Action 52

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. 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 featured game of this version is The Cheetahmen, being the 52nd and last game, where characters from the previous 51 games appear as enemies.

Each game is given a brief description in the manual for Action 52. Some of the descriptions cover games from the early development of Action 52 that were very different from the games of corresponding titles; for example, Jigsaw is described as a game involving a jigsaw puzzle, but the game titled as such on the final product is a platformer involving a construction worker avoiding construction tools.

The creator of Action 52 was Vince Perri, a businessman from Miami, Florida, and the owner and founder of Active Enterprises. According to Perri, "I happened to see my son playing an illegal product made in Taiwan that had 40 games on it. The whole neighborhood went crazy over it ... I figured I'd do it legally.

It's obvious when you see something like that, you know there's something there". Perri met Mario González at a recording studio in Miami, where González was working as a sound engineer. González overheard Perri talking to the studio's owner about his idea for a multicart with 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.

Critical reception to Action 52 has been largely negative. AllGame editor Skyler Miller described the game as an "unlicensed but legal multicart" containing "NES games of extremely poor quality." Destructoid gave a highly critical review, noting that "there's nothing worth playing in the lot." A Rock Paper Shotgun retrospective review in 2019 delivered the similar criticism, stating that all the games in the collection were "creatively bankrupt rush jobs" and that the best games in the collection could be described as "minigames which functioned."

In 2010, indie game developer Arthur Lee organized a game jam known as "Action 52 Owns" to unofficially remake as many games in the compilation as possible. 23 out of the 52 games were remade at the jam's conclusion, with one of the most notable of which being Lee's own adaptation of Streemerz.

The 2024 game UFO 50 had a similar idea behind it, being a compilation of 50 retro-style games. The development team included the creators of Spelunky and Downwell.