Pokemon Sword & Shield on Android shown in curious emulator demo

Today there's a bit of a "shady" project in the mix that runs Nintendo Switch games on Android phones. This project is not something you can get your hands on easily, and we certainly would not recommend that you attempt to do so. It would appear that the project utilizes Nintendo coding that was obtained with means that weren't entirely on-the-level, if you know what I mean.

In the game emulator demonstration shown this week, several major Nintendo game titles are shown. You'll see Pokemon Sword / Shield, you'll see The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. You'll see Super Mario Odyssey and Pokemon Let's GO Pikachu.

What's the catch with this particular Nintendo Switch emulator for Android? It only works if you have one specific proprietary controller. That controller is sold by the folks that've posted the emulator. So you're going to need to pay up for something that's almost certainly illegal*, with no real guarantee that it'll work forever. The working nature of this emulator was confirmed by several sources including XDA Developers, Taki Udon, and ETAPrime (video taken down/removed).

*In the XDA report, Adam Conway reports that the project is, indeed, violating open-sources licenses (from Yuzu). Further confirmation can be found on GBATemp where bylaws (see below) speaks about the new emulator.

You might instead want to take a peek at the emulator called Yuzu (developed by bylaws). That emulator is licensed under GPLv2 (General Public License v2.0, which makes it a little less slimy. We still wont link directly to said emulator – and I'd like to remind you that any software downloaded by you to your Android device – especially outside of Google Play – may result in your smartphone turning into a brick, breaking, or otherwise getting tossed out of any software warranty you might otherwise have.

Above you'll see XDA's Mishaal Rahman showing the Nintendo Switch game Hollow Knight working on a Samsung Galaxy S20. The emulator is called "Egg NS" and it seems to work only on Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 and 865 Android devices. Again, the emulator has closed-source code, requires a specific ($100 controller), AND it's shown evidence of lifting code from Yuzu without permission – not to mention it's rolling with assets that were almost certainly stolen from Nintendo (and friends).