Recommended Video Game Emulators for Windows

Mesen, puNES, Nestopia UE, and FCEUX (FCEUmm) are the top NES emulators. They're pretty similar and there are not any major differences between them. I selected Mesen as the one to recommend because it's the simplest of the group. If Mesen is too CPU-heavy for your machine, try the options below.

Snes9x is one of the most famous video game emulators. Through continued active development, it has remained a top SNES emulator. But is it 'the best' SNES emulator? Well, the emulation scene regards BSNES as #1. Honestly, Snes9x emulates so well you wouldn't notice any significant differences if you compared its accuracy to those other top emulators. Mesen and ares are also regarded as top SNES emulators.

N64 emulation has had a complicated history with its emulator crowned as “#1” changing on a regular basis. Currently, the top emulators are RMG, Mupen64Plus-Next (in RetroArch), ares, and simple64. They offer the best features and they're up-to-date with the modern enhancements. I selected RMG as the one to recommend because it's the easiest to use. Project64 is no longer recommended.

Dolphin has always been #1 for GameCube & Wii since the beginning and continues to remain there by being in active development. RetroArch does have a core for Dolphin, but I don't recommend it because it's complicated and slow.

Cemu can run a sizeable amount of games, with 12% of the tested ones listed as Perfect (can be played with no issues) and 40% of the tested ones listed as Playable (can be played through with minor audio or graphical glitches). As of October 2022, Cemu is no longer in the experimental stage.

There were two top Nintendo Switch emulators: Ryujinx and Yuzu. In March 2024, Nintendo sued Yuzu. Nintendo won, and Yuzu was shut down. Then in October 2024, Ryujinx was taken offline after pressure from Nintendo. At this time, I don't have any solid resources to direct you to for downloading the last build of Ryujinx, Yuzu, or unofficial builds. I will update this section when I have that information.

There's a bunch of top emulators for Game Boy Classic and Game Boy Color: BGB, SameBoy, and Emulicious. SameBoy is generally considered #1 at this time. Gambatte lost its crown as #1 due to not being updated since 2016.

mGBA is the #1 Game Boy Advance emulator. It even supports the Tilt Censor and Game Boy Camera. It continues to be active in development and improve its accuracy.

DeSmuME is the #1 Nintendo DS emulator; MelonDS is a close second. DeSmuME is fast and supports a wide range of games. When you download DeSmuME from their site, click the first link and it'll direct you to their Github page where you can find DeSmuME (as shown in this picture ). RetroArch does have a core for DeSmuME, but I don't recommend it because it's complicated and slow.

“Citra” was the #1 3DS emulator for years. When Nintendo sued Yuzu back in March 2024, support for Citra by the Yuzu team dropped. Citra became a discontinued emulator. However, others took the mantle to continue Citra with their own forks. Currently, there are two top Nintendo 3DS emulators forked from Citra: Citra PabloMK7 and Lime3DS. I'm pushing Lime3DS as the recommended option because it arrived first and is more established than the PabloMK7 fork.

uoYabause and SSF are tight competitors. uoYabause runs significantly smoother than SSF. Although many people say SSF has better game compatibility. What makes the uoYabause vs. SSF argument trickier is that Emulation Wiki currently doesn't recommend either of them. They consider Mednafen to be #1 for Saturn emulation (with no other competitors). The problem with that is Mednafen is not easy to use. Alternatively, we can use RetroArch with Mednafen's Saturn core, which is easier. Even then, I know some people find multi-system emulators like RetroArch intimidating. My thoughts are: if you want the easiest option for Saturn emulation, you should use uoYabause or SSF.

The current top Dreamcast emulators are Redream and Flycast. Flycast, although impressive, is still relatively new and needs some work. That leaves Redream as my recommendation for you. It's compatible with nearly the entire Dreamcast library (Windows CE now supported), has a good user interface, is easy to set up, and can run without the BIOS. Best of all, it's not CPU-heavy. The only catch is that if you want HD rendering, they're asking for $5 US for the premium version. If Redream doesn't work well for you, try Flycast with RetroArch.

There are a few top emulators for PlayStation 1 emulation. I've selected DuckStation as the one to recommend because it's the easiest to use and requires little setup. You don't need to fuss with plug-ins. It supports all the modern 'PGXP corrections', auto-downloads cheats, and has a robust Memory Card Editor. Most importantly, swapping discs with multiple-CD games is easy, as opposed to RetroArch and Mednafen where it's a hassle.

PCSX2 is the #1 PlayStation 2 emulator. It supports a wide range of games. It's CPU-heavy, so you'll probably need to tweak the settings to find the best configuration for your machine (my tutorial helps with this). In early 2024, it received a significant “version 2.0.0” update. It was practically rewritten from the ground up! It also adopted the same UI and superb usability as DuckStation.

RPCS3 is the top emulator for PlayStation 3. It should go without saying that emulating the PlayStation 3 is very demanding on a CPU. So if your computer isn't on the higher end, don't have high hopes with RPCS3. At this time, approximately 60% of the game library is playable. I don't have a tutorial for RPCS3 yet, but I know one is sorely needed. In the meantime, you can refer to help videos on YouTube.

PPSSPP is the #1 PSP emulator. It supports a wide range of games. The latest version is even optimized to run faster than previous versions. It's still CPU-heavy, though. You'll probably need to tweak the settings to find the best configuration for your machine (my tutorial helps with this). RetroArch does have a core for PPSSPP, but the standalone emulator runs better.

In this case, “best” doesn't been “good”. Vita3K is early in development and can only run a few commercial games. There are no other PlayStation Vita emulators available at this time.

The #1 emulator for Xbox emulation is xemu. It's a low-level emulator continuing the work from XQEMU. It focuses on stability, performance, and ease of use. Almost 150+ games are reported playable. Even though this is considered the top emulator at this time, it's worth keeping an eye out for Cxbx-Reloaded which is rising quickly to possibly surpass xemu.