The Nintendo 3DS was a super popular console. It sold over 75 million units during its run, and housed some iconic titles. Some of the titles include several Pokemon games, the Etrian Odyssey series, Kid Icarus, Radiant Historia, and various Mario, Zelda, and Kirby games. The handheld system is discontinued as of September 2020, and the Nintendo eShop as of March 2023. Thus, emulation is the only way to enjoy some of these old favorites. Here are the best Nintendo 3DS emulators for PC and Mac.

There are a couple of 3DS emulators that we’re not listing for various reasons. 3dmoo, for example, hasn’t been in active development since 2015. Others, like R4 3DS Emulator, aren’t trustworthy, so we don’t recommend them. Some other sites like to pad their numbers by adding regular Nintendo DS emulators like DeSmuME. We are avoiding that practice as well. As of this writing, there are only two competent 3DS emulators. Even then,  RetroArch uses a Citra Emulator core, so there is actually only one competent Nintendo 3DS emulator.