Nintendo He has been entertaining us with his fantastic consoles and his characters for about four decades. For a long time, 'Nintendo' was synonymous with 'console'. Do you want to recall those fantastic moments of your childhood? Here we leave you the best emulators that you can use to feed that nostalgic spirit that lives inside you.
RetroArch: the most versatile emulator
RetroArch is a frontend of emulators. It is one of the most versatile applications that exist today to emulate consoles of any type. When it comes to emulating Nintendo consoles, RetroArch has a huge catalog of cores to do it.
Installation of RetroArch is simple. The app is available for Windows, macOS and Linux. In addition, it also has versions for Android mobiles and Smart TVs. RetroArch has builds for some consoles, such as the Xbox Series or the Steam Deck, where you can install this frontend without having to do jailbreak. On the other hand, there are versions of RetroArch for modified consoles, such as PS Vita, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch.
Best Nintendo Cores at RetroArch
As we said, the list of Nintendo systems compatible with RetroArch is very extensive. So much so that sometimes you will have colors to choose.
- NES/Famicom: Mesen, FCEUmm, Nestopia UE, QuickNES, bsnes.
- SNES/Super Famicom: Snes9x, Mesen-S.
- Game Boy and Game Boy Color: Gambatte, Gearboy, SameBoy and TGB Dual
- Game Boy Advance: gpSP, mGBA, VBA Next and VBA-M.
- Virtual Boy: Beetle V.B.
- Mini pokemon:PokeMini
- Nintendo 64: For LLEI N64
- Nintendo DS: MelonDS, DeSmuME.
Dolphin – Emulator for GameCube and Wii
Of all the emulators that we are going to see today, this is probably the the most loved by the community. Simply put, it doesn't require a particularly powerful machine to play, and it has a version for just about any machine you can imagine.
Whatever machine you have, you can play again GameCube and Nintendo Wii with Dolphin. The emulator is for Windows, both in its x86 and ARM64 versions. The same goes for macOS, as Dolphin is available for both Intel and Apple Silicon. There are also variants for Linux that work spectacularly well. And we can't forget about the Android build.
Download: Dolphin
The best Nintendo DS emulators
Nintendo's dual-screen console caused a sensation at the time. It is not the most comfortable machine to emulate, since the placement of the screens will never be optimal. However, there is a whole collection of apps with which you will be able to enjoy some of the wonderful titles that are on this console again:
Melons
It has versions for Windows, Linux, and macOS. It is a simple and easy to use emulator. Still in development, though team still active supporting the software. It is also available as core in RetroArch.
Download: Melons
DeSmuME
This emulator is very old, and its development has been stopped for years. It only has versions for computers, although its performance is really good.
Download: dismantle
DraStic DS Emulator
This emulator is available for Android devices. It is one of the best performers in the Google system, although in some cases, it leaves much to be desired. In order to enjoy all its features, it is necessary to purchase the full version.
Citra, Nintendo 3DS on any platform
Nintendo 3DS didn't repeat the success of the Nintendo DS, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have an impressive catalogue. The only downside to the Nintendo 3DS is that the screens were very small, so you might want to play a game again, but you don't want to buy a Nintendo 3DS XL to play a game.
Well, in this case, Citra is the ideal solution to bring 3DS to any machine. It is a software open source, and is available on Windows, Linux, and macOS. As if that were not enough, it also has versions for Android.
Citra is not compatible with all Nintendo 3DS games — you have a list on the official website. However, being open source, many developers have created forks of this app. Therefore, if you see that a game does not work on your machine, do not give up. Look for alternative versions of Citra that are optimized for the game in question you want to move.
CEMU, the Wii U emulator
Virtually every game released for the Wii U has sooner or later been ported to the Nintendo Switch. However, if you are curious about any of these games, the emulator to use in this case is CEMU.
CEMU is a Wii U emulator that is available on Windows. It is compatible with Nvidia and AMD graphics. It also has limited support for Intel GPUs.
In general, CEMU is a fairly simple and stable emulator. A machine with medium power is required to be able to move Wii U titles comfortably.
Download: CEMU
Can you emulate the Nintendo Switch?
The console that is on the front line at the moment also has emulators. The experience has been so polished that 100% compatible games run great, and if they run on a powerful PC, they can look even better than on the original console. The most advanced are the following:
Yuzu
This emulator is backed by the same Citra team. Yuzu is a project open-source. The goal of the group is to bring this emulator to as many systems as possible, although as of today, it is not finalized software.
Yuzu is available for Windows, Linux and Android. The team is expected to release a version for macOS at some point.
Ryūjinx
This is another open-source project. Its development has gone hand in hand with Yuzu, being a great alternative to said emulator. Ryujinx is available for Windows and Linux. In the future, the team also plans to launch the corresponding version for macOS.
EGG NS Emulator
It is a switch emulator for android. To use it, it is necessary to purchase a special remote control. The world of the Scene has put its cross on this emulator, as the development team has deceived consumers on many occasions. EGG NS Emulator does not use original code, but instead uses code stolen from Yuzu, and bypasses its user license. In the same way, its developers are not German —as they say on their official website—, but from China.
The main problem with Switch emulators is that they require, in addition to the ROMs of course, internal console files such as Keys and firmwares, so the perfect execution of the tools becomes even more illegal. It's not enough to download the application and put it to work, you have to configure it with these files that are stored deep in the internet (well, it's actually not that hard to find them).