9 Best Nintendo DS Emulators for Android

Best DS emulator for Android. The Nintendo DS (NDS) is a handheld game console developed and released by Nintendo in 2004. It is one of the most Successful Console from Nintendo. And due to such success, there are many great games for it. So if you want to play Nintendo DS games on your Android Device then check out these NDS Emulators.

I have selected 9 emulators based on their Ratings and Reviews. Every emulator got some Good reviews and some bad reviews. So it is possible that an Emulator which is working for someone else may not work for you.  So the best way is to try them all one by one and select the best performing for your Device.

Also read:

Best themes for Android

Best Xposed modules 

Best DS Emulator for Android 

1. Drastic DS Emulator
2. AseDS
3. nds4droid
4. NDS Boy! NDS Emulator
5. RetroArch
6. Free DS emulator
7. Pretendo NDS Emulator
8. vids
9. CoolNDS

DraStic DS Emulator [Download]

DraStic is a fast Nintendo DS emulator for Android. It is the best Rated DS emulator for Android. With an excellent rating of 4.6 out of 5, this emulator deserves the no. 1 spot on the list. Also, Drastic DS Emulator was recently featured in this list of DS emulator on Dreamy Tricks

Features:-

• Enhance the game’s 3D graphics to 2 by 2 times their original resolution (this optional feature works best on high-end quad-core devices)
• Customize the placement and size of the DS screens, for portrait and landscape modes
• Fully supports add-on controllers and physical controls in devices like NVidia Shield and Xperia Play
• Save and resume your progress anywhere
• Cheat codes
• Synchronize your save games with your online Google Drive space
• There is a Demo version available, so try it out first before buying it.

AseDS [Download]

AseDS is a free Nintendo game emulator and the self-proclaimed best DS emulator for Android. With a rating of 3.6 out of 5 and with an estimated 500,000 installs

Feature:

• Emulates dual touch screen interface
• Save and load game at any time
• GameShark/ActionReplay/CodeBreaker cheats
• Supports wireless controllers and device microphone
• Custom button layouts and key bindings
• Auto-rotate landscape or portrait orientation
• Stretch to fit screen or original aspect ratio
• Automatic frame skipping and flicker reduction

nds4droid [Download]

nds4droid is a free Nintendo DS emulator. It is still in its “improving” state. It supports many features expect like save states and sound. It also supports the OUYA game console.

It is an open source emulator and also the most downloaded DS emulator for Android.

According to reviews on Play Stores, Nintendo DS emulation is still somewhat slow, even on higher end phone. The Developers are supporting it and it has been getting better.

NDS Boy! NDS Emulator [Download]

NDS boy is a DS emulator target for High-end devices, Smartphones with 2GB Ram and Quad core CPU (Minimum).

They optimized this Emulator for many smartphones, but they can’t cover all smartphones so if your device is less popular than skip this one. Because Game will crash and lag for such devices.

Feature:-

• Supports NDS game file (.nds, .zip, .7z, .rar)
• Support Android 4.0+ (suitable for Android 5.0+ and 6.0)
• Save and load state, quick save, quick load, auto save.
• Edit and resize (zoom) dpad, buttons.

RetroArch [Download]

RetroArch is a free open-source DS emulator. It uses an interface called Libretro. Libretro is an interface that allows you to make cross-platform applications that can use rich features such as OpenGL, cross-platform camera support, location support, and more in the future.

You need to download “Cores” in order to use Retroarch Emulator. Cores are simply programs for Retroarch.

FEATURES:

• Eye-candy menus
• Scan files/directories and add them to game system collections
• View database information about each game once added to a collection
• Download programs (‘cores’) online
• Download Game & Watch games and play them with exclusive Game & Watch emulator
• Built-in input remapping
• Ability to remap controls
• Ability to enter and load cheats
• Multi-language support
• Open-source
• No push ads

Free DS Emulator [Download]

Free DS emulator is a pretty stable DS emulator. Cheats are preinstalled in Free DS Emulator. With a Rating of 4.0 out of 5, this is one of the best rated free emulators. Free DS emulator is totally free.

Features:

• Save game states
• Load game states
• Control buttons and game screen editable

Pretendo NDS Emulator [Download]

Pretendo NDS is a free Nintendo DS emulator. Looking at the Play store reviews, this emulator can run games without any lags and advertisement.

FEATURES:

• Emulates dual touch screen interface
• Save and load game at any time
• GameShark/ActionReplay/CodeBreaker cheats
• Supports wireless controllers and device microphone
• Custom button layouts and key bindings
• Auto-rotate landscape or portrait orientation
• Stretch to fit screen or original aspect ratio
• Automatic frame skipping and flicker reduction

viDS(NDS-Emulator) [Download]

viDS is another free DS emulator. It was last updated on March 2017, which means developers still improving it. With a Decent rating of 3.6 out of 5, this emulator worth a shot.

Features:

• 3D rendering engine
• Support Formats: NDS, ZIP, 7Z, and RAR
• Support edit key mappings and controls layout
• Save and Restore
• OUYA game console
• Search game file
• Select game files by File Browser
• Cheats
• Auto-detects games
• Displays cover art

CoolNDS [Download]

CoolNDS is the last one on the list. This emulator was last updated on 2014, so do not expect any updates or Bug fixes. Due to some Good reviews on Play Store, I placed it on the list.

CoolNDS is a modified version of the Open Source project nds4droid, includes a Modified UI and controller overlays

Best Nintendo DS Roms for Android

All of the NDS emulators need ROM or simply a Game. None of the emulators come with inbuilt games. Here is a list of few Nintendo DS games or ROMs.

Download other Nintendo DS Games and ROMs