The Best Free Snes Emulators in 2020 (Windows/android/mac)

The video game scenario has changed a lot in the last 50 years. We are playing high-end games like Apex Legends, Assassin’s Creed, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, GTA V and many more.

But things then were different. Video games systems like Super Nintendo Entertainment System or commonly called SNES were very popular.

The games like Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Tetris have remained in our heart and playing those games in our modern PC system is not easy.

Here I have come up with some great SNES emulators in order to bring back the nostalgia from your childhood.

What are Emulators?

Emulators are nothing but just software that try to imitate the functions of a different system in a different working environment.

So the main perk about emulators is that we don’t need to buy the old Nintendo system which is almost impossible now to play the classic games.

They are legal within themself but the games that we play in them are the property of their respective company and they hold their license so it can be illegal in many countries so be careful while using SNES emulators.

Also, check Working Xbox 360 emulators for pc

The Best Free Snes Emulators in 2020

* SNES MINI/CANOE

The most legal and trusted way to enjoy SNES games in modern PC is their own custom emulator called SNES Classic Edition. But SNES Classic Edition is not a full package in itself. Nintendo built a custom emulator called Canoe.

Canoe is the most accurate emulator of all times and never fails as it is developed by the Nintendo team themself. But you can not download Canoe to use independently of the SNES Classic Edition.

* RetroArch

Taking the second spot is RetroArch, is a great SNES emulator that also provides cross-platform support so that you do not need to worry about the platform and can enjoy games on a variety of platforms.

RetroArch has its unique library called Liberto cores. RetroArch has a really clean UI so you can enjoy the nostalgia of classic games in an easy way. There is support for a variety of controllers and it offers advanced features like rewinding, shaders, and netplay.
Everyone loves gaming right?

But some prefer streaming their gameplay too. So good news for the streamers. RetroArch provides gameplay streaming option in the popular streaming platforms like Twitch.tv and YouTube.

RetroArch also allows users to play a lot of other games released on different platforms like Game Boy, Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo Wii and many more. And the best part is that this emulator is completely free and is developed for almost all platforms like Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and web.

* Higan

Hitting off the third spot in the list, here comes higan which is a great simulator that supports multiple consoles so you can enjoy the games released for other consoles (Nintendo Famicom, Nintendo Super Famicom, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear, Sega Mega Drive, NEC PC Engine, NEC SuperGrafx, Bandai WonderSwan, and Bandai WonderSwan Color) including SNES and plus point this emulator can run every SNES game ever released.

This emulator does not work perfectly on the old and low-end devices but it is the best where it runs as higan emulates the original hardware as accurately as possible so you will experience the best gameplay and regarding my view, this emulator is my personal favorite. higan is supported in Windows, macOS, and linux.

Sadly no support for Android here.

* ZSNES

I do not like the user interface of this emulator at all but it is much easier to use. I think the main reason behind its old fashioned UI is its development stopped back in 2007. But keeping the interface things aside, it can run popular games so it is popular among gamers.

It is supported in both Linux and Windows and offers the filters to select the video output quality, save states support. ZNES is a well popular but the main flaw of this emulator is that is has well-known security exploit and you might get redirected to a webpage and some unwanted apps might get installed automatically in your system.

* SNES9x

The next emulator in the list is SNES 9x which is much easy to use an emulator. No installation process. Directly extract the file and enjoy the emulator.

And cool thing this emulator doesn’t require any significant adjustment so you can enjoy the games immediately after the extraction process.

SNES9X can run virtually all SNES titles without any serious issues and it works well on relatively dated hardware.

SNES9x is one of the best SNES emulators preferred in the low end-users or the users with low end or outdated hardware.

It comes up with a great selection of features, including Output Image Processing for better graphics, save states to save games in the exact spot you want them to save, fast forward to speed up games and you can enjoy this emulator in Windows, macOS, and Linux.

SNES9x emulator also provides a recording feature that allows you to capture .avi movies of your gameplay.

* SNES9x EX+

If you are an Android guy and prefer to enjoy gaming in Android rather than PC then this emulator is for you. SNES9x EX+ is a completely free and ad-free emulator which is rare or hard to find in the case of Android SNES emulators.

The UI is not updated with time but its overall performance is mind-blowing but I mean mind-blowing only for the devices with a clock speed of 1GHz and more.

SNES9x EX+ is capable of doing everything that an emulator is supposed to do.

Same as snes9x there is a ps4 emulator for android you can try.

* OpenEmu

Good news for mac users. This is probably the best emulator for macOS and is similar to RetroArch so commonly regarded as a front-end emulator.

So you need to download some additional cores to play games. One thing I like about this emulator is its UI. It has a very basic and clean UI that a normal mac user would prefer to have and suits with the macOS UI. OpenEmu emulator offers a bunch of filters to improve visual output.

And plus point you can run this emulator in almost most of the Mac devices including new to old. The extra perk about using this emulator is that you can use a retro controller in the game as it supports multiple input methods.

* Nestopia UE

This emulator runs the SNES games like bananas and is highly accurate. Its original version Nestopia is officially dead as the developers ended the development process in 2008 but the other version Nestopia UE ( Undead Edition ) is still in action and you can enjoy this emulator in playing a whole lot of SNES games.

The undead edition is basically a RetroArch core emulator so you don’t need to go through the tedious process of setting up RetroArch.

The emulation fans are crazy over this emulators due to features like Famicom mic support, game-specific custom palettes and cheat support. Not to be missed, Nestopia UE comes up with VSync support but remember you will face some input lag if you use this feature.

As mentioned earlier, you do not need to hassle up with its basic user interface. This emulator comes in a variety of systems including Windows, macOS, and Linux.

So these were some shortlisted SNES emulators which were all free. Comment down below if you want more of these list or if you need the list of the paid ones.