Are you someone who’s looking to play Pokemon games on your PC and wants to live out the ultimate fantasy of becoming a Pokemon trainer yourself but is finding it difficult to do so? You’re in luck because in this post we’ll list some of the best Pokemon Emulators for PC which you can use to play your favorite Pokemon games right on your trusted PC.
The Pokemon games series has managed to develop a loyal following over the years, but due to them being released solely on the Nintendo Switch, enthusiastic PC gamers wanting to play those games were left disappointed. But not anymore, as through these emulators, gamers can relive the feeling of nostalgia by playing these so far out-of-reach games on their favorite platform – PC!
So without wasting too much of your time with unnecessary chatter, let’s dive in to know the best Pokemon emulators to use today.
Best Pokemon Emulators For PC
What are Emulators?
Emulators have been in use for a very long time now, and most gamers reading this article will know precisely what emulators are and what they do. Still, the gaming community is ever-growing, and new gamers entering the gaming scene today will always require important info like this.
To make it very simple so that even the youngest of gaming fans can understand, emulators for PC are either hardware or software that allows a computer device, usually called a host, in this case, a PC, to emulate or behave like another system or device, usually called the guest, like a PlayStation device or Gameboy, so that one may be able to run games and applications which were initially inaccessible to them, exactly like the situation with Pokemon games of yesteryears.
Now that we know what emulators are, let’s move on to the best ones for PCs.
Best Pokemon Emulators For PC
Here are some of the best PC Pokemon emulators you can use to play some of your favorite games without any worries.
1) Citra – Nintendo 3DS
| Release | 2014 |
| Price | Free |
| Developer | Citra Team (257 Contributors) |
| HQ | – |
| Website | Citra – Nintendo 3DS Emulator (citra-emu.org) |
The first Pokemon emulator on our list is a free and open-source emulator made explicitly for the handheld device of Nintendo 3DS for PC, macOS, Linux, and Android.
This particular emulator is highly regarded in the gaming world thanks to its capability to run Pokemon games at 4k, and it even has multiplayer support for gamers looking to play the games with their friends and family.
Citra is one of the most used emulators because it is well-optimized to run smoothly across most operating systems. However, while it is a great emulator to use, it is still a work-in-progress software that is being constantly updated and tweaked daily by their team of 200+ contributors to be capable of playing even more games in the future than they currently do, so there are no guarantees that all games will work on it flawlessly.
2) Project 64 – Nintendo 64
| Release | 2001 |
| Price | Free |
| Developer | Zilmar, Shygoo, Azimer |
| HQ | – |
| Website | Project64 – Nintendo 64 Emulator (pj64-emu.com) |
The next best emulator is yet another free and open-source, versatile emulator made for Nintendo 64 games and 64DD, called Project 64, and plays well on PC.
This emulator is regarded as a very compatible emulator that runs games out-of-the-box and does not require users to make any additional configurations on the side of their BIOS settings. Moreover, the user interface is simple to understand, making it an excellent choice for beginners and experts.
Additionally, since it is open-source software, a relatively active retro gaming community works tirelessly behind the scenes to keep it updated and working well. Furthermore, the emulator’s code can also be tweaked by the users to such an extent that they make countless brand-new emulators.
Users wanting to use this on their Android devices can easily download the emulator from the Google Play Store to play games on the go.
This emulator supports multiplayer and allows users to change the aspect ratio of the game without experiencing any noticeable drop in quality.
3) Dolphin – Gamecube, Wii
| Release | 2003 |
| Price | Free |
| Developer | Dolphin Emulator Project |
| HQ | – |
| Website | Dolphin Emulator – GameCube/Wii games on PC (dolphin-emu.org) |
The next emulator on our list is another free-to-play and open-source emulator for Gamecube and Wii games that works on systems like PC, Linux, macOS, Android, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and S.
Dolphin is an excellent choice for people unfamiliar with emulators and their workings, thanks to its smooth and easy interface. Moreover, apart from its ease of use, Dolphine is also preferred by people due to its portability features which enable people to carry their Android devices and game on the go.
Another impressive aspect of this emulator is the customization options it brings with it. Users can freely change the game’s resolution and set it to something that suits them better, customize control keys, enter their favorite cheat codes, easily view all their saved states, and much more.
Players can also expect to game at 1080p settings, but most games will only run at 30fps. Although that may sound low, the gameplay is lag-free and smooth, resulting in a more satisfying experience.
However, users will require a fairly high-end CPU to run their games at such high settings.
4) RetroArch – Multiple Consoles
| Release | 2010 |
| Price | Free |
| Developer | Libretro |
| HQ | – |
| Website | RetroArch |
The next best PC Pokemon emulator is another free-to-use, open-source, cross-platform frontend for emulators and other applications. It is arguably one of the best emulators users can currently get their hands on if they are interested in playing the entire Pokemon games series across multiple platforms like PC, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and many others, without bothering to switch between devices or emulators.
RetroArch acts as a one-stop-shop for most of the users currently using it, as apart from enabling players to play every single Pokemon game under the sun, it also gives them access to other great features like integrated downloads, game thumbnails box art, a dedicated cheat code manager, the ability to rewind gameplay sections, button overlays for smartphones, and much more, to give the players complete control on how they want to experience the games available to them.
However, users unfamiliar with emulators who don’t know how to get them working can easily download the emulator from Steam now, making the entire emulation and installation process much more straightforward.
5) Cemu – Wii U
| Release | 2015 |
| Price | Free |
| Developer | Team Cemu |
| HQ | – |
| Website | Cemu Emulator |
Coming to the next one in the list of best Pokemon emulators for PC, Cemu is free and open-source software that emulates Wii U games and applications for platforms like PC, macOS, and Linux.
Cemu is an excellent option for users looking to play Wii games on higher resolutions like 1080p and even 4k, provided they use the community graphics packs.
Additionally, through a hack developed by a community member of Cemu, Xalphenos, players could play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at 60 fps instead of the game’s default 30 fps, which was a nice touch.
Regarding its graphics requirements, NVIDIA and AMD GPUs work well with this emulator, although AMD GPU owners are advised to avoid using OpenGL on older cards due to its bad performance.
The support for Intel GPUs is quite limited; hence, for GPUs that have less than 2GB RAM, OpenGL is recommended, and in other scenarios, Vulkan is preferred. Although it must be noted that this emulator is still under development, it is still very much capable of running games smoothly, provided it has access to the necessary compatible hardware required for it to utilize.
In terms of controller support, keyboard and USB controllers are supported, whereas the Gamepad, Pro Controller, and Classic Controller are emulated. The same, sadly, cannot be said for Wiimotes, which are only partially emulated at the moment.
6) PPSSPP – PSP
| Release | 2012 |
| Price | Free |
| Developer | Henrik Rydgard |
| HQ | – |
| Website | PPSSPP – PSP emulator for Android, Windows, Linux, iOS, macOS | PPSSPP |
The following emulator users can use on their PCs; PPSSPP is an open-source, free-to-use emulator for PSP games that works well on a wide selection of systems like PC, Linux, macOS, Xbox Series X/S, iOS, Android, BlackBerry 10, Symbian, Pandora, Wii U, and Raspberry Pi.
PPSSPP, an acronym for ‘PlayStation Portable Simulator Suitable for Playing Portably,’ is an excellent option for users looking to play PSP games on their PCs as it offers many great graphical options to enhance your gaming experiences. Some of those options include playing games on 1080p settings or higher, upscaling in-game textures to give them a sharper, more definite look, enable post-processing shaders to adjust and tweak the color and brightness levels according to the user’s ideal preferences, among many more options.
Additionally, state saves are fully functional, enabling players to restore their gaming sessions anywhere and anytime.
Players can easily customize the on-screen touch controls of the PSP via the emulator too. Moreover, players not used to playing on touch screens can also effortlessly connect controllers and keyboards to their devices for easy play.
Being an open-source software, PPSSPP is always open for talented individuals to join in and contribute towards improving the overall compatibility of their software to make it steady enough to support more games moving forward.
Conclusion
These were some of the best Pokemon emulators for PC we could find for you to help you enjoy exciting and engaging Pokemon titles belonging to various systems like PSP, Gamecube, Wii U, etc., which were never released for PC users.
The best part about these emulators is that not only do they allow PC users to experience games they have never played before, but thanks to all the additional features like higher resolution settings and image scaling capabilities, they are also able to enhance the overall state of the games to give users, both new and old, the best version of the game possible.
Please do keep coming back to this post from time to time to stay up to date about all the different emulators for PC which one can use to play their favorite Pokemon games from various platforms right on your trusted gaming rig, as we’ll keep updating this post regularly, as and when we have any new details to share.
