A new age is upon us. A new age and better ways to play retro games from your better days...Or if you're a young padawan learner, aka a young Jedi gamer. I will show you the best ways to play console games on your phone, including legendary game titles that you might never have played before.

Gaming hits from the dark ages…before the Internet…became publicly available….And you know why this is a good thing…it means that all of the games in this video are not Internet dependent and have no advertising banners and pop-ups.

This means if you're going on a long flight with no WiFi or data, these games will still run perfectly…and the cherry on the cake is that all these emulators are entirely FREE. So here are my top 5 game emulators to try in 2023!

5. M64 Plus FZ

OK, this emulator is in my top five for five reasons. One, the Nintendo 64, was fantastic. Two, this emulator does support gamepads. And three, the game sizes are small. Even the largest games are around 30MB. And the M64 Plus FZ can run games direct from Zip files…

Do you realise what this means? This means you can store a massive catalogue of the best N64 titles on your device without worrying about storage space. If you are worried about storage, you could get one of these tiny USB c drives to store your games on & only plug it in when you need it(show USB c pen drive)

The fourth reason that M64 Plus FZ is in my top five is that at the time the N64 was in its prime, 25 years ago, it was competing against the more graphically superior Playstation. So Nintendo's solution was to focus on gameplay and not graphics.

And what this means for you is that the M64 Plus FZ emulator will not strain your device, and you won't have to sacrifice graphics and, more importantly, any fun. In fact, N64 graphics rendering should be a walk in the park for most smartphones these days.

The fifth and final reason why this makes my top five is how easy it is to set it up. You just download it from the PlayStore. During the first launch, you'll be prompted to point to the folder where your N64 game ROMs are, and that's it.

If you want to know how to get N64 ROMs on your device. Google is your friend. Just say, "Hey, google, how do I get N64 ROMs." Ask, and it will be given to you. Gold emoji medal for anyone who knows where that quote comes from. And something that a lot of you will appreciate about Nintendo, in general, is how many pokemon games are available on their consoles dating back to 1999. The N64 was released in 1997.

In fact, if you are an aspiring Pokemon master, if you use the emulators in this video, including the last two. You just might be able to finally catch them all...like what I did there.

Now, remember what I said about the file sizes. The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of time file size on N64 is around 30MB, and it does play beautifully here. But let's say you want to play this game with much better graphics. Try out emulator number 4 on this list.

4. Citra 3DS

Citra is available on the Google PlayStore for free… Citra is a dedicated Nintendo 3DS emulator. The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time was remastered for the 3DS and looks much better graphically. However, the file size jumps from 30MB to around 350 MB. Also, the demand for your processor's resources will be much higher than the M64 Plus FZ. So just be mindful of those facts and be aware that some games do not run as smoothly as others. You can check Citra's list on their official website to find games that run the best with no glitches.

I like Citra for a few reasons. I like the second screen that the 3DS had, and it was a touch screen, so naturally, the touch screen elements do work here. That was a unique feature of the Nintendo DS that you don't get with other consoles.

Something else that stands out is that if you really wanted to, you could emulate the 3D effect with stereoscopic 3D mode. And if you want to try this out, take a pair of those stereoscopic 3D glasses home the next time you go see a 3D movie at the cinema.

Now, if Citra doesn't run smoothly the first time you try it, be patient, as when you play a game, Citra will start to build a 2GB shader cache, and once it's done, you should start to see the performance improvements.

If it doesn't improve, then maybe you should get Citra-enhanced MMJ. It is a better and more up-to-date version of Citra. And I didn't mention this at the beginning for a reason. It's because Citra Enhanced is not available on the play store.

If you want to try Citra Enhanced MMJ 2.2.0 or newer, the first thing you need to do is find that button just below this video it says subscribe and hit it. OK a joke. All you need to do is visit the website in the description. You will need to download and install it from your browser. This means you will be prompted to enable permissions to 'install from unknown sources'.

One detail that should be mentioned in videos like this is if you are going to give this permission. Once you've downloaded and installed what you need, go back to your web browser app, go to its permission settings, and disable 'install from unknown sources' just to be safe.

Now, if it's still slow. Here are a couple of little tricks that can speed up emulation. In Citra enhanced, exit your Game and go to settings. Go to audio & disable audio stretching. This can help a little. Next, go back to the settings menu, then to graphics / Enable NEW 3DS mode. This mode is to make the emulator more compatible with newer 3DS games. So if any of your ROMs didn't load before, try again with this setting on. And I don't know if it's just my imagination, but when I switched to NEW 3DS mide it seems to have improved the emulators performance... it's either that or the shader cache finally kicked in.

The last little trick to speed things up is turning on the 'texture load hack' in the graphics settings. If you do this, you will sacrifice the quality of the graphics. This is the last resort. Use it only if absolutely necessary. And Citra isn't the only way to emulate 3DS...stick around if this doesn't work for you. There is a plan B

3. AetherSX2 - Best PS2 Emulation

Let's go back in time 3 generations of PlayStations and revisit PS3. This one is an ever-evolving and probably the best PS2 emulator out there, AetherSX2. I say revisit because I did make another video about emulators. I'll link it at the end.

AetherSX2 quite recently had a significant bump in performance. Thanks to the official dev team. It's now smoother and more efficient than ever before. Seeing how much better it's gotten since I last used it was surprising. You can get AetherSX2 free from the playstore. To get this working, you will need a bios file for Aether. It will ask you for it when your first install it.

A simple Google search should do the trick if you're wondering how to get this BIOS file. If you're stuck, I've got a few links on my website to some explainers if you need them. Trust me, don't stress out about this. It's easier than you think. It takes 2 minutes...Once you get that part of the puzzle out of the way. Then all you'll need is to get the PS2 rom files. You might be wondering how to get PS2 ROMs. Once again, Google is your friend.

Aethersx2 bios file - GITHUB

Let me add a little disclaimer: you can Backup games on your own…you should not download games you do not own. This applies to all emulators as well as TV series, movies, music... you get the idea. OK, now we got that out of the way.

I've got one of the greatest PS2 games of all time running here at full speed whilst being upscaled 4X. I am using the iQoo 11, which has the brand new Qualcomm 8Gen2 chip & Is one of the most powerful phones you can get at the time of this video. I've set aEtherSX2 to use the Vulkan back end instead of OpenGL... and this emulation is amazing. It's so silky smooth. Even God Of War 2 runs amazingly well. It really is impressive.

If you don't have the latest snapdragon device, do not fear. It will still run well on most modern devices. If it runs slow, I recommend not upscaling the graphics. Keep it on the native settings, and you should be good to go. Various other settings can improve the emulation on aEtherSX2, and there are plenty of videos that will walk you through these.

The gamepad works here, also. You could hook up a proper PS dual shock over BT for that proper Playstation experience.

You have to try AEtherSX2...one crucial thing you need to know. The file sizes are enormous. God of War 2, for example, is over 7GB. But you know what if you're going off the grid or on a long-haul flight. That storage space is a small price to pay for hours and hours of uninterrupted premium-tier gameplay with no ads!

2. Dolphin Emulator

Number two on my list is a double-barreled smoking gun of an emulator. It is the Dolphin emulator. If you have yet to guess by now. I am a Nintendo fan & if you are too, this may be your favourite. It emulates one of Nintendo's most underrated consoles, the GC, and also one of their best-selling consoles, the Nintendo Wii.

Anyway, many GC games are around one GB in size, so it's far less devastating than the PS2 roms file sizes. So you can load up quite a few. Dolphin Emulator supports controllers, but setting up the buttons is a riddle. Here is how you can do it.

To do this on the home screen, go to settings, then GC input / Gamecube Emulated controller 1 / tap on the word emulated / now you can bind the keys. You'll need to do the same for the Wii controller inputs. I had to screenshot an image of the controller to cross reference what buttons were on the original pads to get this right. I suggest you do the same unless you have a real one to hand. Mapping the Wii controls is far more tricky as having both the Wii remote and nunchuck for some games was mandatory. Games like Super Mario Galaxy, for example. I'd recommend just playing games that could be played with a classic controller when it comes to Wii emulation on android.

Like new super Mario Bros or, for example, now let's talk about the one emulator to rule them all, one emulator to find them, and the one emulator to bring them all...and in the darkness bind them.

Lemuroid - All in one

It is called Lemuroid. Now the reason that this is number one on my list is that it is different. It's isn't the most powerful, that medel would go to AetherSX2. It doesn't have the most beautiful interface. Maybe the Dolphin emulator would win that one. It is number one on this list because it's simply simple to setup & use and more importantly...this one single app can emulate 23 different retro games consoles.

And something that has really impressed me about Lemuroid is its ability to play 3DS games smoothly. Dare I say more smoothly than Citra... Although there aren't quite as many options available as Citra Enhanced...but it does work well. Playstation games it kind of struggles with, so if you want to play those old Metal Gears AetherSX2 or maybe Duckstation is still the way to go. It can also handle some PSP games...but if PSP is what you're looking for check out the video thumbnail at the end.

But listen here. If you want to play those Sega & Nintendo classics or even go back to 1977 with the Atari 2600. You could do that with Lemuroid. It's the most versatile of them all. And if you are a pokemon fan and want to catch them all, this is one of the best emulators for that. There are some great tutorials on how to set this up if you need help with it. And it does of course, support a controller & if you are wondering what this controller is. It is the GameSir X2 pro, and it's a beast for emulation & cloud gaming. It's got all your Xbox buttons and back padels and has that vital USB C power delivery passthrough port. Emulation can draw a lot of power, so this port can help you can stay tethered to a power supply if needed. The GameSir X2 pro is awesome, I can definitely recommend it.

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