Action Max
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 This is why VHS tapes should never be the main format for video games.
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Note: It's an article transferred here, it was originally on the closed wiki Crappy Games Wiki
The Action Max was a video game console developed in 1987 by Worlds of Wonder. The main format for the system was VHS tapes and required a VCR to work, with the system focusing on keeping score. In order to play the games, a red sensor would be placed on the lower part of the screen that would light up allowing players to shoot the targets.
List of games
- 38 Ambush Alley (police target range)
- Blue Thunder (based on the eponymous 1983 motion picture)
- Hydrosub: 2021 (futuristic underwater voyage)
- The Rescue of Pops Ghostly (comic haunted-house adventure)
- Sonic Fury (aerial combat; bundled with system)
- Fright Night (unreleased game)
Why It Flopped
- The only viable style of gameplay for the system was the light gun genre, since the hardware relied on only FMV games using VHS tapes to store games. This is a bad idea to begin with because first of all, many FMV games are bad, and second, some game consoles already had an optional gun controller, such as the NES with its Zapper and the SNES with its Super Scope.
- Speaking of WIF#1, it does not work on modern LCD televisions, since light gun optics only work on CRT TVs.
- Because nothing would happen on the screen even if you hit the target, the appeal of the Action Max was very limited indeed.
- A whopping total of five games were released on the system, with a sixth game having gone unreleased due to the console's discontinuation, Fright Night. This is caused by the system's severe decline in popularity for only relying on the light gun genre, while other systems could do more than one.
Redeeming Qualities
- Back then, this was the only way to experience FMV games at home, since the Halcyon, a home computer that used Laserdiscs and was planned for release 2 years before the Action Max, had gone unreleased due to the company's bankruptcy after manufacturing the system, even becoming one of the biggest flops in video game history. Even though it only has a few games and only FMV games could work on the Action Max, it's still impressive to pull this game genre into a home console.
- For the 80s, this was one of the few consoles to have a startup sequence, which would later be used on most future game consoles. The startup screen itself is very good, using a catchy background music and CGI animation.
Reception
This is one of the worst selling game consoles of all time, selling only 10,000 units during its lifespan.
Videos
Trivia
- Worlds of Wonder was the same company that created the original Lazer Tag toys, as well as Teddy Ruxpin.
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