How amazing is this - if you have an Apple Mac/Macbook, an iPhone, or an iPad, you can now get Super Mario Sunshine running natively on your device to play whenever, wherever. If you've been following the recomp scene, then you'll know all about how these games act as native Mac or PC titles and not emulated titles. Yes, you'll need a legally acquired ROM of Super Mario Sunshine to make it work initially, but it won't then require you to launch an emulator like RetroArch or Delta to get it up and running.
According to @kahris on X and the official GitHub page, 'SunPad packages a native Apple ARM64 app around a DolRecomp-generated Super Mario Sunshine module and the ModernGekko/Dolphin-derived compatibility runtime. The original PowerPC code runs as ahead-of-time recompiled host code, without a runtime PowerPC JIT, while Dolphin's Metal backend renders into the iOS app.'
Super Mario Sunshine, running natively on macOS, iOS, and iPadOS for the first time.
— Kahris (@chrissotraidis) August 10, 2026
This is static recompilation, not a GameCube emulator. Sunshine’s PowerPC code is recompiled ahead of time into native ARM64 code. It runs locally and renders through Metal. No streaming from a… pic.twitter.com/uzVrVEmOiq
What I would say is that this isn't as easy to get up and running as the native port of Twilight Princess, for example. There are a few more complicated steps to get it up and running. For starters, you'll need:
- an Apple Silicon Mac with Xcode 26.x and its command-line tools;
- CMake, Ninja, ripgrep, Git, and Python 3;
- an Apple ID configured in Xcode for physical-device signing; and
- your own legally obtained Super Mario Sunshine USA revision 0 image (
GMSE01).
You'll then need to follow the instructions on the GitHub page, including copying and pasting some code to build certain builds for the different systems. It's not super complicated per say; you'll just need to carefully follow instructions and maybe take a couple of breaks if you get overwhelmed by lots of different tasks.
This marks a great step in the right direction in GameCube emulation on Apple devices, and I'm looking forward to which other titles follow in Mario Sunshine's footsteps. I don't know how many times I need to say it, but can we get more love for Star Fox Adventure, please?
