Retro-Bit, a retro game maker, denied the claim that the gaming cartridges it provided to Limited Run had safety risks.
Players have successively received the game cartridge for Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution, a previously unreleased GBA platform game developed by WayForward.
However, some players complained on social media that when they opened the cassette to view internal components, they found the chip dirty.
Player Vela Cosmos posted a photo of the inside of its cassette, saying that "the circuit board is worn" and that the chip is "dirty".
Another user, Danthrax, also posted photos of himself and wrote: "What's going on, these chips look so bad. The chip on the left has changed color, all of them look dusty and worn - is it really safe to play games on our GBA with this cassette?"
Retro-Bit has now issued a statement saying that these cassettes are safe to use and have no functional problems.
"About the Santa Advance: Dangerous Revolution, which we produced for WayForward and Limited Run Games! Some players said the printed circuit board components (PCBA) received had a flaw in appearance.
"Rest assured that these cassettes are made to specifications and are strong and durable. Apart from some flaws on a few boards, we have conducted comprehensive testing at all stages of manufacturing to confirm that these issues do not affect the gaming experience, and that the product is reliable and durable."
As early as 2002, WayForward began to develop "Santa Advance: Dangerous Revolution" after the release of the first "Santa" game on the GBA platform.However, the game was cancelled in 2004 because WayForward could not find a publisher.
Over the years, the Santa series has released many other sequels, but the cancelled second work has not been released until WayForward announced a resumption of development in 2023 and the GBA version was released by Limited Run.
Although the physical GBA game is now sold out, the game will be available in the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PC later this year.
For Limited Run Games, this cassette storm is not good news, because the company has encountered another cassette problem recently, and in that incident, the cassette was found to have potential safety risks.
Last year, the manufacturer released physical games for Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland and Piopow, both of which are FC cassettes designed to run on actual FC hardware.
However, players who purchased either of the two games received an email from Limited Run in February this year and were told that the cartridges might not be safe.
"After learning about this problem from the player community, we immediately launched an investigation and could confirm that there is a very small possibility of damage to the cassette or host hardware due to problems with voltage regulation," the email reads.
This is not the first time Limited Run has apologized for the quality of manufacturing of retro games.Last year, the company publicly apologized for using burned CD-R discs instead of suppressed discs when reissuing the 3DO platform's horror game D.
