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Ok, so to start with, I am giving this 5 stars because I have been a fan of the author since I came across Freeform Universal. I am still hoping to see FU2 one day, but I think that's pretty much what the Action Tales! games are, as they seemingly grew out of ideas presented in the FU2 beta.
The system itself is good for fast, fun games that rely on the narrative more than a rule for every situation. Everything is simple and to the point so that you can spend more time playing than looking up how to resolve your actions.
My one complaint about the Action Tales! games is that each one changes some of the rules. For example, character creation in Neon City Overdrive has you choose 3 Trademarks and 4 Edges. In Hard City, it's 3 Trademarks and 5 Edges. In Star Scoundrels, it's 3 Trademarks and 3 Edges.
Another difference lies in Injury/ death, with NCO, HC, and SS all handling it differently. In Star Scoundrels, a character can suffer a certain number of injuries (equal to their Grit) after which they begin to die. In NCO, every time a character suffers a Trauma (which is equivalent to a SS Injury) they roll to see if they pass out and start dying. This makes SS characters tougher than NCO characters. In NCO, for example, a character can make a roll, receiving a broken toe... then fall unconscious and potentially die.
I assume this is done in support of the feel of the different genres, but I wish the rules were consistent from game to game.
But don't let that put you off. There is a lot of great stuff here (and in the other games) that makes them MORE than worth checking out, provided you are not looking for a "crunchy" system.
If you like games like Fate, this should be right up your alley.
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