Nintendo DS emulation is one of the most performant forms of emulation on Android. In comparison to other platforms, there are a lot of DS emulators, and that’s why you’ll need to know the best Android DS emulator.
Keep in mind that the best Android DS emulator will be custom-built for DS games. If you also want to play Nintendo 3DS games, you’ll also need the best Android 3DS emulator. Of course, we have you covered there as well. (We also have the best Android PS2 emulator, just to say!)
Best Android DS Emulator
Here we’ll detail our pick for the best emulator, and give a few honorable mentions, too!
melonDS – The Best DS Emulator
The current wearer of the crown is none other than melonDS. It’s free, it’s opensource, and it’s regularly updated with new features and performance enhancements.
The emulator comes with a host of options to make your experience your own. melonDS has solid controller support, customizable to your liking. There are different themes to suit light mode fans, and dark mode enjoyers. You can scale up the resolution of titles with resolution settings and find your happy place between performance and visual fidelity.
It comes with built-in support for Action Replay too, so it’s never been easier to cheat a little.
Keep in mind the Google Play version is an unofficial port, the GitHub version is the most up to date.
DraStic – Best For Older Devices
As far as DS emulators on Android go, DraStic is an excellent option However, the app is a premium experience which can be off-putting for some.
At $4.99, DraStic is still cheap, and it’s absolutely worth the price of entry. Despite being around for over a decade, it still holds up well.
Released in 2013, this app changed the state of emulation on Android. Almost all Nintendo DS games run flawlessly outside of a few bad apples. Furthermore, the app can run on even low-power devices. That’s just a benefit of being around for so long.
DraStic offers a lot of options for those who like to tweak their emulation experiences. For starters, you can increase the resolution of 3D rendering in DS games. Additionally, there are also save states, speed options, screen placement changes, controller support, and game shark codes.
One major missing feature is multiplayer support. However, with most DS multiplayer servers now offline, you’re only missing local multiplayer.
EmuBox – Most Versatile
EmuBox is free to download, and funded by ad revenue. This does mean that ads may display while it’s in use, something that some might find intrusive. This also means that the emulator can only be used on a device that is online, with is a bit of a downer.
While there are some negatives, there is a big positive to EmuBox. It is a multipurpose emulator, and isn’t restricted to only DS ROMs. You can run ROMs from several different consoles, including the original PlayStation and Game Boy Advance.
