The Nintendo DS is one of the most popular portable gaming platforms ever. It ranks alongside the Game Boy and the PSP in terms of iconic value. There were some fantastic games on the system, and it’s sometimes easier to keep those games on your phone rather than carrying around a second device. Unfortunately, because the Nintendo DS emulation platform is still in its early stages of development, there aren’t many options to pick from. We did, however, come across a couple that worked well, so here are the finest Nintendo DS emulators for Android!
The best Nintendo DS emulators for Android
- DraStic DS Emulator
- EmuBox
- NDS Emulator
- RetroArch
- SuperNDS
DraStic DS Emulator
The DraStic DS Emulator is currently the greatest Nintendo DS emulator available. It handled pretty much every game we threw at it throughout our testing. There are probably only a few games that aren’t working properly. The emulator has a number of options, including screen layout modification, controller customisation, support for hardware controllers, fast forward, Google Drive integration, and better graphics rendering for high-end machines. The cost of the item is $4.99. That’s a lot less expensive than it used to be. It’s a great deal. By a long shot, this is the one we’d recommend first. The remaining emulators on this list are only in case this one doesn’t work out.
EmuBox
EmuBox is a modern emulator that supports a wide range of platforms. This includes the PlayStation, Super Nintendo, and, yes, the Nintendo DS. One of the few emulators that supports Material Design is this one. That gives it a nice appearance. Thankfully, it also functions properly. We had no major issues while playing the games we tested. Some users have reported that the emulator has bugs when they use too many cheat codes, however the Google Play reviews are mainly positive. It’s a free emulator that includes advertisements. We’re hoping for a paid version without adverts in the future.
NDS Emulator
The NDS Emulator is a relatively new Nintendo DS emulator. It has all of the essential features, such as support for external controllers, save and load states, and customisable on-screen gaming pads. It also played the majority of the games we attempted during our testing. It’s not flawless, and there are some bugs. This is, nonetheless, one of the better free Nintendo DS emulators. There are advertisements, and they are quite obnoxious. We wished there was a method to pay for them to be removed. It’s not the first option we’d suggest, but it’s certainly among the top five.
RetroArch
RetroArch is a multi-platform emulator. It works with a wide range of game systems. The Nintendo DS, Game Boy, SNES, Game Boy Advance, and a slew of non-Nintendo systems fall under this category. Within the app, you must download and install each system separately. That means you’ll need to get this, then get the Nintendo DS core before you can start playing games. It includes all of the essential features. It’s not the most user-friendly system. However, there are no in-app purchases or advertisements, and it is absolutely free. It’s also currently under construction. Lemuroid is a retro-style emulator that is extremely similar to RetroArch (Google Play link). If RetroArch isn’t working for you, we recommend giving it a shot.
SuperNDS
The newest Nintendo DS emulator on the list is SuperNDS. According to the evaluations, it appears to work well, and it appears to work great in our testing. It can open NDS, ZIP, 7z, and RAR files and has most of the features you’d expect from an emulator, such as save states and other features. It’s a rudimentary emulator with few capabilities, so it might take some fiddling with the settings to get it to run properly. It does crash more frequently than we’d like, but it’s newer than most, so maybe future updates will address this.