Action 52 (NES) - Beating All 20 Levels in #22: Spread Fire (Read description below)
3As the name for game #22: Spread Fire on NES Action 52 suggests, you'd expect something like Contra clone, but no. In reality, it's just a yet another generic space shooter that pretty much feels like a poor man's Galaga.
The game has actually 20 levels as opposed to 19. Because Action 52 is so terrible (so great and terrible, it is a masterpiece of all time), you can't even trust the level number!
Level 20 is called Level 1, but after you complete it, you go back to Level 1 which is also called Level 1.
Even TCRF says there's actually 20 levels in Spread Fire: https://tcrf.net/Bugs:Action_52_(NES)/
"While there are 20 levels (yes, really), the name of Level 20 is displayed as "Level 1 " with a blank tile in the ones digit's place. This doesn't happen when you hit Level 10 (or in any other game), however."
In Spread Fire, you play as a pink Space Lobster that shoots green boogers at the completely randomly designed enemies that look like:
Blue ice cube trays
Orange ice cube trays
Blue diamond jewelries
Pink diamond jewelries
Green-purple caterpillar cocoons
Blue armed Kinder Surprise toy capsules with pairs of eyes (Those can't be killed. Why??? Also, despite their guns, they actually don't shoot at all)
Flashing enemies that constantly flash between the caterpillar cocoons and blue Kinder Surprise toy capsules (Those can be killed)
IMPORTANT NOTES ABOUT THE NES ACTION 52 ENEMY/PROJECTILE MOVEMENT MECHANIC
As for the enemy and projectile movement, the enemies and projectiles in Spread Fire (just like in the rest of games on NES Action 52, with a very few exceptions) do not move smoothly pixel-by-pixel at all, unlike the rest of all other games on NES, no matter if they are licensed or unlicensed by Nintendo.
Instead, the enemies and projectiles tend to rapidly teleport from point A to another point A, then suddenly change their teleport direction as the random dice roll happens.
That is the reason (and the one of the most dominant problems of Action 52 on NES) why hitting enemies in many Action 52 games is more based on luck than skill. That's likely because the 4 college students working at Active Enterprises Ltd. in 1991 didn't know how to properly program the traditional pixel-by-pixel movement of enemies and projectiles as they had only one week of NES toolkit training. Because of that, all they knew is how to make a distance of rapid teleportation as further as possible - it is a prime example of a**hole programming.
Man, even Nico Evaluates explains the NES Action 52 movement mechanic: • Retrospective Investigation - Action ...
The only exceptions (where enemies move smoothly pixel-by-pixel instead) are: Slashers, Mash Man (all enemies are stationary) and Ninja Assault.
There was never ever been such an NES game (no matter if it's licensed or unlicensed by Nintendo) with such an extremely and unusually poor enemy and projectile movement programming, but Action 52 and Cheetahmen II.
As for Cheetahmen II, it was never been officially released in video game stores. Instead, somewhere 1500 copies of Cheetahmen II were been discovered inside the abandoned Active Enterprises Ltd. warehouse somewhere in Florida in 1996 (2 years after Active Enterprises Ltd. was closed in 1994 shortly after the Action Gamemaster console announcement at CES 1994).
P.S. Don't forget that #32: Shooting Gallery is just a respray of #22: Spread Fire, except it has 7 levels and it is easier. Although, in Shooting Gallery you can actually still die anyway. AVGN lied in Episode 90!