Dolphin, the excellent GameCube and Wii emulator, is now available as a standalone Xbox app, so we can finally put Series X to the ultimate test: playing F-Zero GX.
Strictly speaking, Dolphin has been playable on Xbox consoles for some time as a core for the emulation frontend RetroArch. This standalone version launched near the end of 2022, featuring a more up-to-date implementation of Dolphin with (potentially, at least) better performance. A video from ModernVintageGamer on YouTube offers a broad breakdown.
Basically, the emulator will let you run GameCube and Wii games on any modern Xbox - though you might want to stick with Series S and X, as One and One X consoles will have some serious performance issues with those emulated games. MVG's testing has found that games run great on Series S, even performing well at 1440p, effectively giving these titles a light remaster.
This Xbox version is pretty barebones as it stands, with just a handful of options available in the UI. Other options, including controller mapping, require you to adjust a config file on PC and move it to your console. Of course, the vast majority of Wii games are unsupported regardless of your settings, since you can't hook up a Wii remote to an Xbox for motion controls.
Xbox Series X and S have already proven to be solid emulation machines, with support for an array of consoles through RetroArch. A DuckStation port handily emulates PS1 games, and XBSX2 even offers solid PlayStation 2 emulation. None of these emulators are available through Xbox's own app store, however, instead requiring installs through workarounds like Gamr13's app listings, or use of an Xbox console in dev mode.
It's time to revisit the best GameCube games of all time.
