Nintendo has been entertaining us for about four decades with its fantastic consoles and characters. For a long time, 'Nintendo' was synonymous with 'console'. Do you want to relive those fantastic moments from your childhood? Here are the best emulators you can use to feed that nostalgic spirit within you.
RetroArch: the most versatile emulator
RetroArch is an emulator frontend . It's one of the most versatile applications currently available for emulating consoles of any kind. When it comes to emulating Nintendo consoles, RetroArch offers a huge catalog of cores to do so.
Installing RetroArch is simple. The app is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux . It also has versions for Android phones and Smart TVs. RetroArch has builds for some consoles, such as the Xbox Series X/S and Steam Deck , where this frontend can be installed without jailbreaking . Additionally, there are RetroArch versions for modified consoles, such as the PS Vita, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch.
Best Nintendo Cores at RetroArch
As we mentioned, the list of Nintendo systems compatible with RetroArch is very extensive. So much so, that sometimes you'll have multiple cores to choose from.
- 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 we're going to look at today, this is probably the most beloved by the community . Simply put, it doesn't require a particularly powerful machine to play and has a version for practically any machine you can imagine.
No matter what machine you have, you can play GameCube and Nintendo Wii games again with Dolphin. The emulator is available for Windows, in both x86 and ARM64 versions. The same is true for macOS, as Dolphin is available for both Intel and Apple Silicon. There are also Linux versions that work exceptionally well. And we can't forget the Android version.
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's a simple and easy-to-use emulator. It's still under development, although the team continues to actively support the software. It's also available as a core in RetroArch.
Download: MelonDS
DeSmuME
This emulator is very old, and its development has been stalled for years . It only has versions for computers, although its performance is actually quite good.
Download: DeSmuME
DraStic DS Emulator
This emulator is available for Android devices . It's one of the best performing emulators on Google's system, although in some cases, it leaves much to be desired. To enjoy all its features, you need 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 for bringing 3DS to any machine . It's open-source software and is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS. What's more, it also has versions for Android.
Citra isn't compatible with all Nintendo 3DS games—you can find a list on the official website. However, being open source, many developers have created forks of this app. So, if you find that a game isn't working on your system, don't give up. Look for alternative versions of Citra that are optimized for the specific game you want to run.
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 developed by the same team behind Citra. Yuzu is an open-source project . The group's goal is to bring this emulator to as many systems as possible, although it is not yet a finished product.
Yuzu is available for Windows, Linux, and Android . A macOS version is expected to be released by the team 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's a Switch emulator for Android . To use it, you need to purchase a special controller. The homebrew community has a negative opinion of this emulator, as the development team has repeatedly misled consumers. EGG NS Emulator doesn't use original code; instead, it uses code stolen from Yuzu and violates its license. Similarly, its developers aren't German—as they claim on their official website—but Chinese.
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).