Nintendo 3DS games emulated in HD, and they look incredible

The Nintendo 3DS is already a pretty spiffy little handheld that can crank out polygons with the best of them. We’ve come a long way from Nintendo’s “limited tech” philosophy in the handheld department, and this thing towers above and beyond its predecessors.

Still, as proven by a new emulator calling itself Citra, there is always room for improvement, and in the Nintendo 3DS’ case, that lies in screen resolution. The handheld can’t pump out anything close to the standards of what could be considered HD, and that is where Citra comes into play. It takes the normal 400×240 games and cranks them up as high as they will go.

In the screenshots provided on the official website, Citra is able to get a handful of Nintendo games running at 1600×900. Not bad at all. Check out the examples in the gallery above. Super Mario Land 3D has never looked so good.

Citra is an open-source emulator, and developers say “2016 is quickly shaping up as a year filled with higher compatibility, greater stability and much more as Citra mature[s].”

Please remember to buy any Nintendo games you wish to try before uploading them into HD. Piracy is not okay, but checking out your favorites in a new screen resolution out of curiosity is fine.