Nintendo has finally improved the N64 emulator for the Switch. With the update bringing Banjo-Kazooie to the catalog, many graphical bugs have been fixed, especially on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Despite everything, there is still a long way to go to obtain an emulation worthy of the name, because several problems have not yet been resolved.
Last October, Nintendo rolled out a big update for its Switch Online service. After the NES and SNES emulators, players were able to discover a large catalog of N64 and Megadrive games. Although the price of the subscription has increased accordingly, it is with some impatience that the first hour fans as well as neophytes have been able to (re) discover the console classics that marked their era. Corn after the excitement came the disappointment.
Indeed, the emulator quickly turned out to be a disaster. The sound of several games is off, titles like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time present many graphical bugs. The extent of the rumble is such that within days of launch, Nintendo of America’s president assured that player criticism was taken. “very seriously”. We had to wait until the new year for a first solution to be proposed.
Nintendo is improving the N64 emulator, but it’s not quite there yet
On Twitter, gamers noticed the latest Switch Online update, dubbed Banjo-Kazooie in connection with the game’s arrival in the catalog, brings significant changes to the emulator. On The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in particular, the water quality has been significantly improved. This is not the only game concerned, because the entire application seems to have been reworked.
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“Whatever fix they did for Zelda Ocarina of Time, it was not added as a hack, it appears to be an actual emulator fix”, explains the dataminer LuigiBlood. Unfortunately, many problems remain. Another player points out that Paper Mario keeps crashing unexpectedly. To take the example of Ocarina of Time, the fog still does not seem to be taken into account by the emulator.
You will therefore have to wait a little longer if you intend to relive the experience of the time on your Switch. In the meantime, the N64 catalog should be enriched with 20 additional games in the coming weeks, according to dataminers. According to MondoMega, Nintendo plans to add a total of 38 titles to its emulator.
[NSO – Nintendo 64]
It seems the water in the now-infamous Water Temple room has been fixed in the latest update? I think the fog is still missing, though.
Haven’t checked the rest of the game to see if any of the other issues have changed, but this is promising. pic.twitter.com/wcoG3hIxu2
—OatmealDome (@OatmealDome) January 21, 2022