nxnative (Switch games running natively on iPhone and iPad)

This site is not affiliated with nxnative or Nintendo. We link only the official repository and never point to game files, keys or ready-made apps.

What it is

nxnative turns a folder of Switch game files into an iPhone app. The Switch and Apple chips are both ARM64, so the game’s own code runs directly; a rewriter changes the few instructions Apple’s systems do not allow. A host stands in for Horizon, the Switch’s operating system, with threads, memory, saves, input, audio and movies. The Switch’s NVN graphics are rebuilt on Metal. Shaders go through the Ryujinx shader translator (MIT) and SPIRV-Cross. Games that draw with Vulkan, such as Hades, or with OpenGL get layers of their own.

Each supported game has its own profile, patches and fixes, so this is a set of game-specific ports sharing one engine, not a general emulator. nxnative started as a copy of the generic parts of D2R Mobile, the Diablo II: Resurrected port, and the README says fixes go both ways.

Which games?

On 23 October 2026 the README listed 48 games tested on an iPhone and playable. Among them:

• Nintendo: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (60 fps with update 1.4.3), Breath of the Wild (60 fps with 1.9.0) and Link’s Awakening; Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Captain Toad, Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe; Pokémon Legends: Z-A; Animal Crossing: New Horizons (update 3.0.3); Metroid Dread; Fire Emblem Engage and Three Houses; Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity; Rhythm Heaven Groove.
• Other publishers: Hollow Knight: Silksong, Hades and Hades II, Celeste, Cuphead, Balatro, Monster Hunter Rise, Dark Souls: Remastered, Dragon Quest XI S and VII Reimagined, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, Octopath Traveler 0, Unicorn Overlord, 13 Sentinels and several Ace Attorney and visual-novel games.

Each game was tested on one version. Other versions are packed with their own shaders but untested, and fixes such as the 60 fps patches don’t apply to them. Known issues include no amiibo, no online play, and small graphics glitches in Fire Emblem: Three Houses and the Galaxy games. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe doesn’t draw Mii heads, because nxnative uses no firmware.

What you need

• Your own game files: the base game as NSP (or an XCI cartridge dump), plus its update and DLC if you have them, and prod.keys from your own Switch. We do not explain how to dump or obtain files.
• A Mac to pack the IPA: with Xcode and Homebrew, then xcodegen, zstd, spirv-cross, glslang, the .NET SDK and a few Python packages. The first build takes 30–60 minutes, later ones about 10. Free disk space should be about twice the game’s size plus 10 GB. IPAs run from 54 MB (Animal Well) to about 22 GB (Monster Hunter Rise).
• An iPhone or iPad: iOS/iPadOS 26 or later on an iPhone 15 Pro or newer (A17 Pro chip) or an iPad with M1 or later.
• A way to install it: a sideloading tool such as AltStore, Sideloadly or LiveContainer, or Xcode with an Apple developer account.

How to build and install it

The README describes four steps. You clone the repository and install the tools once. You put one game’s NSPs in a folder. You run scripts/build_ipa_from_nsp.py with that folder and your prod.keys, and the IPA appears next to the files. Then you install the IPA with your sideloading tool; the app takes the game’s name, icon and version.

The IPA is unsigned, so your sideloading tool signs it. The README asks you to add the Increased Memory Limit capability if your tool can. Without it iOS gives the app about 3.4 GB and closes the bigger games, such as Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and Hades II; Breath of the Wild and Cuphead come close. With it a recent iPhone gives about 6 GB. The developer docs note that not every account can provision this capability.

The other route is --prepare-xcode, which makes an Xcode project instead of an IPA. Xcode then signs the app with your Apple developer account and installs it on a device in Developer Mode. The README does not say whether a free account is enough.

Before the game starts, a settings screen offers frame rate, render scale, docked or handheld mode, language and a frame counter. There are touch controls in 2D and 3D layouts, game controllers work, and shaking the phone counts as shaking the controller. Saves sit in the Files app.

On a Mac

nxnative has no Mac app for players. The developer docs call the Mac the development host: --platform mac builds a game to run in a window on Apple silicon for testing. LumaDock, a separate MIT-licensed Mac app by Xc1Ym, wraps nxnative in a game library so you can import your NSPs, build them and launch them on the Mac, or export an IPA.

Is it official, and will it stay up?

• nxnative is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with Nintendo or any publisher. The repository contains no game content. The finished IPA contains the game built from your own files, so don’t share it.
• Bait check: the repository is new, but the author’s GitHub account dates from 2013 and has 54 public repositories. The full source is in the repository, there are no releases to download, and work is active: about 310 commits by 23 October 2026, pull requests from several contributors, about 2,500 stars and 460 forks.
• Takedowns: we found none. GitHub’s public DMCA archive had no notice naming nxnative on 23 October 2026. Nintendo filed notices there in October 2026, against Ryujinx and Yuzu copies on 1 October and a Rhythm Tengoku decompilation on 23 October. nxnative needs prod.keys and reuses Ryujinx code, so it is exposed.
• Get it only from the official repository. Sites or channels offering ready-made IPAs with a game inside are not the project.

How it relates to the other Apple ports

• LumaDock is nxnative’s Mac front end. It does not include nxnative; you point it at your own copy.
• MacNativeGames is a separate Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild port with its own engine, from the same D2R Mobile roots. It has a Mac app build and lists iPhone 14 or newer; nxnative needs an iPhone 15 Pro but covers 48 games.
• Mush8 is a dedicated Mario Kart 8 Deluxe port with multiplayer. nxnative also runs Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, without online play.

Was it made with AI?

The README doesn’t say. The repository keeps an AGENTS.md and a docs/agents folder of notes written for AI coding agents, which suggests AI help, but how much isn’t stated.

Related

• LumaDock: the Mac launcher for nxnative.
• Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on Mac and iPhone and Breath of the Wild on Mac: the MacNativeGames ports.
• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on iPhone and Mac and Diablo II: Resurrected on iPhone: other Switch games run natively on Apple chips.
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder on PC: a separate recompilation project for Windows.
• More Apple-device ports: iPhone and Mac ports.

Unofficial. This page is written by an independent directory. It is not made by, endorsed by or affiliated with Nintendo and others or seedds (nxnative (Switch games running natively on iPhone and iPad)'s author). We do not host any files, and we never link to game files, ROMs or ISOs.