Did I buy pirated content?

So I was in the store Five Below (for those unfamiliar, it's like a better dollar store) and found a handheld game system with "200" games included for $10. In my experience these X number of games in one systems usually have a handful of cheaply made games with dozens of re-skins to pad the numbers.

I got it for my 3 year old as an alternative to the PS5 (mine, he doesn't have his own) and his tablet. I figured he would have fun messing around with it even if he didn't know what to do.

When we opened it up and tried it out there were a few things that surprised me. First off the games actually had complexity and thought put in them. I didn't recognize any at first but they seemed like actual retro games from the 80s and early 90s. The second thing was some games had a 2 player option that was not functional, leading me to believe these were emulated.

Then I came across "Turtle 1", when started it showed the title screen in (I assume) Japanese. When going into the game I recognized it, it was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from the NES! Did this no name company get the rights for this game? Perhaps the Japanese version is cheaper/free use?

What got me more confused was the game "Octopus" it had no title screen, just with controlling a little girl that turns into a mermaid in the water. You have to collect crystals to reveal a trident, grab the trident and you complete the level then go to the next level with the same objective. If you touch an enemy it shows an oddly detailed picture of the girl being captured. It was there that I noticed it was the girl from the Little Mermaid 2. I found that this was the PC game tie in, just very low res. I think they were poorly hiding the identity of this game by removing the title screen.

TLDR: Can retailers sell systems with pirated games? I didn't think so but this seems super shady

Look at Walmart, Amazon, etc. They are popping up all over the place. You can buy some these days pretty easy with over 40,000 games. Chances are you did get a Chinese ripoff console using slightly questionable content, but these days those are literally a dime a dozen. I wouldn't worry about it.

Hell, I would go out on a limb and say the very vast majority of gamers have at least played on one of these devices at some point or the other.

@WitIsWisdom: I guess I just didn't know it was sold in retail stores (Amazon I believe, I don't know if there is any type of vetting for sellers over there). It makes sense that it would be a Chinese nock-off, I'm guessing they can avoid a lot of legal action that way.

My concern is what type of message it gives my child. I don't want him to think it's fine to buy stolen materials. Now I don't plan on taking back his toy (he is just 3), but I guess I just need to be more careful going forward.

@OmegaBlueUp: Yeah, I get that. I felt the same way for a long time, but luckily my kids are 15 and 16 now, so we've been through all the trivialities of life. It can be a struggle at times with young kids and setting the proper example, I absolutely agree.

I am always one for paying for what you love and supporting the devs, authors, etc. However, it's an easier pill for me to swallow when it comes to emulation since I already own most of the games anyways. I've been a collector for years.

I totally get not wanting you to make your children think it's ok to steal or not help support others careers though.

The problem these days is that the majority of those games will never see the light of day again and prices for the originals is only getting higher. Which is why I'm considering selling my collection that brought me so much pride and joy over the years. Hell, maybe it's time I let someone else start their journey with that.. lol. I don't have the money needed (or rather do but don't want to pay those prices) to continue the collecting hobby and unfortunately sometimes the greater evil prevails whether people like you or me want it to or not.