the best emulator for every console in 2026 — and the one that'll get you a Nintendo lawyer letter

PCSX2, Dolphin, and friends have made retro gaming look better than the originals ever did. Here's the right emulator for each console in 2026 —…

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Tom Ashcroft · Retro & Preservation Editor

The short answer

PS2 → PCSX2 — 98%+ compatibility across 2,600+ titles, upscaling to 4K+. The gold standard.

The short answer

GameCube / Wii → Dolphin — 4K, widescreen hacks, HD texture packs. Wind Waker has never looked better.

The short answer

PS1 → DuckStation, N64 → simple64/Mupen, PSP → PPSSPP, Dreamcast → Flycast, SNES/Genesis → RetroArch cores.

The short answer

Switch → the risky one. Nintendo sued Yuzu (dead) and pressured Ryujinx; this is the category Nintendo actively hunts. Treat it as legally hot.

The short answer

On a handheld? NetherSX2 is the Android PS2 standard; most of the above have Android builds too.

The Switch is the one to be careful with

Switch emulation is where the legal risk lives. Nintendo sued Yuzu in March 2024; it settled in May 2024 for $2.4 million and shut down. Nintendo then pressured Ryujinx, which also halted. Nintendo…

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the best emulator for every console in 2026 — and the one that'll get you a Nintendo lawyer letter

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