Nintendo’s first party games are some of the absolute best titles ever created.
Between your Marios and your Zeldas and your Kirbys and your Donkey Kongs… so many amazing franchises that only live on the Nintendo console.
So what if you can’t afford a Switch? What if you want to play just one game and can’t justify the investment in the console for it? Or what if you just don’t want to buy one?
Whatever the reason, there are gonna be a lot of people out there who just wanna play the games however they can, and emulation is one possibility.
We could argue ethics of that all day, and we would contend that emulation is acceptable for any console or game that you cannot go buy in the store.
But if we put moral discussion aside, there’s gonna be people doing it no matter what you believe about it.
(A few interesting reads about emulation: What Does Emulation Mean? / Are Emulators Legal?)
It is no surprise that the Nintendo Switch is a pretty desirable console when it comes to emulation.
Because the Nintendo Switch console has been out for some time now and requires a lot of power to emulate, there’s only a few emulators to choose from, here’s the best so far.
1. Yuzu
As of late May 2023, Yuzu was officially released on Android, making many gamers with the best Android handhelds incredibly happy.
Yuzu has been one of the best emulators for PC for some time, with the ability to get it working well on the Steam Deck.
But now, the incredible team behind this Nintendo Switch Emulator has go it working on Android… for now, until Nintendo come knocking!
Yuzu is incredibly reliable, open source, and has the best performance and reliability compared to others on this list, and if reliability is what you want, this is the one to go for.
You will need a high end Android tablet, or gaming handheld for this to work well, and we recommend getting a controller for your smartphone too should you want to play with this emulator on the go.
Oh, and you’ll need a big battery capacity too because this needs as much power as possible!
2. EGG NS
EGG NS Emulator is a Nintendo Switch emulator that has been created specifically for Android.
Meaning, there are no Windows, Mac or Linux ports, where Android could possibly have been an afterthought and come with much less support and less frequent updates.
Yes, the team behind EGG developed the application with Android emulation in mind from the start.
This means that you should expect that they will be very on top of any bugs, figuring out fine tuning, and keeping users as up to date as possible with the latest games for Switch and on the latest Android Devices.
Check out The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild running on EGG NS:
3. Skyline
Skyline is widely considered one of the best emulator created for the Nintendo Switch.
And like its peer EGG NS, Skyline was created specifically for Android. So no worries about the team neglecting that arm of the build for latest updates.
Speaking of updates, Skyline are always bringing new fixes and keeping up with their users, some of those updates released as recent as last week!
From the outside looking in, it seems like the way that development and updates for Nintendo Switch emulators goes a little something like this:
As problems are discovered for specific games, fixes are attempted to address those exact issues.
So it would seem that the emulation programs are not necessarily a one size fits all solution.
And as a user, we don’t necessarily have to know how it all works behind the scenes. We just want to see our favorite games working.
And rest assured, if a game is popular, there’s probably gonna be a lot of people sending their bug reports back to the teams behind these emulators, and those will likely be the games addressed.
At the moment, no Nintendo Switch emulator will run every game perfect. In fact, the amount of games that will run at all might be much smaller than you’d like.
But again, it’s important to remember that emulation of the Nintendo Switch is still in its infancy.
We will need another ten years before it is at 90%.
We should just be happy that it is possible at all.
For the time being, EGG NS and Skyline are the best Nintendo Switch emulators for Android.
Anthony has been a video game lover ever since he can remember. He became a fulltime nomad in 2018, living throughout most of Asia. He focused his passion in retro gaming and began creating a game for the Game Boy Color while living in Nara, Japan during the 2020 pandemic. He is now in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he spends most of his time gaming, going on long walks and meeting as many stray dogs as possible.
