Developer Takoroka released Eden NX2, an experimental variant of Eden that transforms the well-known Nintendo Switch emulator into the first unofficial Nintendo Switch 2 emulator available for download and testing on PC, and which on social networks already showcases Mario Kart World running on Windows machines. This is an unofficial fork that adds initial support for Nintendo’s new console, published on October 29 as a preview build that operates with Vulkan graphics, and for now is available only for 64-bit Windows 10 and 11.
Eden is a free, open‑source program designed to emulate Nintendo Switch games; it has builds for Windows, Linux, macOS, Android and FreeBSD, and it enables most commercial titles to run at full speed provided the hardware is capable. Eden NX2 builds on that base in an attempt to do the same for the Switch 2, and although it remains a very early project, it demands a powerful PC with a graphics card bearing 8 GB of VRAM or more and 16 GB of RAM.
What the Nintendo Switch 2 Emulator Can Do
On the version page, Takoroka warns that the emulator “needs a lot of fixes, but it’s a start,” and that “there are some meshes missing due to unimplemented shaders,” so there are still elements of the game that do not render yet. He also clarifies that he can only test it on Windows, does not recommend using virtual environments such as WSL because they tend to be imprecise, and has published the source code so the community can adapt it for Linux.
On social media, players began sharing clips of titles in motion and assert that Mario Kart World runs at 60 FPS, with occasional hiccups while shaders compile, and that the emulator is advancing at an astonishing rate, while others compare it to what Cemu, the Wii U emulator, achieved in 2016.
The Progress After the Switch 2’s First Jailbreak
This Nintendo Switch 2 emulator arrives a few days after Switch 2–exclusive titles started running on PC and Mac, including Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza and Splatoon Raiders, thanks to ns2jb, the console’s first jailbreak, which runs on system version 23.0.1.
At that time, Mario Kart World became the first game to complete a race outside the console using a modified nxnative, a tool that translates Nintendo’s system functions and NVN2 graphics to their Mac equivalents, while developer Will Faust showed videos of the game running on macOS and even on an iPhone 18 Pro.
For this reason, several outlets labeled this rapid progress as “Nintendo’s worst nightmare,” and Eden NX2 now adds a PC alternative that anyone can download, although it requires your own extracted game from a Switch 2.
How to Install the Nintendo Switch 2 Emulator on PC
Before you begin, you’ll need your own Nintendo Switch 2 games extracted from your console, because the emulator does not include any games, and a 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 PC with a Vulkan-compatible graphics card that has at least 8 GB of VRAM and 16 GB of RAM.
- Install the Microsoft component. Download and install the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (x64) from Microsoft’s official page, because without it the emulator won’t open.
- Download the emulator. Go to Eden NX2’s version page, find the files section and download the .zip for Windows, which weighs about 34 MB.
- Unzip the file. Right-click the .zip, choose “Extract All” and save the folder to your computer, where you’ll find the files eden.exe and eden-cli.exe.
- Open the emulator. Double-click eden.exe, and if Windows shows the warning “Windows protected your PC,” click “More information” and then “Run anyway.”
- Load your game. In the top menu, go to File and then Load File, search for your Switch 2 game folder, navigate to the exefs folder and select the main file.
- Be patient with the first minutes. When you begin playing, the emulator compiles the game’s shaders, so it’s normal to see stutters at first and some elements that are not yet drawn.
The work of Takoroka continued to grow in other projects, because his Eden version for the Switch 2 gave rise to Eglantine, an emulator now maintained by programmer Djihads80, and from it Zortos released an unofficial version of Eglantine which, according to its author, would fix a memory leak that had the RAM usage spiking above 20 GB to bring it down to 4–5 GB, would allow booting more games such as Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, and would enable most games to run at 60 FPS, although for now only a Windows beta is available and the author warns that long-term stability and compatibility with more games have not yet been verified.
