Action 52 Wiki
Ooze
OOZE
Title Card

Type of game

Platformer

Menu name

Ooze

Number

05

Ooze is the fifth game of NES version of Action 52.

Gameplay[]

Ooze

The Gameplay of Ooze

You play as a green person dodging "ooze". The B button is used to jump. However; holding the button will lock the character jumping vertically, therefore to jump over gaps B must only be tapped then moving the D-Pad. The A button is used to fire the weapon.

Players can stand on the bubbles in the background to avoid mobs and attacks. In level 1 the bubbles are blue and transparent and can be jumped through. In level 2 the bubbles are red and cannot be jumped through.

The enemies are programmed to "teleport" to another location on the screen, and they are not fixed to any blocks underneath them. This explains why they look like they lag behind when you move forward, since they are not fixed to any other object, but rather they are floating above them. This technique is present in almost every single other platformer game on the cartridge, as they all, for the most part, share the same few lines of code.

If you fall into a pit, you end up at the top of the screen. This happens because the developers didn't program any lines of code at the bottom of the screen, making the character "wrap around" the screen and making you teleport to the top. However, the spikes on the top of the screen are programmed to kill you, and this is the reason you fall through until the character hits the spikes. This technique can be seen in many other games as well, including Cheetahmen.

The game utilizes invisible teleportation blocks at the end of each stage. This is another common code found in most other games on the cartridge. Since the cartridge uses a special bank switch mechanic, the game is technically parts of one long stage, cut into different levels to save on the available space.

Manual Description[]

OOOZE (sic)

Avoid the green oooze. (sic)

Glitches[]

  • Partway through level 3 of Ooze, the game will crash, thus making it impossible to win the contest mentioned below.

Trivia[]

  • Around 1992, the creators of Action 52 had a contest where a player had to take a picture of a code after they've completed Level 5. If they did, the first player to do it would earn $104,000 USD. However as stated before; Ooze crashes after beating level 2; making it impossible to win. The code is the same on every single revision of the cartridge and appears to be 7A3H9JOP2R4A2C7S.
  • There are also more beta screens, such as a Level 8, which takes place outside instead of inside, and has a 1UP.
  • Upon starting Action 52, when the menu is loaded Ooze will always be highlighted instead of the obvious first game on the list. This is due to the menu being stolen from another multi-cart, and they didn't bother to change the highlighted game to game 01, Fire Breathers.
  • The name of the game in the manual is "Oooze".
  • Copies of the REV A release of the cartridge has a note that states, if you complete Ooze, you will unlock game 9 (Alfredo) and game 49 (Jigsaw). However, this is false and also impossible, as the game freezes before you can complete it, and both Alfredo and Jigsaw has a failure in the code when booting, making them impossible to play on this revision without using a Game Genie to boot.