Looking for a Wii emulator? Then look no further as we have a clear winner, Dolphin emulator. Dolphin is the best Wii emulator as well as the best GameCube emulator too. It is available on all platforms including, PC, Mac, Linux & Android devices.
One of the best features of Dolphin for Wii emulation is that you can use your gamepad to emulate the Wiimote, or you can actually use original Wiimote controllers with the addition of a USB Wii Sensor Bar.
Best Wii Emulator For PC, Mac & Linux
As already suggested above, Dolphin is the best Wii emulator for PC, Mac & Linux. It really is one of the essential emulators for Windows PCs.
Dolphin does a fantastic job of bringing your favourite Wii games into the present day by offering top-notch graphics options such as resolution upscaling (Up to 5K), video filters & anti-aliasing.
The great thing about Dolphin is that it strikes the perfect balance between accessibility and functionality. It is an extremely powerful emulator with all the bells and whistles but is a breeze to use thanks to its user-focused interface.
It even has the ability to emulate the NAND flash memory of the Wii, enabling you to load up saved data, and download Wii channels & the Wii menu system from an original Wii console. Dolphin provides a NAND usage guide to help you through the steps.
You will not find a better way to play your favourite Wii games and look as good as they do with Dolphin.
Dolphin Emulator Features Include:-
- Nintendo Wii & GameCube emulation
- Excellent easy-to-use UI
- Game library to manage game files
- Save states
- Video capture features
- Cheat options
- Customisable UI
- Advanced emulation settings
- USB Wii sensor bar compatible
- Memory card emulation
- Upscale up to 5k resolution (System dependent for good performance!)
- Filter, anti-aliasing & post-processing features
- Stereoscopic 3D
- NAND Flash Memory (For save data, Wii channels & Wii menu)
- Utilise original Wii controllers or emulate them with your own gamepad
Best Wii Emulator For Android
Dolphin is also the best Wii emulator available for Android devices. Whilst not perhaps as fully realised as its PC sibling, Dolphin is still a must-have emulator for Android retro fans.
Dolphin for Android is really easy to use and benefits from the same kind of attention to the UI as the desktop version. It contains pretty much all of the visual improvement bells and whistles too, with resolution upscaling up to 5K, and anti-aliasing and post-processing effects available.
The limit really is the power of your device, so be sure to experiment with the settings to suit your device to give you the best experience possible. Wii games are a bit more demanding than GameCube, so persevere with making some tweaks if there are any frame rate issues.
Dolphin Emulator Android Features Include:-
- Nintendo Wii & GameCube Emulation
- Save States
- Anti-Aliasing, Post Processing & Filter Settings
- Memory Card Emulation
- Easy To Use UI
- Emulate the Wiimote with touchscreen functionality
Best RetroArch Wii Core
If you are a fan of RetroArch, then rejoice as Dolphin has found its way into RetroArch with its very own Dolphin core! The quality of the Dolphin core is very good and will be the preference of those who like to keep all their emulation within the RetroArch environment.
As with most things RetroArch, Dolphin pretty much requires no set-up and will work right out of the gate. Simply load up a Wii game from the RetroArch menu, and it boots!
The Dolphin RetroArch core has stacks of options available to make your games look great, including resolution upscaling, anti-aliasing as well as being able to additionally use RetroArch shaders, such as CRT effects. Check out our how-to set up RetroArch for Wii guide for details on how to get up and running.
Dolphin in RetroArch also emulates GameCube games too, so it’s a superb core to download if you are a Wii & GameCube fan.
So there you have it, a decisive victory for Dolphin!
If your love for Nintendo’s quirky consoles didn’t just end with the Wii, then check out our guide to the best Wii U emulators.
A lifelong avid gamer and computing enthusiast, Matt has decades of Retro Gaming experience. Now over 40 years old, Matt now even considers himself retro, but fortunately, nobody has developed a Matt emulator (not yet at least!).