Skip to main content

Just days after release, 'Breath of the Wild' is running on a Wii U emulator

Cemu 1.7.3 - BotW
Praised for its innovative game design and killer visuals, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild went from one of the most eagerly anticipated games of 2017 to one of the best reviewed games in recent memory. To celebrate the release of
Recommended Videos
Breath of the Wild, the team behind the CemU Wii U emulator figured out how to get the game to run on a PC.

Partially, anyway.

Just two days after Breath of the Wild hit store shelves, the CemU team had managed to get it working on their Wii U emulation platform. Don’t get too excited — it’s still in very early stages, and most of the game is unplayable due to game-breaking physics bugs and other major issues.

According to Kotaku Australia, you can’t get very far in the game, and performance is still a little rough. Running on an Intel Core i7-4790K, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 780, and 8GB of system memory, the emulation delivers predictably choppy performance. The real achievement here is that it’s running at all, the CemU team went from barely being able to access the menus in Breath of the Wild to having access to the full game in just two days.

Motherboard spoke to “Exzap,” one of the CemU team’s developers, and shed some light on the magnitude of their achievement, as well as their plans for the future.

“The goal is to get every game running 100 percent eventually. How we get there and how long it will take is difficult to answer. But in regards to [Breath of the Wild] I think we will see small incremental improvements in almost every future CemU release. It’s been this way for most other games so far,” Exzap said, speaking with Motherboard’s Jordan Pearson.

Eventually, the goal is to have a fully functional version of Breath of the Wild capable of running in CemU, which could mean you’d be able to play the game at resolutions beyond its native 720p or 900p. That is, unless Nintendo’s legal team manages to squash the project first, an eventuality which Exzap says he’s already preparing for.

Jayce Wagner
Former Digital Trends Contributor
A staff writer for the Computing section, Jayce covers a little bit of everything -- hardware, gaming, and occasionally VR.
The best horses in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

There are plenty of ways to roam the land of Hyrule in Breath of the Wild, but few are as well-developed as horse riding. Not only does the game let you tame a variety of horses found in the wild, but you can customize your horse by changing its saddle, bridle, and even its physical attributes. Toss in the ability to discover Malanya, the horse god, and there's a lot to unpack with this down-to-earth travel method.

However, not all horses are worth taming and adding to your stable. And since horse taming is a time-consuming task, it's important to know the best horses in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild so you don't waste your day chasing a steed that's not much faster than Link.

Read more
Play these 3DS and Wii U games before Nintendo shutters their online features
Captain Falcon in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

In April 2024, Nintendo will discontinue online services across its Wii U and 3DS consoles. While the eShops for both systems were shut down in March 2023, this will remove the online functionality of many apps and games, making gaming on either of these platforms an almost entirely offline experience. As a result, many games on those systems will lose important features and never be quite the same to play afterward. So, you'll need to get some gaming time in by next April if you want to refresh and preserve the memories of playing online on these two underdog Nintendo platforms.
While the aforementioned eShop closures make it impossible to buy new games digitally, plenty of games that you likely already own physical copies of or already had downloaded have online features that won't work properly come April 2024. As such, we recommend you play the following games online before the discontinuation of those services next year.
Kid Icarus Uprising

Kid Icarus Uprising is mostly remembered for its entertaining story, charismatic characters, and odd controls, but it also features a surprisingly fun multiplayer experience in Together Mode. In multiplayer, up to six players can use powerful weapons and abilities from the main adventure in one of two modes. Free-for-all lets players loose on a map, tasking them with racking up the most kills within a set time limit. Light vs. Dark is more complex, as two teams of three face off until enough players are defeated that one respawns as an angel; when that powered-up angel is killed, the match is over.
While far from balanced, Kid Icarus Uprising's Together Mode is one of the most entertaining competitive multiplayer experiences exclusive to 3DS. It can be played locally, using bots to fill in empty spots, so thankfully it won't stop working entirely. Still, it's not easy in 2023 to come across multiple people near you who have copies of Kid Icarus Uprising and want to play. As such, check out this cult classic 3DS game's hidden gem of a mode before praying that the rumors of a remaster eventually become true.
Nintendo Badge Arcade

Read more
Nintendo is shutting down online services for 3DS and Wii U next April
Mega Man and Mario fight in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U,

Nintendo confirmed it will widely shut down online services for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U games in April 2024, which will be just over a year after it discontinued the Nintendo eShop on those systems.
This deactivation of most of the online services for those platforms was revealed on X (formerly Twitter) and Nintendo's support site early Wednesday. "In early April 2024, online play and other functionality that uses online communication will end for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software. This also includes online co-operative play, internet rankings, and data distribution," the message says. "We will announce a specific end date and time at a later date. Please note that if an event occurs that would make it difficult to continue online services for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software, we may have to discontinue services earlier than planned. We sincerely thank players for using the online services of Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software over a long period of time and apologize for any inconvenience."
Essentially, this means that after April 2024, you won't be able to use any online features in things like 3DS Pokémon games or Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U anymore. Nintendo does say in the Q&A section of its support article that people will still be able to play games offline and redownload updates and games from the Nintendo eShop for the foreseeable future. Pokémon Bank will remain unaffected, so it'll still be possible to transfer Pokémon from Ruby and Sapphire all of the way to Pokémon Home. However, SpotPass support and other online-focused applications like Nintendo Badge Arcade will stop working entirely.

Just like the Wii U and 3DS eShop closure that caused a ruckus earlier this year, this move is a blow to game preservation and will forever harm some games not available anywhere else. While it's understandable that Nintendo might want to move on from these systems' dated online infrastructure, it's still a disappointing move for those of us who spent a lot of time playing games offline and online on these systems.

Read more