Action 52 Review - Every Godawful Game - smol mental breakdown | Octavius King

[@MelodieOctavia]

"They Came..." I mean honestly good for them.

[@Megaspartan23]

Phrasing

[@viscountrainbows6452]

Clean it up!

[@SamnissArandeen]

But did their partners

[@benayers8622]

Yes, 'they' meaning plural as opposed to he or she came 🤓👍 @@SamnissArandeen

[@sergeantsapient]

At least somebody did...

[@Priyo866]

Every time I look up Action 52, I just end up learning more about how much of a dirty crook its creator was.

[@viscountrainbows6452]

"Hey you gotta program 52 games." Oh ok. How long do we have? "Errrrmmm about like 2 months. Your pay depends on it." *furious coding ensues* "Are ya winning, slaves?"

[@Tornado1994]

Especially Vince Perri and Raul Gomila.

[@GAMEPRODELTA]

Worst part of it was the only compensation the team of four got was a $1500 advance they talked Vince Perry into giving them, translating to $375 per person for three months work, which was pathetic even in 1991 money.

[@arthurfleck4320]

​@GAMEPRODELTA that's absolutely awful. Minimum wage in 1991 was $4.25 per hour. Which is roughly $170 a week. $375 was less than THREE WEEKS PAY ON MINIMUM WAGE.

[@theflymo]

I’d have loved to have been in the marketing meeting when the question "How much should we charge for this?" was posed…. Imagine trying to keep a straight face when the Boss stroked his chin and said "How about $199?”

[@Colt45hatchback]

Wouldnt it have been hilarious if he ment 1.99 and the marketing guy was just like, one ninety nine, sure

[@tremorist]

I've watched this video four times by now, yet it keeps showing up in my feed. I'll watch it again and again and again... Greetings from Germany.

[@Priyo866]

I love how she progressively gets drunk on car coolent every time a space game appears. Also 41:43 XD

[@wynathinorum4875]

God I love your videos, I'm addicted to your content and personality. I'm subscribed, and have been binge watching some of your older content. An absolute treaser you are love, so glad I came across your channel. Now back to binge watching more of your content! yay!!!

[@djcsdy2]

As a programmer, the kind of laziness that makes you do more work is very much my brand of laziness too. I will quite happily spend six months writing a program to automate a task that would have taken ten minutes.

[@mightyfilm]

If there's no other proof this was quantity over quality, with serious emphasis on the former, it's that there isn't even one good, playable game in the cart. Some of the arcade platformer type games admittedly have some sort of promise if they had the work put in, but everything else is generic games of various genres with some weird aesthetics to mask how unoriginal that all are. Had they at least just focused on making the Cheetah Men game, and put all the time and effort into that, they'd at least have had one memorable game instead of stumbling over a gimmick of multiple bad games in one overpriced cart. Not to mention that the multi-carts that were available had pirated established games on them, so there's that too.

[@kiddhkane]

And then the requirements for whatever task it was supposed to automate change and you're back at square one.

[@benayers8622]

this is essentially the way I tackle life 🤣🤣🤣

[@ryaquaza3offical]

10:06 “look at that enemy,..” Me: yea it looks like a banshee from ha- “And tell me it doesn’t look like a dildo” Me: oh,…

[@TubbyJ420]

My brother and i were conned into buying this off tv shopping as kids. Our cartridge played Alfred n the Fettuc just fine. That ladder glitch in Underground just blew my mind, i never knew about that.

[@tatertot64]

I was not aware I needed a near 50 minute video on Action 52, but I - in fact - needed a near 50 minute video on Action 52. I salute your mental fortitude.

[@futonrevolution7671]

Streemerz walked, so that Bionic Commando could run (its franchise into the ground).

[@Tornado1994]

I trusted you Money!

[@fusionspace175]

James Rolfe look out, this girl's coming for your crown! I love that this covers different games, has more background research, and I'm one of about twelve Americans who gets that David Cameron joke. Fantastic video.

[@ssjup81]

James does mention some background. But this user is pretty cool so far. Just discovered her...in this video. lol

[@Xx1SailorScoutxX]

Good content; reminds me of Caddicarus in a way

[@benwinter5295]

6:55 the sample comes from Lyn Collins ‘Think (about it)’, written and produced by James Brown. Rob Base & EZ Rock DID sample it (along with about a thousand other people), but it doesn’t sound like Action 52 sampled their track.

[@strain42]

I want to see all 51 of these games try to fight each other. The winner will inevitably be we, the audience, who gets drunk while we watch.

[@alecj3454]

"Oh its for my car" - "Its like a Pac Man ghost that failed the audition" - "...equal parts swastika and sphincter" Thats good writing. I laughed loud enough to elicit looks quite a few times. Its so rare to find clever comedy these days....well done. I just discovered your channel, and i love it. You are quite talented. Excuse me while i watch your entire backlog of videos now. Know that you brightened the day of someone who needed it.

[@tahustvedt]

Am I the only one who's leg jerked when the doctor was hammering at the patient's knee?

[@CouncilEstatePopMusic]

You’ve beautifully put the Action 52 to right! Many thanks for your time to do this! Thank you. 👍 X

[@SomeOrangeCat]

To quote Lawyer Mike Dunford "Oh my. It's actually dumber than I thought."

[@wisteela]

I've finally got round to seeing this after Nostalgia Nerd's video. Crikey. Brilliantly done.

[@Sedric-and-Charlie]

I was so sure that breakdown website was going to lead into a Sponsored By Squarespace ad

[@Sedric-and-Charlie]

Also I imagine the enemy tanks are pink to help them blend into the green desert. Camouflage, innit?

[@the80hdgaming]

@@octaviusking You need to secure that domain immediately....

[@samuell.foxton4177]

Where’s the breakdown page? The URL doesn’t work even though the main site does

[@xiaodown]

@@octaviusking I bought the domain and put up a page that directs to your youtube page. I would be happy to transfer the domain to you. Just message me here or on twitter.

[@thelackey3326]

Your videos are genuinely funny

[@robclaridge6236]

Your sense of humour is so wonderfully dark. Love it lol

[@AmbersKnight]

Excellent video as always. No matter how down I feel, your videos do make me smile. Look forward to the next one.

[@radagastaddams3703]

gorgeous rat 🐾🐾 my school chemistry teacher brought her fancy rats into school & everyone in my class freaked out. i was the only one who held one. I ended up caring for one of my teachers rats when she was in a car accident - a gorgeous black & white rat. travelling to work on the bus I often talk to a guy who has a rat with him, just in his coat pocket. don't know him but just saw he had a pet rat & we started talking think he's a wizard

[@Rayfaedundee]

You could read me the telephone directory, and I’d listen to every word you say. .. great to see a lady with fantastic humour and comic comments. . Keep up the good videos.

[@marshmower]

Camerica Quattro adventure.... I believe that they were available on home shopping network for a spell. 1991?

[@jasonjones7461]

I just realized what the player characters sprite is supposed to be in "not human". If you look really close there's a man in its head. It's supposed to be like a Mech type vehicle lol.

[@edm4991]

My kids woke up while I was watching this one night and have kept asking me to watch it since. Thanks for the wonderful content.

[@ChrisHopkinsBass]

Alfredo probably works at a Wetherspoon

[@OzRetrocomp]

Holy crap... My sides!! 🤣Thanks for the laughs, and thanks for pushing through and making this video. 😊

[@gmorel1916]

This is easily the best Action 52 vid on YT. Always pumped when I get a notification that you’ve uploaded because it’s always good haha

[@Tornado1994]

It’s better than AVGN’s and on the same level as Silent Rob’s 2007 Classic, and just as epic as Armake21’s 2009 2 hour review and Scottish Wizkid MikeySpikey’s 2008 Legendary Review.

[@nightlythievery]

At least this video was highly enjoyable, unlike the games. Thank you for taking one for the team!

[@legacyoftheancientsC64c]

My grandparents got me one of these multigame carts sometime in the late 80s. For years I lied to my grandpa about how it was the best game in my collection (so I could see him beam with pride at his "amazing" gift). This was over 30 years ago, my grandpa passed on in 2003 and that horrible cart is now one of my most precious video game posessions.

[@OnlyEpicEmber]

That’s really cute

[@user-vn7ce5ig1z]

Alfred the Fettuc is supposed to Alfred the Fettuccine, as in a pun on Fettuccine Alfredo, they just didn't have the competence to realize it was cut off (or they just didn't care). 🤷 … 15:17 - They spelled Fettuccine wrong. 🤦

[@NovaSaber]

You can't expect the people who misspelled "ooze" (instructions say "oooze") to get "fettuccine" right.

[@Tornado1994]

The game doesn’t even WORK on the Main Cartridge.

[@larryplympton9727]

Much love from across the pond, and than you for continuing to entertain and educate all us fans!

[@MagikGimp]

Alfred n the Fettuc (Alfredo) is the ninth game in Action 52. The full title of the game is listed as 'Alfredo and the Fetucini's' in the manual, but when starting the game from the menu it shows the title 'Alfred n the fettuc'.

[@pokerbob05]

Love your humour and the writing, very refreshing.

[@fluffysaffron5719]

When I was a kid, my school actually had that Activision music program that they ripped off music from. It was extremely bizarre when I first saw some playthroughs of these "games" and heard some of those tunes again for the first time in years.

[@leofgythleofgyth8399]

2:57 omg I had this one when I was a kid! What a throwback! Didn't expect to see it in your video :)

[@picblick]

AVGN also pointed out that it always starts at Ooze.

[@spladam3845]

Your videos make me laugh and pick me up when I'm feeling shitty, thanks Octavius.

[@00000k1]

Actually.... I am an AVGN fan and he does talk about it starting on OOZE. He said, was it the developers personal recommendation.

[@marcianoacuerda]

40:46 a Frogora. And I laughed a lot with this video. I hope you do one about top shooters also. One of my favorite genres!

[@sporadikstyles]

Sadly I actually own this. My parents bought this for us from the Home Shopping Channel (Canada). What a mess, these were all broken tech demos or prototypes at most. I was so envious of my friend who had a Chinese bootleg cart with 80+ real games. His dad was a garbage man and you'd be surprised the stuff his dad would bring home sometimes. Sadly my folks didn't learn from this and bought the Genesis/Mega Drive version years later. The only cool thing about this is the clear cart at the time (matched my older brother's clear landline phone 😆)

[@MatthewCobalt]

The Genesis release at least had real developers behind it, so in terms of quality it blows away the NES release. Though, the poor underpaid programmers for the second go probably never got the time they wasted back.

[@xWALNUTxproductions]

Fantastic video Octy, very entertaining and a lot of fun to watch :)

[@d_vibe-swe]

13:47 He's throwing the sword backwards with the handle first.

[@hordelands]

I took a sip just before 19:40. Now there's beer dripping from my nose. Thanks, Octavius.

[@alexandreturcotte6411]

Octavius King: Tetris is Tetris, you can't go wrong Cleopatra: Hold my Pyramid.

[@Franks_Fault]

Great stuff. Thoroughly entertained. And in the most respectful manner , you seriously rock a cat suit. Magnificent! Been watching for years and your content and humor/wit never disappoint.

[@sohatyi]

I like the additional detail in Silver Sword when you shoot down the sword is pointing the wrong way. Quality!

[@Skirakzalus]

This is the kind of stuff you'd play as a kid and remember decades later in a fever dream esc flash back, wondering if it was ever real or if you're just tripping balls.

[@kenhammscousin4716]

Fun fact about epilepsy, a very small percentage of humans have full on epilepsy, and of those only about 3% have photosensitive epilepsy which is what causes seizures with flashing lights. People always make a bigger deal out of flashing lights than it actually is.

[@Boogie_the_cat]

Having known people with photosensitive epilepsy and seeing an attack of it, and the fact that 3% of the world is a pretty good chunk, I don't see why you have to be so flippant about it. I put flashing lights warnings on my videos and you can't stop me.

[@kenhammscousin4716]

​@@Boogie_the_cat I said fun fact. Most people have no experience with epilepsy and they have the impression that flashing lights will set off all epileptics. My boyfriend has severe grand mal seizures regularly,NOT related to flashing lights, to the point we stopped even calling 911 because they cant do anything anyway.. i would never be flippant about epilepsy.

[@XAWZ]

Nobody is allowed to say anything positive about any of what are basically tech demos because saying "OH MY GAWWWWD!!!!!! ITS SOOOOOO BAAAAAAD!!!!!!" 52 times is the funniest thing ever. There are some ideas that had the developers been given more time to work on could have been made into something decent. You can see that some of the animation frames had some effort put into them. It wouldn't surprise me if whoever was working on the finger game was trying to make the player character a full hand, but couldn't complete his idea due to time constraints and probably technical limitations of sprite size that the dev wasn't aware of or thought he could work around somehow. Some of the color palates are vibrant and unique and even nice in my opinion. At least they are original games and not just straight up ROM hacks of existing games. I like the atmosphere of that horror themed game, even if it isn't an actual game. Too bad the devs were pushed to bring quantity over quality.

[@welikewhatwelikenetwork1213]

Absolutely loved this one. Your writing and timing has never been better.

[@starsiegeplayer]

This is probably one of your best. Very funny, interesting to watch, and your cool research.

[@Bowerprods2011]

Thank you for playing this because no one else would want to you deserve a bloody knighthood

[@Texy88]

31:28 “The music only mildly makes me want to ram tent-pegs into my ears.” Don’t play _Lollipops_ beyond Level 2, then, or you will soon change your mind as the music completely glitches up and it sounds dreadful!

[@soopafamicom]

I didn't know what was happening to me. I had fallen into a malaise, nothing could bring me out of it...I didn't know where it came from nor it's source. i was bereft, wondering, scouring me every fibre for what had bought on this ever-increasing ennui. Then, as I opened youtube it was there, my sprits lifted, the clouds were blown away, the sun shone, the birds sang and the grass smelled oh so sweeter for here was OK's new upload. Sometimes life is worth living.

[@TheBeird]

What are those adornments on your fingers? They look cool, and I can't help but think how useful they'd be in my admin job

[@robintst]

A local furniture store where I live used to do game and movie rentals to supplement their business back in those days and they had Action 52 for both NES and Genesis... aaaaand I absolutely rented them. At least a couple times each. Couldn't tell ya why, I was a weird kid I guess. I mean I'm still weird but I know better now. Okay, that's a lie, I'd probably still go rent them if I could.

[@GeneSavage]

I can't believe I'm anxiously awaiting the next video. I'm anxiously awaiting the next video.

[@spwolftech]

Decided to do a 5 year Anniversary channel marathon so here is my HI to try and make the algorithm be nice. Thank you. KZbin made posting like this more difficult at some point. need to change the msg every 20 vids or so. lol.

[@philstraintravels9281]

Another excellent video, I love how Flape keeps making an appearance in them. Does anybody know the name of the music used at the end? I know it was used on stream too for "How do I love thee" read by Mr Johnson.

[@CSSLZT13]

Two things. One, love the video! Too funny! Two, love the finger claws, they look so cool! Have a wonderful rest of the year!

[@S7eventhHeaven]

Can't wait to get my Policestation 5 for christmas

[@detectivesquirrel2621]

That sounds like the version of Aladdin I want to see.

[@Freddyfan1428]

I would love to join you in the shower.... Oh, you meant for the next video... Carry on then (Slumps off to my own shower to cry while fully clothed!) But seriously respect to you, Madame Octavius for enduring this utter steaming wad of fecal failure of a 'game'!

[@geosword6]

"Like a Pac-Man ghost that failed the audition." Brilliant. Minus-8 appreciates your strict criteria.

[@darkstarmobile]

You and James Rolfe need to do a collaboration project for reviewing shitty games. 😂

[@mechabroski9993]

Absolute epic video m8, wish I knew what a fettuc is myself.

[@wohlhabendermanager]

19:48 This totally looks like the Black Sun symbol, so the comparison to a swastika isn't that far off: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sun_(symbol) But of course, the comparison to a sphincter is even more accurate.

[@chloeirnes]

Thanks for the David Cameron joke. Always brightens my day!

[@TheSykoRC]

That Cowboy in space thing reminded me of a Carl Barks comic where Dagobert Duck has a Race against other billionaires to the venus(?). One of them is from Texas and to get rid of him they make Cows out of asteroids. The Texan can’t resist and catches them with a lasso…. Edit: sorry, I remembered you know him eventually only as Scrooge McDuck.

[@presidentsnow7315]

I love your channel. I am sorry that you had a bad year. Praying for you.

[@IgorKolar]

Hm... well, we do kill you right at the start of "Speed Limit", but in our defense, we do tell you to run before that...

[@shadoudirges]

It may be Action 52 but the Octavius wit and charm makes everything better.

[@MonTube2006]

Get a room

[@fabianpolt8346]

Thank you for this video! It was great fun!

[@conkerman01]

Keep doing your thang! Here's to the next year being less shitty than the last.

[@simonday9013]

I have giant feet. I'm worried now.

[@Bellpipe41]

To be fair, these look like AAA titles compared to Cascade’s Cassette 50 for 80s era microcomputers.

[@BAZFANSHOTHITSClassicTunes]

I tried Alfred on a emulator and all i get is a black screen

[@That_Revenant_Guy]

I've watched this a few times now, and it's like comfort food. If...food was crap games...and I liked food poisoning. It gives me a week off work though, so every cloud.

[@Tricob1974]

At least two versions of the Action 52 cart exist, one of which has functional versions of Alfredo and Jigsaw. Pat The NES Punk did a review of that cart. The ROM is exactly the same on each cart. What's different is the "teeth" of the circuit board where you insert the cart into the NES. The newer version - labelled as "Revision B" - has some of its "teeth" removed. Apparently, the cart was made on an NES clone with less complete hardware than a legit NES, so it made the cart less stable when run on NES-licensed hardware. Revision B fixes this problem by removing the cart components that write to those problem-making NES addresses. But even though Revision B was more functional, the physical change made it look defective. Chances are those who noticed sent it back for a refund or replacement.

[@OmegaSpacePirate]

In Meong, there are actually clues to show what squares will blow you up, if you move slowly, the squares that will blow you up have animations, although, if you stay still too long you will also die.

[@pinkeatom28]

polystation is a classic here ma'm

[@KasumiRINA]

2:50 careful rubbing suspicious packages from russia if you're anywhere in England)))

[@WrestlingWithGaming]

This was a lot of fun yet informative. I ended up watching it twice. I'm sure it was quite a sacrifice to play through all these so I thank you for your service. Really, just an awesome job!

[@twitchfixer1344]

Awesome video (this doesn't mean I like to see you suffer) very funny, and I had no idea about the off brand consoles. That's just crazy. also I spat out my drink at that david cameron joke XD. So glad I found your channel

[@fawfulfan]

My favorite part is how they had the balls to call Crytical Bypass a "strategy" game in the promotional material.

[@darkfalzx]

Oh! You should look at some of the games from the Action 52 Owns compo. I believe there were a few really nice ones, but unfortunately the nicest one - Non-Human never got the full release outside of being a bonus for backing Barkley Gaiden RPG 2 on Kickstarter. There is a video of the full version on youtube, and it's glorious. Other highlights are Fuzz Power, Streemerz, BubbleGirl Rozy and MashMan.

[@_The_Jim]

You could make a 52 video playlist of videos about action 52 and what a load of bobbins it was, and this would be the best one. Absolute comedy gold.

[@andrewlee3633]

Thanks for another great video Octavius. Although, for some reason at first I thought this was Cascade's Cassette 50 (notorious on the Spectrum/C64/8-bit computers in the UK). It would make for a great companion piece.

[@stevemayne9305]

I did as well, explaining to my young family, then back tracking. Indeed it would be a great follow-up .

[@john_amend_all]

Make it Cassette 50 for the ZX81 - nearly all the games were for the 1k model.

[@plaztik767]

Hands down you are one of the most entertaining KZbin content creators. (Also quite funny and cute 😊)

[@ryanschrafel9576]

@23:17 - There's a fan-made Flash remake of Streemerz that was actually ported to the NES. It's a lot of fun to play.

[@benflashman7320]

I think that those games have something mysterious about them. Sure, they all suck but maybe they're just like a false front for something REALLY creepy. Perhaps there's something on that cartridge like a recipe for an evil alchemist's potion or the plans for some mysterious experiments of the government....

[@Barry_Mmm]

Always happy to you upload a new video.

[@jaycee1980]

The "make your selection" bit sounds like it was stolen from Operation Wolf

[@vexphoenix]

Your favourite genre is top down space shooter? Have you tried nova drift on steam? It's more modern than retro, but Hot damn it is great

[@sledgyb]

Action 52 is what happens when someone who doesn't play games tries to make one, no understanding of what gamers want. Great video Octy, as time goes on they are getting better and better, keep up the good work :)

[@Rgoid]

@Green Gav That’s every game company from Nintendo to Sega to Sony.

[@equimosis1]

In my country 90% of kids in the 90s knew NES and SNES games thanks to those bootleg consoles. We called all of them "Polys" cause 'Poly Station' was the most popular. Thanks for the memories