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Since Apple changed its App Store rules back in April, we’ve seen quite a few retro game emulators hit the market for the iPhone. You can use an emulator like Delta to play games from the NES to the DS, and Retroarch to relive some OG PlayStation titles. But, until now, there hasn’t been a way to play Nintendo 3DS games on your iPhone. If you wanted to play something like Ocarina of Time 3D or Super Mario 3D Land, you’d need to choose another emulator platform—or get a 3DS itself.
That was the case, however, until Folium. Folium is the first emulator to hit Apple’s App Store that supports playing 3DS games. Plus, it plays DS and Game Boy Advance games, so it’s kind of perfect for anyone solely interested in Nintendo’s final three eras of dedicated handhelds. That said, if you want earlier Game Boy games, or retro consoles like SNES or N64, you’ll need to download another emulator.
Unlike Delta, Folium isn’t free: The developer, Jarrod Norwell, is charging $4.99 for the app. If you want to play DS games for free, you may want to try another app, but if you’re dead set on playing 3DS games on your iPhone, you’ll need to pay for it. Seeing as $5 is eight times cheaper than a single 3DS game used to sell for, it’s not a bad deal.
Credit: Lifehacker
Like other retro emulators on iOS, Folium doesn’t actually provide you with games to play. That would go against Apple’s App Review guidelines, which allow emulators but not the distribution of copyrighted material. After paying for and installing Folium on your iPhone, you’ll need to add your own ROMs, or game files, to the app. While the legality of this subject is murky, you’ll find that emulator fans insist its legal, so long as you own the game you’re trying to play through the emulation software.
Once you have your 3DS ROMs, you can run Folium on iPhones running iOS 15 or newer, iPads running iPadOS 15 or newer, Macs running macOS 12 or newer, and even Vision Pro. The app supports different upscaling filters, like HQx and xBRZ, so you can control how your older games reproduce on your modern smartphone display. For DS and 3DS games, you can also choose whether to boot into the Home Menu, or start the game right away.
Folium supports a range of controller options. Sure, you can play on the touch screen of your iPhone, but you may find pairing the app with one of the following dedicated controllers a more pleasant and accurate experience:
