In a perfect world, Nintendo would cut the chains that bind its franchises so they could appear on computers and other consoles… but we all know that isn’t going to happen. Even though they exist in a gray area, the best alternative comes through the emulators, and in the specific case of the Nintendo 3DS, one of the most compatible examples out there is Citra.
Those of us who closely follow the world of emulation have been amazed by the extraordinary progress of Cemu, and its execution of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Some demos already show it at 4K 60 FPS, a performance that none of Nintendo's consoles can reproduce. Of course, you need considerable hardware firepower, and if you have something like that at your disposal (plus the patience to tolerate the occasional glitch), it's definitely worth trying. Now, what about handheld consoles?
3DS emulation is interesting for several reasons, but the Pokémon saga tops the list. No, I'm not going to share links for downloading it or anything like that; however, what I can do is suggest an emulator. It's called Citra, which already been featured on NeoTeo before.
The first step to enjoying the best emulation is to check if the title you want to play works well. The database on the official page is limited, but there we find several high-profile examples. Pokémon Omega Ruby, Alpha Sapphire, Sun and Moon work wonderfully, while Pokémon X and Y still suffer many problems. Then we need to download the exact build. Citra divides its development into Nightly Builds (unstable but potentially more compatible), and Bleeding Edge, "extreme betas" if you will. It's always best to start with the latest version, although in the case of emulators, the latest is not always the best.
Finally... the hardware. Due to its nature, Citra cannot establish a list of minimum requirements, except for essential parameters such as a 64-bit operating system (whether Windows, Linux or Mac OS), and a graphics module with support for OpenGL 3.3 or higher. As for the processor, Citra depends a lot on single-threading performance, a detail that gives some advantage to Intel chips. Give it a try, and let us know how it went.
