II actually plays...urge fading...fading...gone.*
 Just kidding. ;p
*Hits Shadow on head with comically giant whiffle bat, grabs Cheetahmen II which is on his person for some reason, runs away in giant strides to the tune of Benny Hill*
LOL
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You left my copy of Daze Before Christmas with the $20 price tag on it, so you might want to come back for that one.
I'm thinking of officially submitting a speedrun record of Cheetahmen II, if only because it can only be "official" on the real software. In the least, it would be an "entertaining" diversion for my friends.
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