Can the Wii handle all SNES games full speed and which is considered the best emulator?

saulin · 2026-09-13T17:36:55+0100

I just got a CRT TV and I'm trying Retro Games on my Wii

I tried some TG-16 VC titles that support 240p and I was impressed with how sharp and nice they look on the my CRT TV that I started injecting roms for games that do not have 240p support into a wad that has the emulator with 240p support.

I tried Snes9xGX 5.0.2 and I did get SNES games looking pretty good but I'm not sure they did look as good as some of the TG-16 VC titles with 240p support. Is Snes9xGX 5.0.2 the best SNES emulator to use for the Wii?

I did try Yoshi's island and to me it looked like it was running full speed at least of the first couple of levels but maybe it was doing frame skipping? I did not see options for frame skipping in the emulator so I don't know

So my question is does the Wii have enough power for full speed emulation of the all SNES titles, including the ones with special chips like StarFox, Yoshi's island and I believe SFA2? since Nintendo never made a VC releases for Yoshi's island or StarFox for example on the Wii.

JuanMena · 2026-09-13T18:05:30+0100

SNES9xGX = Best SNES emulator.

As far as I understand, Virtual Console relies in custom built emulation, meaning, each Virtual Console channel/was has a different version of an emulator/translator, so not all SNES roms will work if injected. You're better off using SNES9xGX, which I remember already supported 240p.

If you're like: "bUt mY cHaNnEls LoOoOk prEttTy" then I guess be prepared for some trial and error. Of course, not saying you shouldn't, just saying SNES9xGX already does a pretty good job.

saulin · 2026-09-13T18:36:23+0100

JuanMena said:
SNES9xGX = Best SNES emulator.

As far as I understand, Virtual Console relies in custom built emulation, meaning, each Virtual Console channel/was has a different version of an emulator/translator, so not all SNES roms will work if injected. You're better off using SNES9xGX, which I remember already supported 240p.

If you're like: "bUt mY cHaNnEls LoOoOk prEttTy" then I guess be prepared for some trial and error. Of course, not saying you shouldn't, just saying SNES9xGX already does a pretty good job.

I tried the nightly build from

https://github.com/dborth/snes9xgx

And it does have more options and yes this one is looking better and Yoshi's island appears to be running full speed without frameskip on.

I don't mind emulators. It's just that for TG-16 I was not finding very good emulators. They are very outdated. I found the emulators that were officially released for the VC to look better.

JuanMena · 2026-09-13T18:42:28+0100

saulin said:
I tried the nightly build from

https://github.com/dborth/snes9xgx

And it does have more options and yes this one is looking better and Yoshi's island appears to be running full speed without frameskip on.

I don't mind emulators. It's just that for TG-16 I was not finding very good emulators. They are very outdated. I found the emulators that were officially released for the VC to look better.

Ah yes... Turbo Grafx 16 is a somewhat obscure console. For Turbo Grafx 16 in Wii I use RetroArch.

If I'm honest, RetroArch in Wii is fine because of convenience... but for SNES in Wii, SNES9xGX is unbeaten.

Retroarch in Wii can do:
- Nes
- Sega Master System / Megadrive/Genesis
- TurboGrafx 16
- SNES (has some issues)
- GB / GBC / GBA
- Mame 2003
- Neo Geo
- CPS 1 / CPS 2
- CPS 3 at some extent
- Neo Geo Pocket
- Wonderswan
- Atari 2600 / 5200 / 7800
- Spectrum / Commodore / MSX

So yeah it really depends on how you want to suffer and if you're willing to conform. Let's be honest the Wii is no powerhouse, and the emulators are already doing a lot of magic.

Can the Wii handle all SNES games full speed and which is considered the best emulator?

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90s Kid, Old Skull Gamer & Artist.

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90s Kid, Old Skull Gamer & Artist.

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