I can’t believe how far Switch emulation has come since Nintendo killed it

It’s been a few weeks since the Nintendo Switch 2 hit shelves, but if we’re being perfectly honest, there’s not much reason to buy one yet. I’ve been revisiting my OG Switch to stave off the FOMO, but I was sad to learn that my left Joy-Con now drifts so badly that Link runs in circles like he’s drunk in Breath of the Wild.

Instead of shelling out $40 for another Joy-Con with a ticking drift timer, I reached for something I hadn’t touched in a while: Switch emulation on Android. I had largely given up on the scene after the events of last year, but what I found honestly blew me away. Not only is Switch emulation alive, it’s evolved in ways I didn’t see coming. I still love playing on real hardware, but let’s just say the emulator grave Nintendo tried to dig didn’t stay filled for long.

For those of you who haven’t followed Switch emulation closely, it’s been a crazy few years. Ryujinx and Yuzu were making huge gains, with the latter finally releasing an Android version in May 2023. At first, performance was limited, and while it was novel and fun, few games were truly playable.

Things really kicked into high gear when native code execution (NCE) entered the chat. This clever compatibility layer lets Android devices execute some Switch code natively, resulting in major performance jumps. Suddenly, games that were once PowerPoint slideshows became playable. Skyline pioneered the use of compatibility layers for Switch emulation, but when it bowed out early in 2023 to dodge Nintendo’s legal fireball, Yuzu picked up the torch.

With NCE enabled, Yuzu finally felt like it was close to being a real option for handheld play. Sure, you still needed a reasonably beefy Android device, but it was no longer just a novelty. I couldn’t believe I could actually play Switch games on a phone, and that’s when I started to think: maybe Switch emulation on Android actually had a future.

That hope didn’t last long. In early 2024, Nintendo did what Nintendo does best: lawyer up. They filed a lawsuit against Yuzu’s developers, Tropic Haze, effectively killing the project. The case never made it to court, but a quick settlement led to a quiet shutdown. Citra, the beloved 3DS emulator from the same team, vanished in the fallout.

Ryujinx wasn’t far behind. Later that year, Nintendo reportedly contacted the lead developer behind that project, too, sending an offer they couldn’t refuse. By October 2024, Ryujinx was gone. Just like that, the two biggest names in Switch emulation were dead. The scene was, by all appearances, toast.

It didn’t take long for Yuzu forks to start popping up, although most didn’t add any new functionality or enhancements. This Wild West period saw forks like Suyu, Uzuy, Sudachi, and Torzu gain popularity, although those and others were frequently removed from GitHub by a blue shell from Nintendo HQ.

But then came Citron, the first fork that offered new features, better compatibility, and actual performance gains. For the first time in months, it felt like the scene was moving forward again. Citron’s core team eventually imploded, but for most games and most phones, it’s still the one I keep installed.

Out of Citron’s ashes came Eden, a new fork built by many of the same devs, but now with a clearer vision, fresh code, and less drama. It’s early days for Eden, but it already feels ambitious. The devs are throwing around big ideas for performance tweaks, UI improvements, and more features.

The first public build of Eden dropped barely a month ago, and it’s still half-baked in spots. But even so, it’s the most exciting Switch emulation project I’ve seen since Yuzu’s heyday.

No matter which Yuzu variant you choose, performance still depends heavily on the turnip drivers. These unofficial, community-built GPU drivers are a labor of love, and they’ve also steadily improved over the years. Pick the right one, and you can squeeze out framerates the Switch itself might envy.

Meanwhile, a new challenger appeared in a different corner of the emulator universe: Kenji-NX. Built on Ryujinx’s codebase, it trades performance for accuracy. On older phones, that tradeoff doesn’t pan out, but if you’ve got a Snapdragon 8 Elite, it’s another story.

Ironically, the chipsets that struggle with Yuzu forks due to missing third-party drivers are the same ones where Kenji-NX shines. The more brute power your phone has, the better Kenji runs, and the more it starts to feel like the emulator of the future.

In a twist Nintendo definitely didn’t intend, the Switch 2 also helped boost emulator performance. Right before launch, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe got a massive update that converted its Wii U-era 32-bit code to 64-bit. That tiny change doubled the average framerate on Android emulators, thanks to better compatibility with the NCE layer.

Switch emulation may be charging ahead on the tech front, but legality is another matter. Nintendo has (grudgingly) admitted that emulation itself is legal, but if you’re playing Switch games anywhere other than on an official cartridge, on a real Switch, on your couch, under an officially Mario-branded blanket, it’s probably not happy about it.

In fact, Nintendo has started bricking Switch 2 consoles that so much as touch a MiG Switch flash cart, even if you’re using it for legitimate backups. The message is loud and clear: don’t mess with the hardware, even if you purchased the software.

Fortunately, developers have taken the Yuzu takedown to heart. Modern emulators steer clear of copyrighted files entirely. That means if you want to use one, you’ll need to bring your own firmware, keys, and games, ideally dumped from your own modded Switch. Modding a Switch is against Nintendo’s ToS, but that’s not the emulator developers’ problem, it’s yours.

But even that doesn’t make these emulators entirely safe. Nintendo’s intellectual property page claims emulators “encourage the use of unauthorized (i.e. pirate) copies” and that some “circumvent security measures,” making them illegal by design. It’s a legal minefield.

Still, whether Nintendo admits it or not, emulation isn’t going anywhere. After trying (and failing) to wipe it off the map, all it’s really done is push the scene to decentralize and evolve. In a post-Yuzu world, Switch emulator development is more fragmented, but it’s also more resilient and legally savvy.

I still prefer playing Switch games on real hardware when I can. But that’s not always possible anymore, with aging consoles, failing Joy-Cons, and a new Switch built without physical media in mind. Somehow, the best way to revisit this generation of Nintendo games might not be a Switch 2 or even a Switch 1. It might be an Android phone and an emulator born from the ashes.