Abstract:
Just over a week after the Nintendo Switch 2 was successfully cracked, the development of emulators for the new console has made amazing progress. The latest news shows that an experimental emulator project based on Switch 2 simulation support can already run "Mario Kart World" on PC, and some developers even claim that the game can run at "full speed" depending on the hardware configuration.
Not long ago, Switch 2 was finally hacked. This crack is seen as an important milestone that opens the door to console modding, homebrew software, and emulator development. Just a few days ago, someone showed the running screen of "Mario Kart World" on the macOS platform and iPhone 18 Pro, and now the Switch 2 emulator for the PC platform has begun to take shape rapidly.
It is understood that developer Takoroka has recently added experimental Switch 2 support to the well-known Switch emulator Eden. Although the author made it clear that there are still a lot of problems and unfinished content in the current code, this achievement was regarded as an important starting point for Switch 2 simulation development, and it quickly attracted other developers to participate in improvements.
On this basis, an open source project called Eglantine emerged. The project is built on Eden's experimental Switch 2 code, while inheriting some of the technical foundations from projects like Yuzu and Sudachi, and was started by developer Camille LaVey. The project is developed in C++ and plans to support multiple platforms including Windows, Linux and macOS.
According to information released by the Eglantine team, "Mario Kart World" can now be run in the simulator and is expected to achieve full speed performance based on PC hardware performance. At the same time, Nintendo's new game "Sprawl Raiders" has also been able to start and enter the game process, but the frame rate performance still fluctuates greatly.
The development team also released relevant demonstration videos to show the actual operation of two Switch 2 games in a simulated environment. These demonstrations mean that the development of the Switch 2 emulator has moved from a simple launch program stage to a new stage capable of running commercial games.
However, developers also emphasized that there is still a huge gap between the current results and mature products. Takoroka pointed out that graphical problems such as missing models in the demonstration were mainly due to the fact that some shader functions have not yet been implemented. Although a few games have successfully run, wider software compatibility, accurate rendering effects, and stable performance still require a lot of follow-up development work.
Industry insiders believe that the entire process from the Switch 2 being cracked to the emergence of an emulator capable of running commercial games has progressed far faster than many people expected. As more developers join the project, Switch 2 simulation technology may achieve further breakthroughs in a short time in the future.
However, this development may also cause concern from Nintendo. Nintendo has previously taken severe legal action against the Switch simulation ecosystem, including pushing to shut down well-known emulator projects Yuzu and Ryujinx. As the Switch 2 emulator gradually takes shape, the relevant development teams may face legal pressure from Nintendo in the future.
Nonetheless, current Eglantine is still in a highly experimental stage. For ordinary players, it cannot yet be considered a complete and reliable Switch 2 gaming platform. However, it only took a few days from the completion of the cracking to the realization of "Mario Kart World" running on PC. This development speed has fully demonstrated that the Switch 2 simulation ecosystem is rapidly taking shape.
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