A leak raises the hopes of Nintendo’s retro fans. Is an official Game Boy and Game Boy Advance emulator now coming to the Switch on 24 April?
For years, fans have been asking Nintendo for an official emulator to play beloved Game Boy-era classics on the Nintendo Switch. Now, leaks have surfaced that have fans sitting up and taking notice.
The Return of the Classics
Whether it’s Pokémon Pinball, Mario Kart, Golden Sun, Metroid Fusion or Super Mario Bros. almost everyone has one or two classics from the Game Boy Advance era that they would like to play again. But legally playing the old games is difficult if you no longer have the old console and game card to hand.
A leak is now raising the hopes of fans. Nintendo is said to be working on an official emulator for Game Boy Advance on the Switch. On Twitter, the user Trash_Bandatcoot shared images he had previously found on 4chan.
So Nintendo’s official Game Boy Advance emulator for the Nintendo Switch just leaked. Now it’s just a matter of waiting for NSO to add GBA. pic.twitter.com/mEJcKrRtzL
– Trash_Bandatcoot (@trashbandatcoot) April 18, 2022
4chan is not exactly known for reliability, but the files leaked there seem to work, as other users have found out.
Gameboy Color NSO footage Zelda Link’s Awakening DX. pic.twitter.com/fJ8EBTVnaY
– PoryLeeks (@pory_leeks) April 18, 2022
Should the leaks be true, we can expect an avalanche of GBA-era games as the list of tested titles shows:
The library of GBA games they’ve tested for this thing is massive. Tested is the key word; doesn’t mean they’ll all actually launch on the service. Yellow = in the rom folder at some point but not in the leaked build.
There’s one other game with evidence of being tested though- https://t.co/QQDBDcdAZp pic.twitter.com/lGSB4Mg7Gt
– MondoMega (@Mondo_Mega) April 18, 2022
Finally handheld emulators for the Switch?
Many fans have been waiting for official emulators of Nintendo’s old handheld consoles on the Switch for a long time. Especially since many old consoles like the NES, SNES, Sega Genesis and also the Nintendo 64 are already available.
However, there are also doubts about the authenticity of the leaks. Especially the picture of an EZFlash card instead of the official game cards is problematic. An official emulator from Nintendo should not have to resort to unofficial game cards in development.
Nintendo internally acknowledging EZFlash cartridges make this leak feel off to me. I don’t think Nintendo developed it at all if it’s real pic.twitter.com/GBNtBtgWHj
– MVG (@ModernVintageG) April 18, 2022
Whether a Game Boy emulator is actually coming is therefore still unclear for the time being. Nintendo has made no announcements in this regard, but it wouldn’t be the first time resourceful users found files and programs on the Switch months in advance. Both the SNES emulator and the one for the Nintendo 64 in October 2021 were discovered before the official announcement.
We’ll keep you posted if any new information becomes available.
