Popular Nintendo Switch emulator Yuzu now operable on select Android devices

Developers of the Nintendo Switch emulator Yuzu have announced an Android version of the software. There are two versions, final and early access. The latter lets users tweak experimental features that might make it to future releases but asks for a one-time payment. Given the nature of emulation and the fact that Yuzu for Android is still in its infancy, it will run only on select devices. Refer to the announcement post on Yuzu's website for more details.

Currently, only smartphones running a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 or higher and 8 GB RAM are supported. Additionally, they need to run Android 11 or higher, which should be fine for most modern-day smartphones. The developers promise support for additional hardware once Yuzu for Android has been more fine-tuned. Power users interested in helping with the development or just keeping track of progress can do so on Yuzu's official Discord server.

Unfortunately, only a handful of games run on Yuzu for Android at the moment. Popular titles such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild struggle to go past 20 FPS even on a high-end Galaxy S23. The developers showed off the recently launched The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom running on a Nubia RedMagic 8 Pro. Some older Zelda gamers could even hit 60 FPS.

Yuzu for Android also supports PlayStation 5, Xbox and Nintendo Switch Pro controllers natively. However, third-party alternatives may have mapping issues. The procedure to bring over games from your Nintendo Switch to Android remains (mostly) the same. One requires a hacked console and needs to dump the "prod.keys" to the phone storage. Yuzu has an excellent guide on how to get started on its Quickstart page.

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