The wild world of retro handhelds just got a little weirder.

The Lenovo-branded G02 retro portable first appeared on China-based AliExpress earlier this month for the very reasonable price of $72.92, especially compared to the increasingly expensive Lenovo Legion Go 2. Right away, Lenovo selling a handheld like this seems a bit odd, especially since companies like Anbernic, Retroid, Ayn, and more already dominate the fast-growing space, leading many to believe that this was some sort of branding mistake or unauthorized use of the Lenovo logo.

The fact that the handheld reportedly comes with thousands of pre-installed copyrighted ROMs, including popular Nintendo titles, further supports this theory. But this is indeed a legitimate Lenovo product, according to Retro Dodo, who says they spoke to an employee in the company's Product and Licensing department (at one point, Retro Dodo also assumed the handheld was fake).

According to Retro Dodo, the G02 is an official, white-labeled device that Lenovo intends to only ship in China. Below is a full statement from Lenovo about the G02:

The G02 device is produced through a regional brand licensing agreement meant for the China market only and is not part of Lenovo’s official global product portfolio. As such, products developed through these agreements may differ from Lenovo products sold through authorized channels.

Nintendo likely isn't cool with this

Including built-in ROMs with a retro handheld is very common

While it's possible the included Nintendo titles are licensed, it's highly unlikely, given how famously protective Nintendo is of its intellectual property. I can't imagine a situation where the Japanese gaming giant would allow some of its most iconic retro titles to be included in a third-party handheld, even if the intent is to only sell them in China.

That said, we have seen this happen before with the iQue Player, a handheld TV version of the Nintendo 64, manufactured and sold by China-based company iQue in 2003. Prior to the lifting of China's video game console ban, iQue also sold versions of the Game Boy Advance, DS, and 3DS XL in China.

What's more likely happening here is that because the G02 is a white-label device, its manufacturer has signed a deal with Lenovo to use the company's name to market the retro handheld. However, this deal would still need to be approved by Lenovo at some point in the process. With a lot of retro handhelds like the G02, Amazon, AliExpress, and manufacturer listings often don't mention what games are included built-in in the portable, and instead just offer a specific number or microSD card size (in some cases, the bigger the microSD card, the more games it features). In other situations, included titles aren't listed at all, but when you get your hands on the device, it has a copy of Grand Theft Auto III on it (that's definitely never happened to me, though — never).

Either way, this isn't a great look for Lenovo, even if it is just a white-label device from a third-party manufacturer, particularly since it prominently features Lenovo's branding.