15 Puzzle

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Oh, I hate 15 Puzzle. If given the choice to eat a steaming plate of baboon poo or play 15 Puzzle, I'd pick the baboon poo every time. At least the steam of the poo would keep me warm, while this cold, lifeless puzzle game just sends me into a depression each time I play it. If anyone growing up had one of those puzzle games where an image is cut up into squares and there's one hole in the image, allowing you to maneuver the squares around in an attempt to reassemble the picture to what it should be, then you know what to expect here. Most people who had those puzzle games tossed 'em in the trash shortly after receiving them. 15 Puzzle is even worse, as there is no image to unlock…your goal is to just put everything in numerical order. So your reward for completing a puzzle is a bunch of numbers. Even a mathematician would throw themselves into oncoming traffic for a reward like that. I would have given this a lower score, but technically the game does what it's supposed to do...so if you like this style of puzzle game, then maybe you'll find something to like here…but I have yet to find anyone that enjoys these, so my guess is that most folks will be eating baboon turds with me.

Review added: 01/27/2022

1st Video Game

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

This is it! This may be the best game that Active Enterprises ever made! And it's a complete rip-off of Pong, right down to the black and white color scheme. But that's okay, because it results in something on an Action 52 cartridge that you can play with a friend and not feel like you'll have to apologize for months afterward about. I'll even forgive Active Enterprises for thinking that Pong was the first video game made…it wasn't, but good golly, I'm just so thrilled that Active Enterprises put something that I can play on one of their cartridges, that doesn't make me want to shove my face into a high-speed metal fan, that I simply don't know what to say. I mean I'll stick with the original Pong over this so that I don't accidentally play something else on Action 52, but I'm trying to look on the bright side of things here, dang it.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Action 52 Challenge

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

I'll just say this - I really, really like the concept of Action 52 Challenge. Basically, it's the final level of every game compiled in Action 52. The goal is to beat the final level in every game, in a random order, so that you can call yourself the Action 52 Gamemaster. However, as much as I like the concept for Action 52 Challenge and think that it's a well-thought, neat idea, you're still stuck playing a bunch of stinky, stanky games...and to be fair, a handful of bad, but not awful games. It's like being told to bob for apples when the bucket has three apples in in it, along with forty-nine turds. Even if you love apples, the turds may ruin the experience for you. If Action 52 had even been a compilation of just 52 passable games…not great, not good, but just passable, I think that this would be much more fun than it is. Unfortunately, as it stands, Action 52 Challenge is a good idea that results in the player trying to play through one awful level from every awful game on the cartridge. I'm sad to say that it's a challenge that you should not accept. Honestly, it's more of a challenge to motivate yourself to continue playing this after only a few seconds.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Air Command

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Air Command is a different take on the vertical scrolling shooter. Instead of the aircraft that you control being located on the bottom of the screen and shooting upward, Air Command has you at the top of the screen and shooting downward. That unique perspective change is really the only noteworthy aspect of this otherwise dull, boring shooter. It's not enjoyable by any means. It's not exactly pretty to look at. It's just a plodding game where you'll likely die from taking a nap out of boredom before you die from anything skill related. I think it's safe to say that the developers are air heads for making this game…both because they seem to like airplanes, and also because I've got a sneaking suspicion that air is the only thing between their ears.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Alfredo

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Hey! Alfredo's back!! After starring in his own platformer in the original, NES version of Action 52, Active Enterprises decided to give their Italian chef another game, while removing the platforming bits. Honestly, given Active Enterprises' record with platforming games, that was probably a wise move. Anyway, in this game, apparently Alfredo has gone vegan, since meat is the enemy. Controlling Alfredo, you're holding a pot and you're by a large cauldron filled with, what I'm assuming is meat sauce. Various types of noodle and meat leap from the cauldron. Your goal is to catch the noodles in your pot while avoiding the meat. If meat even touches you, you die a horrible death. Which is odd, because the sausages that escape from their boiling prison look surprisingly happy. In fairness, tomatoes kill you as well, if you also attempt to catch those…but I prefer to think of Alfredo as a chef with a meat phobia and noodles are the only thing that can calm him down. This isn't the worst game in the world, and it's decent for an Action 52 game, but I can't imagine too many folks would put too much time into this game.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Alien Attack

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Alien Attack is a poor Action 52 shooter. The action takes place on a single screen while various aliens (and Medusa for some reason...that ol' Gorgon was just famous for her space travel skills and alien amigos) roam around trying to kill you. It's not particularly enjoyable by any stretch of the imagination. I will give it credit for having different backgrounds for some of the stages, so there's at least some variety in the visuals, and the aliens/monsters are much more detailed and interesting than enemies in some of the other games on the Genesis Action 52 cartridge…but better looks don't mean better gameplay. Honestly, I bet Alien Attack is less fun than an Asthma Attack. Putting a brown paper bag to your mouth and breathing in and out sounds like a better time to me than putting your hands on the controller and having your emotions weave in and out between sadness and boredom.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Apache

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Apache is your typical, boring 3rd-person shooter from Active Enterprises. Only this one has a catch…You're controlling a very magical helicopter as you shoot at various enemy choppers while the screen slowly scrolls vertically. Now I bet you're wondering what makes this helicopter so magical. Well, I'll tell you. This helicopter has the magical ability to crash when it flies over any rocks. Trees? Water? No problem. But if you fly over a rock on the ground, your helicopter will explode and you'll perish. They shouldn't have named this game Apache, they should have named it Abracadabra due to how magical this helicopter is. What would have been even more magical is if this was actually worth playing. Unfortunately, Active Enterprises didn't pull the playability rabbit out of their hats when they made this.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Appleseed

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Appleseed is similar to another game in the Genesis version of Action 52, that game being Alfredo. The games have a completely different look from each other, but it's the same concept. In Appleseed, you're an old man carrying a basket and your goal is to catch as many apples as you can…the catch being that since the old man doesn't want to be reminded of his age, he only wants red apples. If those green Granny Smith apples wind up in the basket, he remembers that he's an ol' grandparent like the apple that he caught and the whole basket winds up being completely ruined, making you start over. Those green apples just ruin everything. The only real difference between this game and Alfredo in terms of gameplay is that the items to catch in Alfredo are larger and easier to see for the most part. In Appleseed, the apples are a bit smaller and the green apples tend to blend in a bit with the backgrounds. Anyway, Appleseed is okay in comparison to other Action 52 games, but it's not anything really worth playing.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Armor Battle

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Armor Battle is another one of the awful two-player-only games on the Genesis Action 52 cartridge. You and a friend (likely a drugged friend - I can't imagine how you'd get anyone to play this with you unless you drop a little helper in their chocolate milk when they're not looking) play as the creatively named Gray and Green tanks in a best of 9 series. Each round, the way the tank fires changes…which is interesting…but, these tanks control like how they do in the other Action 52 tank game, Norman. That's very slow and plodding. The end result isn't a fast-paced chaotic tank battle between friends…it's more like if you shrunk yourselves down, you each sat on top of a snail with jousting sticks, and trash talked each other for the 30 minutes it took for the snails to get close enough to each other for one of you to knock the other down. It's not a good game, it's not fun…in terms of quality, this game really tanked.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Billy Bob

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

I was initially VERY disappointed with the concept of Billy Bob. Billy Bob on the NES version of Action 52 was a poor attempt at Prince of Persia-type gameplay, but when I saw that there was a game called Billy Bob on the Genesis Action 52 cart, I was hoping that Active Enterprises had taken a second stab at that style of gameplay, and hopefully had better results this time around. Instead, this time around they completely ditched the gameplay of the original Billy Bob and turned this into a single-screen 1st person shooter…essentially a light gun game without any light gun compatibility. That said, despite my disappointment in the direction of the game, it's not an awful shooting game...at least not when compared to other games on this cartridge. It's not a game that anyone is going to be raving about, mind you, but for what it is, it's not terrible...not passable, but also not terrible...and when you're on a cartridge full of awful games, not being terrible makes you one of the best options on the cart.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Black Hole

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

ANOTHER scrolling shooter from Active Enterprises…this one has a unique concept of scrolling in various directions, probably to emulate what they think would happen if you were being sucked into a black hole. It's an interesting concept and I appreciate the thought behind it, but I'm assuming that the black hole in this game is actually the drain in a toilet and the various scrolling directions are due to the water swirling towards the drain after a flush. Unfortunately, this game also happens to be one of those floating poos that just won't seem to make its way through the pipes, no matter how many times you flush. If you can't tell, despite the unique scrolling concept, this is still a pretty awful game. I don't really have much else to say about it except the developers should have flushed this turd down into the watery, porcelain black hole that I assume it was inspired by, possibly adding some mass to it to make it flush down a bit easier. This game is definitely a black hole of enjoyment - any joy you have will be sucked from you the moment you begin to play.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Bombs Away

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Every single person in modern history has the exact same basic desire and dream of sprinting through an abandoned village while trying to avoid bombs being dropped all around you. Active Enterprises was kind enough to create Bombs Away so we all could live out our dreams…what? NOBODY has a desire to run through an abandoned village while trying to avoid bombs dropped all around them? Well, I bet Active Enterprises' faces are red now. Anyway, like you might've guessed, in Bombs Away, your goal is to avoid the bombs being dropped around you. The problem is every single one of the bombs is a dud. None of them explode. So why bother running? You just don't wanna be hit on the noggin' by one. or you may get a nasty lump on your cranium from the impact. Just enter a house and wait for the planes flying above to run out bombs or fuel for their planes…whichever comes first. Then calmly walk away from the village and towards somewhere safer. Similar logic can be used to playing this dud of a game. Why play it? Just press the power button, eject the Action 52 cartridge, and toss it out the window. Just be sure to yell, "Bombs Away!!" when you do so.

Review added: 01/27/2022

The Boss

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Boss was one of the better games on the NES Action 52, though it still wasn't very good. On the Genesis Action 52, Active Enterprises decided to make a sequel by adding the word "The" to the title. In fairness, The Boss is a better game than Boss was, but it's also different. Now climbing ladders to walk along four different areas of the stage, your goal is to collect all of the dollar bills that you can find while shooting any of the reptile/amphibian mobsters and police officers that wander back and forth on the scaffolding and streets while you do so. It's not awful, but it's also not very difficult, so the game feels boring at times. Still, when it comes to playable games on an Action 52 cartridge, beggars can't be choosers. I wouldn't call this a passable game, but it's closer to being one than 90% of other games in Active Enterprises' awful compilation cartridges.

Review added: 01/27/2022

The Cheetahmen

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

The original Action 52 on the NES had Cheetah Men. Then Active Enterprises released Cheetahmen II by itself on the NES later on as a standalone game…so I guess this would actually be Cheetahmen III? I heard that the full title was originally going to be Cheetahmen III: Why Me?! But Active Enterprises didn't have enough room for that many characters for the game's title. Besides, since everyone that attempted to play this game was already going to sobbing, "Why me?!" to themselves anyway, Active Enterprises felt like the subtitle wasn't really needed. I also think they dropped the III in the title….well, because I'm not entirely sure that the developers could count that high. If they count as well as they program, I'm incredibly surprised that they were able to count to two for Cheetahmen II, to be honest. But anyway, Cheetahmen is an awful mess…ironic since the original game on the NES Action 52, while still awful, was one of the better games on that cartridge. This Cheetahmen is one of the worst.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Darksyne

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Have you ever wanted to mix the awkward controls of Asteroid with the powered-up firepower of most scrolling shooters…all while in a confined space with limited maneuverability? Well, then Darksyne is for you. I, personally, have never really been a fan of Asteroids…mostly due to the control scheme. That said, I can still acknowledge Asteroids as a great game in the early days of video games. In Asteroids, I can tolerate the controls since you're in an open area and if you fly into the side of the screen, you simply wind up elsewhere on screen. In Darksyne, though, if you fly into the side of the screen, you're dead. In fact, I've noticed that if I hit the gas too hard, it's pretty much instant death. So, in order to advance in the game, I had to just tap the gas as light as possible so I could just creep along the levels to shoot away and destroy the enemies on screen. That results in this being a pretty slow-paced, dull 3rd-person shooter. I appreciate that Active Enterprises attempted something different here…but in my opinion, it simply doesn't work well.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Dauntless

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

You know what most 3rd-person, horizontal-scrolling shooters are lacking? Clouds that cover 80% of the screen. Active Enterprises, for whatever reason, felt like since their scrolling shooters were generally so easy that it led to boredom, that the best way to fix that problem wasn't to adjust the difficulty and tweak the gameplay, but to just add a bunch of clouds so you can't really see what's going on around you. The definition of the word dauntless is, "showing fearlessness and determination." I think Active Enterprises showed that when they confidently released this awful game and believed that anyone would enjoy it. That shows some fearlessness. Going through the effort of publishing it to this cartridge shows some determination. The fact that it got published at all, shows obliviousness…which isn't officially part of the definition of dauntless, but I think it fits after this abomination made its way to our Genesis consoles.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Daytona

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

With a name like Daytona, one would imagine that this game would be a NASCAR rip-off. Nope. Instead it feels more like an Outrun rip-off…but on a race track, and without any of the charm. Instead of driving stock cars, you're driving a yellow sports car. Your goal is to race around the track, trying to not slide off of the road into trees during turns, and trying not to slam into the rear-ends of the countless red vehicles that sprinkle the course. Like most of Active Enterprises games that I've played, the enemies (the red vehicles) seem to be randomly generated rather than strategically placed in the level. The result is that sometimes you'll have all three lanes containing cars to avoid and your options are to slow down until the vehicles leave the screen, which seems to make them disappear entirely, then speed up and continue on…OR the other option would be to slam into one of the vehicles in front of you, hit the power button, eject the cartridge, throw the cartridge into oncoming traffic, and put a better game in your Genesis instead. I think most folks will go for the second option.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Dedant

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Dedant is another returning game from the NES Action 52. This version is baffling, though. It's neither an improved game OR a better-looking game...in fact, I'd say that they took a step backwards...yes, they managed to make an already awful game even worse. First, the color scheme here is absolutely terrible. Most of your enemies blend right into the background. On the screenshot to the right, look above the ant and you'll see a green caterpillar thingie blending right in with the grass, for example. There's also another, smaller ant off to the upper left that's gray instead of green, but still not easily visible. I can only imagine how rough this game would be for someone that's color blind. The original Dedant was pretty awful, but at least you could see what was going on. This Dedant's only minor improvement is that the enemies aren't as stupid as they are in the original…but you still probably won't have an issue plowing through all of the other insects and arachnids. I'm still baffled that not only did Active Enterprises feel like releasing a second Action 52 was a good idea, but they also felt like including sequels to some of the worst games on the original cartridge...and managed to make some of them even worse. Maybe they thought they'd get it right this time? They were incorrect.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Depth Charge

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Depth Charge is an interesting 3rd-person shooter. Instead of shooting left-and-right like a horizontal scrolling shooter, or shooting up from the bottom of the screen, like many early shooters, in Depth Charge you control a boat at the top of the screen and you're actually attacking from the top of the screen, aiming downward, with your attacks focused on submarines that are floating beneath you. Instead of firing bullets, though, you're dropping mines. It's, surprisingly, not an awful game when there's actually something happening on the screen…but like similar Action 52 games, you'll have several second gaps where you've got absolutely nothing to do because no submarines are making their way onto the screen. Ironically, despite its name, there's not really a lot of depth here.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Dyno Tennis

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Dyno Tennis is a two-player-only game on the Genesis Action 52 cartridge. Controlling either the purple dinosaur or the orange dinosaur, cleverly named Purple and Orange, you're playing tennis by wielding trees instead of tennis rackets , and by volleying a caveman around instead of a ball. I'd imagine that a human would only bounce off of trees being swung at them a few times before transforming into a bloody pile of mush…I'd also imagine that if the human is intelligent enough to wear clothing that the nude dinosaurs wouldn't be smart enough to play tennis...unless the dinosaurs were exhibitionists or something. Then they aren't nude because they're not smart enough to have clothes, but perhaps they're intelligent and simply choose not to wear clothers. Regardless, there's a lot of holes in the logic here. There's also a lot of holes in the gameplay, as this just simply is not fun. I think being that human ball in a real game of dinosaur tennis would be a more enjoyable experience…after all, if I wound up as that bloody pile of mush that I mentioned earlier, I'd be unable to ever play this again, wouldn't I? I like to look at the bright side of things.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Echo

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

I never liked the game named Simon. In fact, I dislike it so much that whenever I meet anyone named Simon, I tell 'em to talk to the hand 'cause my face ain't listenin'. My ears aren't listening, either…I never understood why people say their faces listen in that saying. Anyway, Echo is just a game of Simon, but with the most dull, uninteresting display on screen for it that you could imagine. It's basically just a gray screen, with gray diamonds that lack any other except for the brief moments when they trigger on screen for you to memorize or when you activate them when attempting to repeat the pattern given to you. It's an awful video game version of a game that I honestly never saw any appeal for…I don't think anyone sees any appeal in it, either. That's why it's called Echo, afterall. When the developers made a speech to a room full of people that liked this game in an effort to name it, they gave that speech to an empty room, resulting in their voice echoing back to them. True story.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Force One

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Force One is one of the many, generic, boring Action 52 shooters. You control a generic-looking space ship and fire at generic-looking enemy space ships….and then generically rinse and repeat those generic aspects for nine generic levels. In the early levels, Force One is an incredibly dull, uneventful game. By the final level, everything is much more chaotic, but the game still manages to feel dull and bland at that point, too. I've never played a game, until Force One, where chaos can feel as slow and boring as painting the side of a shed with a small, watercolor brush. It takes some serious skill to make a game feel both chaotic and bland at the same time. Active Enterprises managed to do it here. I can't imagine anyone willingly wanting to play Force One for more than a few seconds. I'm pretty sure that this game got its name because you'd likely have to Force someOne to play this at that point.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Freeway

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Have you ever wanted to play Frogger, but without any difficulty whatsoever? Well, then Active Enterprises made a game for you. In Freeway, like in Frogger, the goal is to cross the street. Except instead of hopping across, and jumping onto things like lily pads and alligator skulls, you can simply run across the street and back without too much of an issue. And instead of a frog, you're controlling a dog. The goal here is to do what we all learned in grade school - run across the street, in front of traffic, to grab various toys. Once you've got a toy, your goal is to bring it back to the side of the street that you came from…which begs the question, "If all of the toys are on the other side of the street, why doesn't the dog simply stay on that side of the street and enjoy the toys that are already there?" Anyway, like the vast majority of games that Active Enterprises spewed out, Freeway isn't anything worth playing. In fact, I'd call it No Way instead of Freeway, since that's my response if anyone were to ask me if I'd play it again.

Review added: 01/27/2022

G Fighter

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

I think that G Fighter is supposed to be the sequel to the NES Action 52's G-Force Fighters…except it's visually less interesting than the original game, in my opinion, despite this being a 16-bit game. Maybe that's why the name was shortened? The "-Force" in the middle  and the "s" at the end are what made G-Force Fighters visually interesting....I think that's the only time you'll ever head someone claim that G-Force Fighters was interesting in any form...but hey, when compared to G Fighter, it fits. I'll give G Fighter some credit, though, you can't just sit in one place for the entire game like in G-Force Fighters….but I literally sat in the same place for over a minute with zero combat required. The only reason that I had to move is that enemies can appear from both from the left and the right, and after that 60+ seconds of doing nothing, a ship appeared from the left, behind me, forcing me to move. Basically, you can easily win here by simply staying in a single spot on screen, moving and shooting when needed. So, yes, while it's not quite as good visually, G Fighter is still a very slight step up from the game that came before it, in terms of gameplay, but it's still not very good.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Go Bonkers

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Go Bonkers is a somewhat wise decision for Active Enterprises to put in the first slot of Action 52. If you've played the NES version of Action 52, and you play Go Bonkers, you'd think that the Genesis version of Action 52 actually has a chance to not be half bad. Then again, if you compare Go Bonkers to other games on the Genesis, Action 52 still doesn't look like much of a winner.  That said, Go Bonkers is a decent action game where your goal is to take out tiles that happen to be the same color of your ball…the catch being that if you change the color of your ball at the wrong time, you may find yourself stuck and forced to die in order to try again. It's a decent game, though it can feel incredibly slow-paced at times…and while the goal is to clear the screen to see the background, there seems to only be one background - an Egyptian tomb…Because nothing makes me want to Go Bonkers like a deceased pharaoh. This is better than nearly all of the Genesis Action 52 games (and nearly all of the NES Action 52 games as well, for that matter), but it's still not that great. If you MUST play an Action 52 game, then this is one of the better choices.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Haunted Hills

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

I have no idea what the story of Haunted Hills is. The character you control looks like an electrician to me…so it's kind of ironic that he's carrying a torch rather than a flashlight or an electric lantern. But anyway, this electrician needs to make his way through levels that are full of oversized toads, bats, and rats that can kill you in a single hit. You'll also find bloody pitchforks and spears at the bottom of the screen at times, letting you know that if you make a wrong step, you'll be adding some extra red to the hue of those sharp objects. This probably wouldn't be an awful game, but much like the platformers on the NES version of Action 52, this simply doesn't control well. Granted, the controls are a bit better than the controls from Active Enterprises' 8-bit attempts at platforming, but they're still not very good at all. This game does have an interesting look to it and part of me is curious to see what the whole game has to offer…but am I curious enough to deal with these poor controls? Oh, hill no.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Intruder

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Intruder is a game where you control a fellow dressed in green, who seemingly is walking barefoot within some sort of electronic network....or a giant restroom full of blue bathroom tile. This game smells like that may be the more likely option of the two. The goal seems to be to navigate your way through a maze while shooting any robots that get in your way…because even if one of your toes on your bare feet touches the top of a robot skull, you will instantly die. Likewise, if you touch any walls, you'll die, too. It's pretty easy to die, which is ironic, because shortly into playing this game, a part of your happiness will die as well. Intruder had potential to be a decent game, and it's definitely not the worst game on the Action 52 cartridge, but even the best-smelling turds in a septic tank aren't something that you'd like to take a whiff of…though, like those turds, and like the name suggests, if you get near it, the stench may intrude upon you anyway.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Knockout

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Knockout is one of the games in the Genesis version of Action 52 that is only for two players…because why suffer alone, when you can trick a gullible friend into suffering with you? Knockout likely got its name since if someone knows that you plan to play this game with them, you have to knock them out and tie them to a chair to get them to cooperate...notice, I didn't say "a friend" in that sentence? Real friends wouldn't ask you to play Knockout with them. Knockout basically has you control one of two boxers, creatively named Red and Blue, who both have amazing, futuristic boxer shorts that never actually move. Seriously, you'll see legs move, but those amazing shorts never budge. They may actually be boxer skirts, now that I think of it. Anyway, Knockout basically has the strategy of playing with Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em Robots…you just press the button to punch over and over and hope that you come out the winner. You can jump as well, if you desire, but I couldn't find a reason to do so other than imagine that the boxer is trying to jump out of this awful game so it could have some pride in its pixelated life.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Magic Bean

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

The original Action 52 on the NES had quite a few bizarre games. For the most part, they were awful, but I still appreciated their weirdness. The Genesis Action 52 lacked a lot of strange stuff, so to me, Magic Bean was a welcome addition. As you'd probably expect, it's not a very good game, but when you're controlling a pudgy fellow with red overalls, who I'd imagine would be named Jack since they're not very creative at Active Enterprises....ahh, who am I kidding? They probably named him Red.  Anyway, Red climbs a beanstalk into the clouds, while giant shoes, coffee cups, horseshoes, swords, bottles, and various other items fall from the sky above, I can't help but enjoy how odd it all is...even if Magic Bean also leaves me feeling like I'd rather have someone slam a revolving door on my head than play it.  As I mentioned, the goal is to climb the beanstalk and avoid the falling items. It's not hard, it's often boring, but it's also probably one of the better games across both Action 52 cartridges. This bean isn't THAT magical, though - it's still well short of being passable.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Man at Arms

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Man at Arms is technically a 3rd person shooter…but fans of mobile games today might consider this a very crude tower defense-syle game with any sign of strategy removed. Basically, in Man at Arms, you're an archer at the top of a tower. Your goal is to shoot any oncoming enemies with arrows…that's it. There's not really anything else to it. It's not necessarily awful…but since there's not really a lot of variety in the gameplay, I have a feeling that most folks will feel like they've had their fill just a level or two in. Possibly even sooner. If anyone really expected any quality from an Active Enterprises game, this game may have been better called Up in Arms, since that's what players of this game would be. But it's an Active Enterprises game…just about anyone that plays it, is likely fully aware of the boredom that awaits them...and quite honestly, Man at Arms is surrounded by several games much, much worse than this one is.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Meteor

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Meteor is basically a game for lazy people that want to save the world. What I mean by that is that initially, it appears that your goal in this game is to simply destroy any meteor blazing down towards the city beneath you…but once you miss one, you quickly begin to realize that there's no penalty if you simply decided to sit in one spot and fire straight ahead (holding the fire button down in this game results in rapid fire) until you advance to the next level, allowing all other meteors to ravage the city below. That's why I say it's for lazy people. You're technically trying to save the world, but since there's no penalty for letting 90% of meteors zoom past you. And by letting 90% of meteors zoom past you, they'll probably eliminate any of your critics in the flaming wreckage of a city below, so you can feel like you actually did a good deed and saved everything. Then again, if you let most of the world perish because you're lazy, then you're an awful person and you should be punished by being forced to play this game for the rest of your life.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Mind's Eye

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Mind's Eye, eh? This is basically just Minesweeper. Granted, Minesweeper itself isn't a bad game, and back in 1993, Windows PCs weren't as popular as they would eventually become…so while a lot of us may think that the addition of Minesweeper on here is kinda ridiculous, there is a fairly good chance that for folks that got a copy of Action 52 when it released, this may be the first time that they played this game. Who knows? Maybe there's a few weirdos out there that insist that this game actually originated in Action 52. It's a smart move, in my opinion, for Active Enterprises to include this on their Genesis Action 52 cartridge. Mind's Eye probably doesn't take up much space on the cart, and the gameplay can be somewhat addicting in its simplicity.  Most importatntly, they did not develop this game, so it's pretty much automatically better than  nearly everything on the cart. Overall, Mind's Eye isn't a unique or original game, but that's probably why it's one of the better games on Action 52. It's a solid port of a solid puzzle game.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Mousetrap

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Mousetrap is a simple (and pretty easy) game where your goal is to collect all of the cheese laying around the level while avoiding any cats that appear. Even on the final stage, it's not very difficult, honestly. Since there's no timer, all you have to do is take your time and you should be able to pick everything up without an issue. The only real problem that you may run into is that cats can appear from anywhere on the right and left edges of the screen, so if there's cheese over in those areas, there's a chance that a cat may appear as you attempt to pick up the cheese, leading to a cheap death. Otherwise, it's not too bad. There is another, near-identical game to Mousetrap on the Action 52 cartridge, named Spidey, but thanks to the color scheme that makes everything easy to see, this is the better of the two games, in my opinion. I doubt Mousetrap is a game that many folks will play over and over again, but for what it's worth, despite its low difficulty, it's not nearly as awful as other games on the Action 52 cart.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Ninja

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

What a useless game. The goal in Ninja is to simply move right until you reach the end of the level. Along the way, various ninjas will appear, but have no fear - nearly all of them are absolutely harmless. In fact, you can walk right through them without any penalties. The only time any ninja can harm you is if they toss a throwing star at you and it connects…and when you walk through the ninjas passing you, they may hurl throwing stars stars, but they'll also sometimes throw them in the wrong direction.  You're behind them, and they're shooting throwing stars in front of themselves towards open air. In fact, the first two levels, you can literally just press the right directional button for 30 seconds and you've passed the level. Later levels you can use the same strategy, but throwing stars will begin to come at you from behind, so aside from pressing the right directional button, you'll also want to press the jump button at certain times as well. This is just an awful, pointless game. Whoever designed this and decided to release it to the public is a big, ol' ninjerk.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Norman

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Being a wrestling nerd, I was really hoping that Action 52 had created a licensed game about Mike Shaw. But no, this isn't about that Norman, though I do wonder if the developers at Active Enterprises may be lunatics. In Norman, you control a tank. Your goal is to shoot at other tanks, and random military folk that happen to be walking around in the middle of a battlefield. This is extremely slow-paced and boring…but perhaps the most baffling aspect of the gameplay is that if you take your tank and attempt to run over any of the military folk wandering around, in an effort to focus your firepower on the big, ol' tanks instead, then your tank explodes.  Yes, your tank is made out of cardboard and flash paper. You attempt to run over a soldier and they light that flash paper and you become a crispy critter. This isn't a case where Active Enterprises didn't want them to be killable, either - you're supposed to shoot them like you shoot the other tanks. It's just that the developers are psychotic and believe that if these human beings ran into a tank, the tank would be the one to come out worse for wear. Now that I'm thinking about it, I should have known that this wasn't a Mike Shaw game. Mr. Shaw was once known as Bastion Booger…and if this game was a booger, I definitely would not be picking it.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Ooze

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Ooze was a game on the original, NES Action 52…and Active Enterprises liked it so much that they gave it a sequel here. Except instead of calling it Ooze II, they just called it Ooze…Like we're supposed to forget that they ever made one before this. When you become scarred by something, it's kind of hard to forget it, Active Enterprises. In fairness, I think most people that played the original Ooze bashed their head against the nearest wall in hopes that a head injury would remove all memories of playing it…So maybe they figured they could get away with the lack of a name change. Anyway, this version of Ooze is better than the original, but it's still pretty awful. In order to advance in the game, expect to sit and wait…a lot. Since you can't shoot in mid-air, you'll have to sit and wait for moving platforms to reach you, while also avoiding enemies that you can't shoot since they're too high for your bullets to hit, but still low enough to give you issues. Ooze could have been decent with a little bit of polish…but it's honestly an awful, boring experience. I think the game originally had an L at the beginning of the title…because if you play it, you Looze. Yup, I'm fine with ending this review with that.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Paratrooper

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Oh, those Active Enterprises folks really know how to pull the wool over our eyes, don't they? You'd think, seeing a game called Paratrooper, that this would be another scrolling 3rd-person shooter where you control a soldier in a parachute, shooting at stuff. If you thought that, you'd be completely wrong. With a name like Paratrooper, you'd think that there would be a parachute attached somewhere to the character that you control in this game…or even the sight of some sky in the background since that's where you'd come from if you traveled to the current location via parachute. If you thought that, you'd be wrong again. And if you thought that with a name like Paratrooper, you should be walking on foot, collecting electronics (or are they not electronics, but the very parachutes that you should be using in this game?) while avoiding various robots that are wandering around in a forested area containing several stone walls…well, then you're completely right. Obviously....why would you expect anything else? Honestly, with the poor gameplay found here, and the title that doesn't seem to fit the gameplay, this would have been better named Parablooper.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Sharks

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Sharks on the original, NES Action 52 was a game that I felt had a solid concept but poor execution. Sharks on the Genesis Action 52 is essentially the same game, with the same problems, but with nicer graphics and the inclusion of blood when a shark perishes. If you never played the original, Sharks has you controlling a scuba diver swimming underwater, which the only goal being to harpoon as many sharks as you can….when there are actually sharks on the screen, that is. While I mentioned that it was a solid concept, Sharks has one glaring issue that makes it feel unplayable at times. Like a lot of Action 52 shooters, a big issue in this game is that you'll have several second gaps with absolutely nothing going on. In Sharks, it seems to be much more obvious than in the other games. The end result is just a simplistic, dull, shooter that could have been fun, but that most folks will give up on well before hitting the ninth and final level. One could say that this is where Action 52 jumped the shark....oh, who am I kidding? You'd have to be popular to jump the shark...this is more like kicking someone while they're already down.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Sharpshooter

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

I guess that Sharpshooter is a game about a cowboy that goes to a carnival where the shooting range is full of haunted stuffed animals. I have no idea, but that's what this looks like...actually, with that outfit, maybe it's not a cowboy? It may be a zookeeper. He's kinda dressed like the Crocodile Hunter, isn't he? Anyway, the concept here is simple. Move left and right, shoot at the stuff further up the screen than you are, and avoid anything that winds up down by you on the bottom of the screen. Unfortunately, it's simply not an interesting game and you'll likely get the same results if you blindly shoot at everything as you would if you take your time and try to shoot with skill. This is basically the sequel to Shooting Gallery on the NES Action 52, from what I can tell...and while not very good, it's mildly better than the game that came before it. It's not the worst 3rd person shooter ever created, but it's also far, far from being passable in any way shape or form.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Shootout

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Shootout may be the absolute worst first-person shooter, that I've ever played. I say this because you can literally put the cursor in one spot, and then just press the fire button from that point forward. As long as your timing is good, you'll never have to aim again, as all of your targets will eventually hit that one spot. It's a very mindless, pointless game. The point of each level is to shoot all targets, but again…once you shoot one, you no longer have to move the cursor as all targets will repeatedly cross your line of fire until you either shoot them all or run out of bullets. The level could also end with a third option - instead of running out of bullets, you run out of patience while waiting for this to become fun. That third option is how I imagine that game ends when most folks play it. What's where the name comes from..."SHOOT, I'm OUT of patience."

Review added: 01/27/2022

Sidewinder

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Sidewinder seems to be Active Enterprises' attempt to make their own version of After Burner. The problem here is that After Burner is fun and Sidewinder, well, isn’t. Look at a clock for eight seconds and do absolutely nothing while you watch those seconds tick down. It feels longer than it sounds like it would…now, imagine that you're playing a game where you're controlling a fighter jet where the goal is to blow up enemy jets and any missiles that may be fired at you…and you sometimes have to sit and stare at the screen for up to eight seconds between anything happening. That is the "action" that you'll find in Sidewinder...a game that would have otherwise not been so bad. Well, that doesn't seem like a logical way to design a 3rd person shooter, does it? Why, that logic seems sideways…And that's likely how they decided to name this game Sidewinder. Despite that major complaint, though, Sidewinder is still good enough to be one of the better games on the cart, even if it's a pretty terrible game overall.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Skater

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Active Enterprises set a goal when making their second Action 52 cartridge on the Genesis - create the most boring, unenjoyable skateboarding game ever made. Needless to say, Active Enterprises definitely achieved that goal. In this slow-paced, dull game, you control a cool dude riding his skateboard on the street with the goal of collecting boomboxes as you go…because when I, personally, ride a skateboard, my goal is to carry a sack full of boomboxes that I collect as I ride….so that makes perfect sense. But let's be honest. The developers themselves knew how awful this game was. It's not uncommon to see multiple "Stop" signs on the screen at a time as you play. They are literally telling you to stop playing and do something more fun, like getting a prostate exam or having a friend slam a car door on your fingers. So, just do like the game says, put the controller down, and tell the cool skateboarding dude in the game, "Later, Alliskater."

Review added: 01/27/2022

Sketch

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

When I was a young'un in school, there were two things that were all the rage in the computer lab. The first was Oregon Trail. The second was Kid Pix. Kid Pix was basically just a program that let you draw and animate things…it was basic, but it was fun creating things. Nintendo eventually made their own variation called Mario Paint for the Super NES, which left Sega's Genesis console without a similar program. Well, Active Enterprises attempted to come to the rescue and fill that void  with Sketch, but this is about as bare-bones are you can get. This is basically an Etch-A-Sketch with a controller instead of using two knobs…and you can use color. Ironically, despite the fact that there is no difficulty because of the fact that there isn't exactly a goal of any sort, this is listed as an "Expert" difficulty game due to the fact that its name is in yellow on the title screen. Yes, I'm serious. Active Enterprises labeled this as an Expert-level game. I can't imagine anyone would spend more than five minutes with this game before finding it pointless and moving onto something else. I just don't think most folks would trust this game to provide quality entertainment to pass the time. In other words, it's kinda Sketchy, if you catch my drift.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Skirmish

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Skirmish is an Action 52, two-player-only war strategy game. Both you and your amigo are armed with a number of soldiers and military vehicles, and your goal is to make use of all of them to defeat your opponent, while also being mindful of the environment on each stage that you play on. While this is nowhere near the quality of strategy games like Military Madness, I've actually got to give Active Enterprises some credit since this isn't anywhere near as bad as it could have been. They could have easily just put a basic game of chess on here and left it at that. Instead they tried something different, which I appreciate, and while chess would have likely been a better overall game, you can tell that this is one of the games that they actually put some effort into. Had Active Enterprises focused on fleshing out this game, instead of trying to release a flood of 52 sub-par games,  it may have had a passable game on its hands. As it is, though, Skirmish is a little too simplistic to be fun. I do appreciate the effort here, but it simply isn't passable.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Sky Avenger

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

In Sky Avenger, you control a helicopter as you fly above the same abandoned village that was being bombed in Bombs Away, another game on the Genesis Action 52 cart. And while you don't see any bombs dropping in this game, if the two are supposed to be connected in some way, perhaps the bombs were being dropped by the blimps and various other aircraft that you're supposed to shoot down in Sky Avenger. The odd decision of using the same backgrounds from Bombs Away results in the helicopter coming across as an RC helicopter rather than a real one. This helicopter is small enough to fly into the door of one of the abandoned houses. Further making me question if this helicopter is a toy or not. And what exactly is the firepower of the helicopter? It kind of looks like those old Looney Tunes arrows with a suction cup on the end instead of an arrow head. But those are destructive suction cups, as any enemy aircraft they hit explodes. Maybe the ends of these arrows have those soldiers from Norman attached to them. Those soldiers could blow up tanks, so blimps shouldn't be an issue. Anyway, Sky Avenger is one of the better scrolling shooters on Action 52, but that's like saying that 

Review added: 01/27/2022

Slalom

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Slalom is another one of those Action 52 games that looks like it might be fun, but it winds up being pretty boring. Basically, you control a downhill skier and your task is to avoid trees on the way down….that's about it. Weaving in and out between obstacles is all you're doing here. Get far enough down the hill and you advance to the next level where you do it all over again. If this game was released a decade earlier, it may have been a mildly fun game on the Atari 2600, with less impressive graphics, obviously. Though, honestly, the 16-bit graphics here aren't exactly going to set the world on fire. Unfortunately, since it was released in 1993 instead of 1983, most people playing this would probably be expecting quite a bit more out of the experience. The game can be mildly fun at first, but the fun only goes downhill the longer you play…kinda like the skier you control.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Speed Boat

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

One would imagine that if you decided to call your game "Speed" Boat, that it would be fast. Maybe it's called Speed Boat because the developers were on methamphetamines when they made it. I learned about that drug in the D.A.R.E. program as a young'un. Anyway, the developers were seemingly on one of those drugs that I learned about in D.A.R.E. if they thought that this was a game fit for release - even if it is released as one game in a collection of 52 poor games. Anyway, in Speed Boat your goal is to simply get from one end of the level to the other. Like other games in Action 52 with similar goals, you've got no idea when the level will end until the box pops up on screen telling you that you made it. Along the way to the end of each stage, you want to avoid rocks, planks of wood, and other boats…you're not racing the other boats (some contain fishermen and just sit there), you're just avoiding them. If you were racing them, that may have made this a little more worthwhile to play. As it is, Speed Boat is a pretty uneventful game. Later levels have more stuff to avoid, but regardless of if your suroundings get more chaotic, it always feels boring. Maybe they made the game to simulate the crash after their methamphetamines wore off.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Spidey

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Spidey is essentially the same game as Mousetrap on the Genesis Action 52 cart, but with different sprites. Essentially, instead of a mouse trying to collect cheese, in Spidey, you're a red spider trying to collect flies that got stuck in a web. The color scheme here makes everything much more difficult to see than in Mousetrap, with several enemies blending in with the background…which is even more weird since they're moving around on the web and not getting stuck. I get it when the enemies are spiders…but I'd think that the ants crawling on the web would get stuck…but I suppose aside from making different colored spiders to attack you, you wouldn't have too many logical options for creatures that can maneuver their way on a web, without sticking, to attack, so they felt the need to ignore the rules of spider webbing. Or, of course, they could just have used a different environment (preferably with more contrast between the enemies on screen an the background) and made things make sense....but making sense in an Action 52 game is something, in itself, that doesn't make sense. But anyway, like Moustrap, this isn't an awful game…but the poor color scheme choices do make this variation on the "collect everything on the screen" formula does make it feel pretty cheap at times.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Star Ball

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

If you played the original Action 52 on the NES and thought to yourself, "Y'know, this terrible compilation would be better with a terrible pinball game included," then Active Enterprises had you covered when they released the Genesis Action 52 cart. Star Ball is their attempt at pinball, and it's not very good. Imagine getting stung by a jellyfish and while the jellyfish venom paralyzes much of your body, you decide to play some pinball while you wait for an ambulance to arrive. Playing a good game of pnball while mostly paralyze from that jellyfish sting is kinda how I imagine Star Ball to be. The paddles seem to have parts of them where if the ball touches that area of the paddle, it goes right through instead of bouncing off of it. This can lead to plenty of lost balls. Now while that would normally be frustrating, I actually think that it's a benefit here - when you lose enough balls, the game's over and you no longer have to play this poor attempt at pinball.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Star Duel

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Star Duel is another mandatory two-player game on the Genesis Action 52 game cartridge. This one isn't awful, though. Both players control a triangular space ship and the goal is to shoot at the other player's ship. The catch is that both ships control like the ship in Asteroids, so unless you're an Asteroids master, this isn't exactly a pick-up-and-play control scheme. This can result in some good times, though, as both you and your friends fly past each other and frantically attempt to turn around and fly towards each other again to line up some shots to blow each other's ships to smithereens. This is basically just feels like a slightly faster-paced Space War from the Atari 2600, honestly. That's not necessarily bad…but it is kind of sad that one of the better games that Active Enterprises ever made was a rip off of a game from over a decade earlier. Still, if you've got a friend that's up for some space battles, this isn't a terrible game to play.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Star Evil

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Star Evil on the Genesis Action 52 is like Starevil on the NES Action 52…I think the space between Star and Evil means that it's a sequel. That's insider video game developer lingo.  A space means it's part two since it parts the single word into two separate words. See? Perfect logic. If you ever meet a video game developer, tell that to them. They'll be very impressed that you know their secret language. Anyway, Star Evil is a poor, vertical-scrolling shooter. It's not exactly a great game, but compared to some other Action 52 turds, this game smells like a vase full of daffodils...even if it's still one of the worst games I've ever played. Anyway, the goal here is to not only avoid the enemy spacecraft, but to also avoid all of the walls - if you hit them, your spaceship explodes. That said, eventhough I said that this was vase of daffodills, I'm grading on a curve when I say that. Compared to other Action 52 games, this is okay. Compared to other games released outside of the Action 52 cartridge, it's still well below par and its stench is closer to something that would kill the daffodills instead.

Review added: 01/27/2022

Sunday Drive

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Active Enterprises

Oh, boy…where do I start here? Sunday Drive is about as fun as making a delicious sundae that you're really looking forward to eating, then getting a driver out of your golf club bag, swinging, and hitting that edible delight as far away from your tastebuds as possible. That's why it's called Sunday Drive, I think. Much like how the description I just gave you was an example of you teasing yourself of something that you want, but can't have, this game does the exact same thing. You literally see a sign that says, "SegAVILLe NeXT eXIT" (Yes, that's how it's displayed) every few seconds scroll on the screen…making you hope that you could turn your vehicle out of this game via an exit ramp and play something actually fun on your Sega Genesis instead. But the exit never comes…just another sign reminding you that the game is terrible and you just want it to end. This is one of the slowest, plodding "racing" games that I've ever played. Maybe instead of swinging at the sundae with my driver, I'll just swing at the Action 52 cartridge…then I'll never have to play this or the 51 other games on that cart ever again.

Review added: 01/27/2022