Citra

Citra is a powerful, highly compatible, and easy-to-use emulator of the handheld game console Nintendo 3DS. Built from the ground up by the developers at Citra Team, this emulator application takes full advantage of the powerful PC hardware and enables all Windows OS users to easily run the vast majority of homebrew games developed for Nintendo 3DS and even a generous list of compatible commercial titles. As a fully open-source project that is built by over 170 developers from all around the world, this app can today be tested on Windows OS, Linux, and even macOS.

Citra (Nintendo 3DS Emulator) comes in a small package that can be easily installed on any modern PC. Be aware that Citra is built using C++ and requires a modern GPU with a full OpenGL 3.3 (or later) to run and an x64 CPU. Regardless, since the hardware of Nintendo 3DS is quite ancient and slow compared to modern PC components, even modest gaming PCs and a wide variety of laptops will find it quite easy to emulate software built for this portable gaming platform.

Emulator configuration enables PC users to map console controls directly to their keyboard or gamepad and offers a wide variety of other customization tools. Since the console featured two distinct screens, the emulator also manages to emulate both of them with great accuracy.

Originally presented to the public in 2014, the capabilities of this Nintendo emulator grew at a rapid pace. The first commercial game it booted was, of course, the legendary The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, and since then it advanced many aspects of its emulation to include full sound rendering, access to advanced networking features (that enable not only play with other users in local WiFi, but also over the internet), support for save states, and much more.

One of the most popular games that are enjoyed today on this emulator is Pokémon Sun and Moon, which is regarded as “fully playable”. While this software allows for emulation of many other software titles from the Mario, Pokemon, and Castlevania franchise, the full compatibility list can be found on Citra’s official website.

Since there are not many Nintendo 3DS emulators out there, the large gaming community can confidently tell you that Citra is the fastest, easiest to use, and accurate emulator of 3DS software. It can run on almost any modern PC and unlocks access to a wide variety of classic Nintendo 3DS games.

Citra is 100% FREE and can be used on any modern version of Windows OS (7, 8, and 10, 64-bit only).

Also Available: Download Citra for Mac