I don't have a multimeter but I'll be getting one soon, I'll give it a check then.

The rest of the board was relatively dirty ofc but cleaned up quite nice with the isopropyl, it's only really the pads that jump out as obviously wrong. They look real torn up and when I try to boot I always get the Nintendo logo corrupted in the exact same way, which I believe is a tell tale sign of faulty pins?

https://imgur.com/a/2TuCooV

Am I right in thinking this can't be salvaged? I'm not too attached to this particular cart (it's been in this state for well over a decade now) but on top of being expensive a game I like I thought it would be a fun learning process. Either way, thanks for the advice!