How to play Nintendo 3DS games on your iPhone with Folium (2024)

Now that the floodgates are open, countless retro game console and handheld emulation apps have hit Apple's App Store. These include Nintendo console emulator Delta, PlayStation emulator Gamma and now, Nintendo 3DS/DS/GBA emulator Folium.

Unlike most iOS retro emulators, Folium costs $4.99. This is a notable choice by its developer, Jarrod Norwell, given the Japanese gaming giant recently took legal action against the creators of Switch emulator Yuzu for offering a paid "early access" subscription tier, leading to a $2.4 million settlement (this also resulted in the death of popular DS emulator Citra).

Making matters worse, offering Folium as a paid app feels misleading because it isn't even close to as polished as other free iPhone retro emulators, particularly Delta.

Nevertheless, a Nintendo 3DS emulator hitting the iPhone is a big deal, even if it still has a long way to go before it's stable and, arguably, useful.

How to download and setup Folium 3DS emulator

Emulators being available directly in the iOS App Store continues to be a beautiful thing

If you want to take Folium for a spin, downloading the app is as simple as searching "Folium" in the iOS App Store's "Search" section (located in the bottom right corner).

After that straightforward step, things get a little more complicated. First, you need to hunt down the encryption key for Nintendo's portable, which you can easily dump from your own 3DS or find in another location online. If you want to use Folium's DS or GBA emulator, you'll need to locate several bios and firmware files.

It's important to note that in the U.S., copying a ROM from a physical game you own is legal as long as you don't distribute it, while downloading a ROM from a source on the internet is not.

Of course, you'll also need ROM game files to load into Folium. As a side note, if you're looking for a great iOS app for unzipping .7z files, Unzip is a solid option. Once you've got your hands on that coveted Ocarina of Time 3DS ROM, here's how to launch a game:

1. Launch Folium on your iPhone.
2. Press the "Plus" button in the top right corner.
3. Locate your ROM in "Files" (if you recently added the ROM to your iPhone, it's usually visible in the "Recents" tab).
4. Click "Open," and the game will instantly launch (sometimes there's a bit of lag or one 3DS display loads before the other).

Unlike other iOS emulators, you can't yet update the box art for titles added to your Folium library. The above process works for every platform the emulator is compatible with, including the DS and the GBA.

Below are all the retro handhelds Folium currently supports:

• 3DS
• DS
• GBA

How does Folium perform?

Unfortunately, game compatibility isn't great

Unlike other emulators on iOS, Folium is a bit of a mess when it comes to 3DS title compatibility. Every game I tried experienced at least some level of issue. For example, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is playable but features audio and frame rate problems.

On the other hand, New Super Mario Bros. 2 runs very smoothly, though it crashed after a few minutes of playing. Unfortunately, Mario Kart 7 isn't playable due to notable lag in menus and in-game, while the excellent 3DS port of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time runs so slowly that I could only stand playing it for a few minutes.

It's important to note that Folium's performance changes drastically depending on the game you're playing. Some titles run great and only experience minor slowdown\ or the occasional audio glitch, while others are an absolute mess. For example, while I haven't tested Pokémon X and Y, the beta version of the emulator reportedly ran the game reasonably well.

Unfortunately, Folium's issues don't stop there. For example, playing 3DS games in landscape stretches the screen in an ugly way. The on-screen joystick controls can also be finicky and confusing, especially if you briefly lift your thumb off the display while playing. Thankfully, a recent update added real joystick support, vastly improving the on-screen controls (before the update, Folium only featured an on-screen d-pad).

This update also includes more technical features, such as adjusting the iPhone's CPU clock and turning off different renderers and shaders.

On a more positive note, DS and GBA games run smoothly on the emulator. It's also a nice nostalgic touch to be able to boot into the Home Menu of the 3DS/DS and launch games directly there.

Will Folium get better?

We don't know yet

One of the key things to note about Folium is that, unless you're using an iPhone 14 or iPhone 15 series smartphone, you'll unlikely be able to get any 3DS game running on the emulator in an acceptable way. Because Apple doesn't allow apps that utilize just-in-time (JIT) compilation in the App Store, ample processor power is required to run Nintendo 3DS games. The lack of JIT support on the tech giant's end is also why Wii and GameCube emulators will likely never come to the iPhone.

Looking to the future, Norwell says he plans to introduce skin customization to Folium, but if the above tweet is accurate, it looks like the current thumbstick design is here to stay. Hopefully, the emulator's buttons get more spaced out and the odd position of "Start" and "Select" changes in future versions of the emulator.

On the plus side, Norwell appears committed to the continued development of the 3DS emulator, indicating that it will likely improve in the coming weeks and months. It's worth noting that Folium is compatible with Bluetooth controllers, which makes dealing with the less-than-stellar on-screen controls easier.

Hopefully, 3DS game compatibility improves in future releases, because as it stands right now, it's spotty at best.

Folium also runs on iPad, Mac and the Vision Pro. You can join Folium's Discord channel here.

FAQ

Q: Should I buy Folium?

No, probably not. $4.99 is pretty pricey for what is clearly a work-in-progress emulator.

Q: Which emulators should I try instead?

Delta is very impressive and supports a wide range of Nintendo consoles, including the NES, the SNES, the N64 and even the DS. Alternatively, PlayStation emulator Gamma is also pretty good.