The best emulators of 2025 (by MVG)

[ThunderBoy]

Azahar (Nintendo 3DS)
RPCS3 (Sony PlayStation 3)
Ymir (Sega Saturn)
Gopher64 (Nintendo 64)
PCSX2 (Sony PlayStation 2)
Mesen2 (Multi System)

 

[Lod 10]

O emIs the PS3 emulator worth testing? How does it work for testing games?

 

[SinAkuma]

O emIs the PS3 emulator worth testing? How does it work for testing games?

RPCS3 is a very good emulator if you have a decent pc you can play a lot of ps3 games with no problem.

 

[Turbo Kid]

Eden is fantastic. The latest Citron build seems pretty great too. Apparently the devs of both of them are collaborating now.

 

[Lod 10]

O RPCS3 é um emulador muito bom; se você tiver um PC decente, poderá jogar muitos jogos de PS3 sem problemas.

ObrigadoThanks for the tip, I'll try to play some light games since I didn't have the money to buy a PS3 back then; my only real console was the PS4.

 

[Natsuyasumi]

Never heard of Azahar, Yamir or Gopher64, are they considerably better than their more popular counterparts?

 

[Nelson2001 Nelson2001]

These emulators for Windows are excellent and they are on the right track in terms of development but my favorites are the Azahar (3DS Emulator) and PCSX2 (PS2 Emulator).

 

[jankusanagi jankusanagi]

Where are PPSSPP and Dolphin??

 

[Turbo Kid]

Where are PPSSPP and Dolphin??

I love how super refined PPSSPP is. Like I don't think it could possibly be improved on. Duckstation is great too.

 

[DanCalibur]

We may be finally getting closer to having N64 and Saturn emulation as good as the PSX

 

[Luxfin]

Internal Resolution for the N64 in Gopher64 have completely sold me. Also no longer having tolerate plugins for each game is bonus to top it off.

 

[RETRO-VETRO RETRO-VETRO]

Ymir is truly the best of 2025!

 

[RestoredaftrLostv2]

-_- I feel weird saying I'm still using emulators i used i downloaded from 2007 for gaming. Epsxe still works for me. Though I would like to take a look at that gopher64 n64 emulator. There are a couple games that project64 doesn't work.

"If it still works, why change it" is my motto aka not broken don't fix it reference,

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Azahar (Nintendo 3DS)
RPCS3 (Sony PlayStation 3)
Ymir (Sega Saturn)
Gopher64 (Nintendo 64)
PCSX2 (Sony PlayStation 2)
Mesen2 (Multi System)

I approve Mesen 2.0 a lot (I hope it'll soon have the Genesis and Neogeo Pocket support and I'd be entirely settled).

I need to check Azahar and Gopher64 then.

-_- I feel weird saying I'm still using emulators i used i downloaded from 2007 for gaming. Epsxe still works for me. Though I would like to take a look at that gopher64 n64 emulator. There are a couple games that project64 doesn't work.

"If it still works, why change it" is my motto aka not broken don't fix it reference,

Honestly ePSXe is such a chore to make it run decently for me. I still managed to beat MGS on it but there were graphical glitches and honestly DuckStation is simply massively better.

It works but there's a massive difference between something "kinda working" and something working well.

 

[epichyruleswordsmen84]

I'm so happy that Saturn emulation is where it is now I remember when it would be thought of as impossible to have had it at all

 

[Pokenami's icon Pokenami Pokenami]

I'm happy to see major improvements for the Saturn and N64 emulation scene. I can't believe the systems improved so much this year.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Should there be a list of the best emulators per hardware type?

 

[NardoBoom]

-_- I feel weird saying I'm still using emulators i used i downloaded from 2007 for gaming. Epsxe still works for me. Though I would like to take a look at that gopher64 n64 emulator. There are a couple games that project64 doesn't work.

"If it still works, why change it" is my motto aka not broken don't fix it reference,

download duckstation and never use epsxe again.

 

[secreto7]

Never heard of Azahar, Yamir or Gopher64, are they considerably better than their more popular counterparts?

Azahar is basically the continuation of Citra by one of the devs of the latter.

Ymir is an standalone and easy to use Saturn emulator with a traditional GUI and 90% playable games compatibility that was aiming to be something like the Duckstation of Saturn.

Gopher64 is the new emulator from the author of Simple64 which was a fork of Mupen64Plus focused on accuracy.

 

[ReeseJammin]

Azahar (Nintendo 3DS)
RPCS3 (Sony PlayStation 3)
Ymir (Sega Saturn)
Gopher64 (Nintendo 64)
PCSX2 (Sony PlayStation 2)
Mesen2 (Multi System)

used RPCS3 for like a few games that arent in consoles like Spider-Man edge of time and MGS4

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

They didn’t include the two best iOS exclusive emulators Delta(NES, SNES, N64, GB, GBC, GBA, and NDS) which is a multi system emulator and Gamma which is an iOS equivalent of Duckstation.

 

[DaveTheMan]

They didn’t include the two best iOS exclusive emulators Delta(NES, SNES, N64, GB, GBC, GBA, and NDS) which is a multi system emulator and Gamma which is an iOS equivalent of Duckstation.

Retroarch is better then Delta and Gamma

RA can play lot more Consoles and is also Free with no In-App Purchases

Yes Delta/Gamma are Easier for Beginners but watch some video's and Documentation about it and should not take too long to get use to it

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Ymir is an standalone and easy to use Saturn emulator with a traditional GUI

I'm maybe old school but even if I love Mesen I also like standalone emu with a normal GUI.

Gopher64 is the new emulator from the author of Simple64 which was a fork of Mupen64Plus focused on accuracy.

2026 will be the 30th year of the N64 and we'll finally have great emulation for it.


By the way, are there good Collecovision/Intellivision and other semi obscure hardware that are well emulated?

 

[secreto7]

By the way, are there good Collecovision/Intellivision and other semi obscure hardware that are well emulated?

No idea, but you can look at the Emulation Wiki

ColecoVision emulators - Emulation General Wiki

emulation.gametechwiki.com

 

[RestoredaftrLostv2]

Honestly ePSXe is such a chore to make it run decently for me. I still managed to beat MGS on it but there were graphical glitches and honestly DuckStation is simply massively better.

It works but there's a massive difference between something "kinda working" and something working well.

I (still) use a computer I got in 2002 with WindowsXP and haven't had much issues. Ironically i still have psX emulator as well and that one....SUXS

download duckstation and never use epsxe again.

NO...can't run it on my old computer.