Get ready for one of the shortest emulator articles of all time as we look at the singular best Nintendo 2DS emulator of the year!
Yes, there is only one that works well now, what with Citra being fully shot down by Nintendo. We’re not going to trick you into clicking on an article and showing you original DS emulators to bump up the numbers either… you can check out our list of the top DS emulators for that!
Despite the fact that the standard Nintendo 2DS looks a lot like a wedge of cheese or a door stopper, it’s a neat little handheld for anyone wanting to play 3DS games without the 3D. These emulators are perfect for anyone looking to play their best Nintendo 3DS games on their laptop or phone!
Once again, we’re only listing the one emulator that is available and currently works. The first one
If any new emulators do show up, then we’ll update this list accordingly. But for now, check out the best Nintendo 2DS emulator on offer today!
1. Panda3DS
As of now as I write this article, the only emulator that plays 2DS titles, which is to say any of the 3DS games that work on both consoles, is Panda3DS. The emulator is in its infancy with a lot of games that don’t work, but there are a lot of titles that play very nicely as well and the team behind the emulator is great at keeping the community up to date with what’s working, what needs fixing, and their overall progress.
You can see Ocarina of Time running on the emulator above, and everything looks very nice and smooth. Plus any emulator that bases its name on a Red Panda has our vote every day of the week; they could well be the cutest animals of all time!
The Panda3DS team wants to work towards getting their emulator onto smartphones one day, but for now, they’re focusing on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems, which means you can also get this on your Steam Deck too.
They’re looking to push features that weren’t prevalent on Citra such as virtualisation, debugging features, and more tools for modders to use, features that are rallying the Retro Gaming community to get behind them and help to test this open source software, pushing Panda3DS into the limelight, though not far enough for Nintendo’s legal team to find it, hopefully!
