When news of Yuzu's shutdown broke, I was a little disheartened but not surprised. While I saw the value in the project, it felt like they flew too close to the sun with the amount of money they were taking in and some of their business practices, not to mention emulating a console still being sold today. And while we do have Ryujinx, another Nintendo Switch emulator has risen up to try to capture our hearts, and it's quite interesting.

SteamDeckHQ does not promote, encourage, or tolerate piracy in any way, shape, or form, but we do value emulation and the necessity it brings for game preservation.

Nintendo Switch Emulator Suyu

Enter Suyu, a self-proclaimed continuation of the Yuzu emulator. Written in C++ with portability in mind, the developers are working to keep the emulation dream alive but not fall into the same pit as the predecessor. They mention that they do not intend to make any money or profit from the project, will not supply keys or any games that could be used with it, and promote needing everything to be legally obtained.

The project was created two weeks ago, on March 5th, and they have officially released their first version. This includes a full rebrand, improved add-ons manager, fix for video playback on AMD devices, multiplayer API getting re-implemented, removal of ALL telemetry, a requirement for all keys and firmware to be user-provided, and more. You can download a Windows, Linux, MacOS, and Android build right now to test it. The Linux build is in .appimage format, so you should be able to use it on the Steam Deck.

You can download it from Gitlab.

Suyu

While I haven't tested performance on the Steam Deck, and most likely won't, it is interesting to see another Switch emulator pop up so soon. But, from everything I am reading, it seems like a significantly better stance on how emulation should be: Prioritizing game preservation, not profits. The project is still extremely early on, and it is very risky after the Yuzu out-of-court settlement agreement, but we will see how it turns out. I am otherwise more optimistic thanks to the standards they have set.

If you enjoyed this article, check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that will help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for newstips and tutorialsgame settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back!

Noah Kupetsky
A lover of gaming since 4, Noah has grown up with a love and passion for the industry. From there, he started to travel a lot and develop a joy for handheld and PC gaming. When the Steam Deck released, it just all clicked.
Steam Profile