If you have ever wanted to play Nintendo 3DS games on your PC or your Android device, Citra is the program for you. This has been getting worked on for years and it is probably the best 3DS emulator out there right now. It gets frequent updates and I love how on the site they have the 3DS library and then a rating for how the emulator runs each game.
How to Download Citra
To download the program, click on the Download button at the end of the review. Check out also what we think of another Nintendo 3DS emulator – DeSmuME.
The Program Review
I have to start by saying that this could not be any easier to use. It is completely free (although you can donate money if you like) and while it does have some advanced features. I would wager most people will just use all of the default options and just have a great time. The only thing it does not do for you is source your ROMs, but that is the case with the majority of emulators out there.
You have various options that can smooth out the graphics, help performance, and so on as well as changing the layout of the screen. I like having the screen just like a 3DS with the larger screen on top and the smaller one on the bottom. I play this using a controller and also the mouse for the touch screen, but there are various controller configurations available to you.
In terms of performance, I have to say that it does depend firstly on your PC and secondly on the actual game. The Nintendo 3DS has a massive library of games and as of writing Citra can play over half of them in perfect or great quality. On their site, they list under 100 games that run either badly or not at all.
In terms of if the “best” games all work that is really subjective. Mario 3D Land, Majora’s Mask 3D, Animal Crossing, Kirby: Triple Deluxe, and Pokémon Sun all worked great when I played them. I was a little disappointed that Mario Kart 7 had some issues, but it was still playable. Just check on the site and you can see what games work and how well they work.
Some games run very poorly, but that is to be expected with any emulator. The two that bothered me were Luigi’s Mansion 2 and Resident Evil Revelations. These games just ran very, very poorly. The thing is, even though not all games, work, it is my understanding that they are always working on this, so games could be fixed with future updates.
While I have not used it, much of the talk about Citra these days is in regards to the Android version of the emulator. This as far as I know is the first actual working Nintendo 3DS emulator for Android. You can download it for free off the official Android store too which is pretty neat.
If you are looking for a Nintendo 3DS emulator you have to check this out. I was very impressed with how easy it was to get Citra up and running. Not only that, the games that did work, worked pretty much perfectly. I am sure I will eventually tinker with the advanced settings, but for now, I am just having a lot of fun playing some of my favorite 3DS games.
