PsychoIncarnate
The Eternal Will of the Swarm
From the dark, horrid bowells of video game history comes THE CHEETAHMEN. The creations of Vince Perri, the Cheetahmen were Action 52's catch. Made to compete with other anthropomorphic heroes that were popular in the late 80's, early 90's such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Battletoads, the Cheetahmen received top advertising for the game. They appeared in the Action 52 commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWXOQD-VAmY), received a comic book of their own, and there were even plans for Cheetahmen action figures and future games devoted solely to them. Of course, Vince Perri's ambition FAR exceeded his abilities and the customers soon realized this. The cost they wanted for the original game (Printed conveniently on the cover in proud display) was $199 - Expensive even for today's standards. In the end, the company were left with piles of unsold games they desperately tried to sell off to rental stores in bulk. Here is Active Enterprises (Action 52's company) newsletter, talking of their future plans (http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/special/active.html). And just for kicks (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjhw5XHBqt0&feature=player_embedded)
A fun fact about Active Enterprises and Action 52/ The Cheetahmen: It was PROUD to be made in AMERICA with all the quality of an AMERICAn product
Despite Vince Perri's claim that the game was created after seeing his son playing an illegal korean game with 40 games on it and wanting to make a similar, but legal game, Active Enterprises wasn't on the ball itself. The company screamed "Fishy", having a "main office on a tropical island just out of US tax restrictions", promises magical devices that play games from any console - AND portable, having the recommended selling price of their games so high and apparently not play tested or even effort put into them, and their final disappearance without trace. Active Enterprises talked about "Disney Quality Animation" and a "Servo Controlled Mascot Costume" developed by "One of Hollywood's biggest special effects companies".
However, this is not an Action 52 thread, or a Vince Perri/ Active Enterprises thread. You came here for the Cheetahmen. In the original action 52 for the NES, the Cheetahmen were proudly placed in game 52. All the build up was for them. And the result - A nonsensical plot, poorly thought out game mechanics, and recycled sprites from other games...
As the story goes, the action gamemaster (Which I believe was also the name of their magical portable gaming console that was suppose to play any game from any system) was sitting at home when he's sucked into his TV. There he meets the Cheetahmen who introduce themselves and say they will fight for him, and just run off leaving him alone in a strange land. Fight for what? For him to get home? What sucked him in? These questions are never answered. The action gamemaster is NEVER even referenced again. (The manual implies the Action Gamemaster transforms himself into each one of the Cheetahmen) The comic and the rest of the game(s) focus on the Cheetahmen fighting against their creator, who is a generic motivation-less evil scientist that likes making intelligent anthropomorphic things (Called Sub-Humans). For fun, I guess. They refused to do evil or something and rebel against him. That's about it. This is slightly more looked into in Cheetahmen 2 where the scientist (Dr. Morbis BTW) creates a "Man-Ape" to defeat him. However, defeating the "Man-Ape" has the horrible consequences of being stuck in limbo. The game was glitched and you couldn't get passed the Man-Ape. Dr. Morbis is assisted by a cyborg named Dr. Cygore, who just might be the easiest boss in gaming history. He just runs in a loop over and over again. Other important villains include White Rhino, who is also in the Genesis version of the game as a regular enemy. White Rhino kills you in 1 hit, but his only attack is running back and forth, never getting near one side of the screen. This man also appears as a generic enemy in the first game. Seriously. (http://powellcenter.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/saddam-hussein.jpg). There are a total of 3 Cheetahmen games. The NES version included in Action 52, the Genesis version (Hell if I know if it includes a story or not), and the unreleased (But playable, more or less) Cheetahmen 2. If your lucky, you can pick up a copy of Cheetahmen 2 for around $5,000 on ebay.
Hercules - The strongman of the group. Dumb as a rock. Consistently has the infinite jump cheat. So big, everything on the screen hits him, and can't take any more damage than any of the others. Hercules is the one that defeats the Ape-man and banished to eternal purgatory for it.
Aries - Strong, rash, impulsive. Aries is suppose to be wielding a pair of wooden clubs, but a common joke is to have him holding maracas. Apparently he knows martial arts (You'd think they ALL knew martial arts from their clothing...) from watching movies.
Apollo - The leader of the cheetahmen. Apollo wields a crossbow that shoots paper thin bolts that WOULD hit anything if enemies weren't less than half the cheetahmen's size and either on the ground or spontaneously appearing without time to react.
As you can see, they are all named after Greek things. A demigod, a god, and a constellation (Which was probably meant to be named after the god ares)
Known Fact: Cheetahmen have the MOST EPIC THEME SONG OF ALL TIME. It's become quite a fad to remix the tracks. Here's a playlist featuring what the creator (Not of the game, just some random joe) calls "The top 10 versions of the Cheetahmen Song" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM21zfxMqhc&feature=BFa&list=PLD36A677DDA685134 (One of them has been removed, so top 9 I guess)
#I'm gathering information as I speak, just want to get this up#
