Retro Gaming: Action 52 (1991)

Considered one of the worst ever carts produced for the NES, Action 52 (containing 52 games) was originally released at a storming $199 price tag in 1991. It quickly became absolute proof that more is not better. The unlicensed unlicensed video game compilation was developed by Active Enterprises for the NES, released on the Sega Genesis/Megadrive in 1993, and although advertised, never actually made it onto SNES.

The cartridge was famous for many of the games being heavily bugged, and some that didn't run at all. The company tried to turn the main game Cheetahmen into a franchise, by releasing  Cheetahmen 2 as a stand alone game. Unfortunately, that too has since made its way onto many a worst game ever list. Gaining a cult status, as it was never actually released. Although a few copies were leaked in 1996, make it a much sort after piece of vintage gaming history.

Apparently the people at Active Enterprises were even further deluded about the product they were pushing. On the release of Action 52, they proclaimed in press releases that there would be Cheetahmen action figures and even a Cheetahman Saturday morning animation series. Neither of which materialised.

As part of the marketing of Action 52 there was a competition to win $104,000 by completing level 5 of the game Ooze. However, this was later found to be impossible as the carts that had been released at the time crashed after level 2 of that game. The game also actually had 6 levels as opposed to 5, with the ending giving the player a code to send to Active. Needless to say, Active Enterprises never did any more games, and slipped into retro gaming history.