The Asus ROG Phone 3 is already one of the top rated phones of the year here at Android Authority. Not only is it a great gaming phone, it's a great phone in general. One thing we haven't addressed yet, however, is how it works when emulating console games. So we're going to cover some Asus ROG Phone 3 emulation tests here.
The ROG Phone 3 is a special beast and the first smartphone on the market with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus. So there is no point in testing Super Nintendo or even the PlayStation emulation. The ROG Phone 3 can handle anything from a fifth generation console or earlier without breaking a sweat.
Connected: Asus ROG Phone 3 Review: A Gaming Powerhouse For Everyone
Instead, we're going to look for the four most resource-intensive emulators for Android and try to emulate some of the toughest games for these consoles. In our Asus ROG Phone 3 emulator reviews, we focus on the following:
- Nintendo GameCube games with Dolphin (Vulkan backend)
- Nintendo 3DS Games with Citra (Default Settings)
- PlayStation 2 games with DamonPS2 (optimized settings for each title)
- PlayStation Portable games with PPSSPP (Vulkan backend)
For these tests we use the first-class ROG Phone 3 with 16 GB RAM, 512 GB UFS 3.1 storage and the SD865 Plus clocked at 3.1 GHz. Let's get to the tests!
Dolphin: Nintendo GameCube
For the Emus tests of the Asus ROG Phone 3 in the context of Dolphin, I chose two games that are difficult to emulate and one game that is relatively easy to emulate for high-end systems. The two tricky games are F-Zero GX and Metroid Prime while I used The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker as the launch game.
As expected, the ROG Phone 3 had no problem emulating The Wind Waker. At the very beginning of the title screen animation there were a few brief stutters and skipped frames, but when the game actually started it was as smooth as possible. My FPS counter was essentially locked at 30 fps, which is the native frame rate for the game.
The ROG Phone 3 proves that it can handle even the toughest GameCube games.
Things didn't go as smoothly for Metroid Prime. The game worked fine and is fully playable, but it's not perfect. There were times when the frame rate dropped and caused some screen stuttering, especially when moving from one room to another. This game is difficult to emulate so this is a really good result for a top Android phone.
F-Zero GX - one of the most difficult GameCube games to emulate on any system - was the worst of the three. Dropped frames and audio stuttering were quite common. Even so, these issues didn't mess up the gameplay at all, which is definitely impressive.
Citra: Nintendo 3DS
I've only tested two games with Citra: Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D and Super Mario 3D Land. The former is difficult to emulate, but not impossible, while the latter is probably the most difficult of all 3DS games.
Surprisingly, Donkey Kong played flawlessly during my Asus ROG Phone 3 emulation test. Yes, there were a lot of dropped frames and even audio stuttering here and there, but I was able to play through multiple levels with no problem. After a while, my brain didn't even notice the restlessness and I felt at home.
Unfortunately, I can't say the same thing about Super Mario 3D Land. This game was not playable on the ROG Phone 3. Audio stuttering and dropped frames caused Mario to sometimes float in space for two seconds, messing up the gameplay. These problems would harm or even die in some cases, which was incredibly frustrating. I saw the same problem when playing this game on the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. So it looks like Super Mario 3D Land is still not ready for Android.
DamonPS2: PlayStation 2
Unfortunately, PlayStation 2 emulation on Android requires the use of the DamonPS2 app. This paid app uses code taken straight from the open source PCSX2 emulator for Windows. The developer of DamonPS2 is refusing to release his version of the code, which violates the GNU General Public License. You may not be interested in this behind-the-scenes drama, but I wouldn't be sure if I didn't mention it for this article.
I played two games for this Asus ROG Phone 3 emulation test: God of War and Shadow of the Colossus. The former is a resource-intensive game, but it is still playable on many systems, while the latter is one of the most difficult PS2 games to emulate even on Windows.
See also: 15 best emulators for Android for playing old favorites
Unexpectedly, the Asus ROG Phone 3 absolutely destroyed it while imitating God of War. There were some strange artifacts on the screen every now and then, but the audio and frame rates hardly ever fluctuated. Kratos' movements were fluid and the animations looked great.
Shadow of the Colossus was nowhere near as good. In fact, Wander's sword was rendered as a strange black spot, and there were similar spots on the screen. The game's audio and frame rates were really solid though, way better than any Android phone I've ever tested this game on. While it would take a lot of compromises, it was the first time I felt like I could actually play Shadow of the Colossus on a phone.
PPSSPP: PlayStation Portable
Some of the most difficult PSP games to emulate are the two God of War titles: Ghost of Sparta and Chains of Olympus. I tested both for this article and was stunned to see that both ran almost flawlessly.
Ghost of Sparta looked amazing and was set to almost 60 fps the entire time. I didn't hear any audio crackling or see any strange display artifacts. It was like playing the game on a real PSP.
Two of the most difficult PSP games to emulate worked nearly flawlessly on the ROG Phone 3.
The same goes for chains of Olympus. The game looked and played incredibly well on the ROG Phone 3.
I'm sure that an extremely fussy gamer would find out that there were frame rate drops here and there. But the fact that I barely noticed any hiccups while playing these two games on a smartphone is pretty incredible.
Asus ROG Phone 3 Emulator Reviews: The Verdict
My Asus ROG Phone 3 emulation tests prove that this phone is probably the most powerful emulation system in the Android world right now. Sure, we haven't managed to play some of the titles in a capable manner, but these are the toughest games for any console. There are literally thousands of other games for these four systems that the ROG Phone 3 can easily handle.
Don't forget that these are also the sixth, seventh, and eighth generation consoles. The ROG Phone 3 can probably play any game for Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Dreamcast, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and even Nintendo DS with ease. That brings decades of gaming history into your pocket.
However, if you want to know that you can play every possible game, the ROG Phone 3 is not going to replace a high-end Windows-based PC. If you have a sufficiently powerful Windows-based system, you can even play the problematic games here from start to finish with no problem. You can also emulate games from even newer consoles like the Nintendo Wii U, PlayStation 3, and even the Nintendo Switch.
Right now, the Asus ROG Phone 3's emulation capabilities are probably the best you can get from an Android phone.
