Towards the end of last year we shared some updates on Cemu, a prospective emulator for the Wii U. Though likely a significant amount of time away from delivering the kind of performance that Dolphin has with Wii and GameCube, it's proving to be an intriguing project for those involved and following it - once you step around debates around the morals of the whole practice.
When we last reported on Cemu it successfully ran the Wii U version of Shovel Knight, though unsurprisingly not at optimal levels; it was still failing to even load most major retail games. Now version 1.3.0 is out, and it appears to have brought further improvements for those dabbling in its possibilities; users still need hulking PCs to have games run at a particularly low framerate, but previous no-go games are now loading properly.
Two examples are Super Mario Maker and Mario Kart 8, which now both run in Cemu. You can see this below, but the first video has no sound while the second has some rather loud music - all to avoid YouTube copyright strikes.
A number of other games still seem to be unplayable in the latest build, failing to even get past loading screens or to generate visuals properly. Problem games with demonstration videos online include Super Mario 3D World, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.
As we always try to do when covering Cemu, let's clarify a few key points. Cemu is evidently a long way from being usable and genuinely replicating Wii U performance, and like Dolphin is unlikely to impact Wii U game sales due to timescales and the niche nature of the project. One of the programmers behind it also explained last year why development is closed source, due to a desire to stop the emulator being utilised in future for hacking and cheating.
But of course there are other concerns as well, like development suddenly focusing on a direction which is not favorable to the original intentions of the emulator. Example: Focus on hacky solutions to get games into playable state earlier. I can see this happen in a open-source environment more likely, because piracy can become the main source for development motivation. Another example: Splatoon is moving towards playability fast, but online features are of low priority to avoid people using the emulator to cheat in online-play and ruin the experience for everyone. With open-source code there is no easy way to steer the development focus away.
In any case it's rather intriguing to see how far this has progressed, and likewise how far it still has to go. We'll stick to our 60fps Wii U performance in these games, while keeping an eye on the emulator's ongoing - and potentially futile - battle to recreate the system's magic on a PC.
Comments 37
Awesome, but I have a Wii U, so I'll pass on Cemu
I would assume a site that is catering to Nintendo fans would have a majority of readers that own a Wii U. Is there that much of a demand for any of us to follow this news so we can play emulated games on the pc?
My Wii U was stolen recently and it'll probably be a while before I get another one (not to mention all the games I had for it, digital/physical were stolen, too.)
So, godspeed you emulator developer!
Why are you guys basically promoting pirating? Is that sort of scummy for a reporter?
Or they could just buy a Wii U and save themselves a lot of time and hassle, lol.
I'm torn on this.
On one hand, I fully support emulators. They're great for preserving video game history, playing extremely rare titles, and for bringing homebrew to the front.
On the other, making an emulator for a still-supported system has bad idea written all over it.
@LUIGITORNADO @JohnBlackstar
If I had to guess... The reactions from readers here plus the relevancy to Nintendo... It'll be a controversial topic. And controversial topics garner lots of comments, views, clicks, and revenue.
Of course, I'm jaded as can be. So perhaps there is a more honest reason.
While I do support the idea of emulators it always troubles me when a newer console emulator comes out. Like my friend who just got three 4k monitors for his gaming pc refuses to buy a wiiu and one of the reasons is because this emulator is coming out.
Still at this rate it feels like it will come out at the earliest right at the end of the wiiu's life (which is sooner rather than later sadly) and the people who are going to be able to run it at this time will be few in numbers anyways.
(Also are people still getting copyright striked for Super Mario Maker on YouTube? I have not for some of my past videos so I figured Nintendo was smart and stopped doing that).
@ZAZX
Funnily enough emulators often emerge during the lifecycle of the system being emulated.
ZSNES released in 1997, seven years after the SNES launched.
Visualboy Advance released in 2004, three years after the GBA launched.
Dolphin Emulator's Wii emulation was in a playable state during the Wii's lifecycle.
I don't have any use for a Wii U emulator, but I am still really impressed with the progress made. I'm interested to see how far this project goes.
@ZAZX +1
Great stuff! Hopefully in about 10 years time they'll have it running perfectly so people who didn't get a WiiU at the time can try some of the big and little gems from the eshop and big games too. VC is a con in my eyes.
I have no problem with emulation. Never works well for current gens for a long long time (saturn) so most of the planet don't bother till years later. Wish I had the know how on how to do this stuff. Interesting.
Why would you make or need an emulator of a console that's still being produced? SNES and even N64 I understand, but Wii U? C'mon, just buy the console!
I wish Nintendo Life would stop reporting on this sort of thing. An emulator is the same as piracy to me since you're supposed to BUY the hardware to play the games.
I wouldn't care as much if this was an emulator for an old console but I still wouldn't want them to report on it.
I'm kinda disappointed with Nintendo Life over these type articles.
I don't emulate consoles still on the shelves, if you know what I mean. Heck, I barely touch most emulation these days unless it's VC.
I already have the best Wii U emulator in existence: the Nintendo Wii U.
It's posts like these that are getting in the way of more "9 rumours we'd like to see come true that are different from the 9 ways the NX could succeed thread posted 9 minutes ago" threads. Honestly.
All I can say is, good luck without a super powerful gaming rig.
If we can't discuss it on the Forums I don't think we should be discussing it on the main page
@LUIGITORNADO Because the staff here are hypocrits. If we were to post a thread like this it would be shut down immediately but they do cause they know they will get the clicks and traffic.
@Santa I agree 100% with you, but I guess your fellow staff members dont.
@Santa I agree with you. Why is the forum policies different than the news coverage?
There was a time when such a thing was interesting. But not anymore since the eshop was created.
@SmaMan Bummer! How did that happen?
@Santa That's a valid point! Why even advertise for emulators with these articles, especially from the current-gen?
@SmaMan
Nintendo Customer service can recover your digital games by looking up your NNID but your save files are forever lost...
@Tasuki Perhaps they need to clarify their policy to reassure on what can be discussed and what cannot, IGN recently had a discussion about this and cleared up any confusion regarding this particular topic. Not entirely sure if the staff wants to discuss that or not, but they really should clear any confusion about the TOS, just saying.
Edit: I did some scrounging through the forums and saw the rules for the forums
https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/general_discussion/da_rules#reply-01
And under there it does mention that at least on the forums, discussing it without linking is permitted. As far as discussing it here, that remains very unclear and would be prudent for that to be clarified.
@Mikegamer "It is permitted to constructively discuss the use of flash carts, emulators and homebrew software when in the context of previous generation(s) hardware. "
Hence my confusion on why the writers are allowed to discuss WiiU emulation, as it's current gen.
@shani My apartment was broken into a few weeks ago during the holidays. They made off with my Wii U, Xbox360, (w/ their games and controllers), my computer (so good luck doing this emulator, either) and nearly all of my Amiibos.
Luckily they didn't touch any of my retro stuff.
@Decapre
Really? That would be awesome! I always heard that wasn't the case since there wasn't an "account system" like on Xbox and stuff. Do I just give 'em a call when I get my new console?
@Santa It's because they are just looking for ways to bring traffic to the site. They just care if the topic is hot right now regardless if it goes against the rules or not.
@SmaMan If it was stolen Nintendo can indeed recover your digital games (not sure about physical). However you need to have filed a police report. Then you just call them and fax them, email the report not sure how you send it but once you do that, you should either get the games back or the credit to rebuy the games again.
@Tasuki
Wow, thanks for the info! It's... really helped me feel a little better about this whole thing. Let's hope Microsoft has a similar procedure...
@SmaMan Np. I know Nintendo will work with ya I have seen several people here and on other sites say that when their 3ds or Wii U was stolen with digital purchases as long as they had a police report they got the digital games recovered. Best of luck to ya.
@Santa Then that too would need to be reiterated by staff to be sure it too can be discussed, I don't get it either.
Jesus Christ this emulator is progressing a lot faster than expected! This is progressing faster than freaking Dolphin! I can't wait to see what come out of this!
I think the problem with Nintendo is that they make it incredibly difficult for people to develop their own games and programs for their own consoles, and when people want to use the media they have legally purchased on other computers or on different consoles, they can't. Nintendo should make it possible and simple for people to make their own games and programs. People will always 'pirate' games (a term itself promoted by the 'intellectual property' racket), so why do they have to make legitimate customers' lives difficult?
Why as a professional site? promoting these stuf? please remove articles like these. I'm disliking this site more and more.
Emulators are awesome. This is relevant news for a nintendo fansite. Please do an article on emulated N64 games in VR (which has been done).
I can't say I'm not both impressed and a bit disappointed by this news...
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