The Best Pokemon Emulator iPhone Apps of 2024

If you’re looking for the best Pokemon emulator iPhone apps to play Pokemon games on your phone, you’ve found the right article. We’ll be covering all of the best Pokemon emulators available for iOS. You can use these to play classic Pokémon games on your iPhone on the go wherever you are.

Pokemon games were released for all of the popular handhelds, including the original Game Boy, Game Boy Color, GBA, and even on home consoles like the GameCube, etc. Many of the emulators that we’ll be mentioning also are compatible with cheat codes and some can even play the best Pokemon ROM hacks as well.

Without further ado, let’s get into it!

What Are The Best Pokemon Emulators for iPhone?

1. Delta

• Price: Free
• Official website

When you’re looking to play Pokémon games, the Delta emulator for iPhone or iPad devices is the obvious go to solution. It can emulate games across multiple handhelds including the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, NES, SNES, N64, and can even play Nintendo DS games. If you’re a fan of classic Pokemon games then you definitely know that some of the best games were released on those systems and being able to play games across all of them in one single emulator is a huge selling point.

Instead of having to go out and download different emulators for each system you want to play Pokemon games for, you only need Delta installed. Game compatibility wise, Delta is top notch. Games run with good performance and as long as you have a somewhat newer iPhone or iPad, you should be good to go without too many issues.

While installing Delta can be a bit of a headache, it’s honestly not too bad. The Apple App Store unfortunately decided to remove the emulator app from being listed so the developers created an entirely new appstore which users can use to download Delta from. This secondary appstore is called AltStore.

To download Delta, you’ll need to do the following:

• First head on over and download AltServer for Mac or PC from the following URL: https://altstore.io

• Next, connect your iOS device to your computer via lightning cable (or USB-C for iPad)
• Then you’ll want to Follow these instructions for your specific device to install the AltStore
• Next, head to the Browse tab in the AltStore and find the Delta emulator
• Tap FREE to begin installing Delta
• After it has finished installing you can then launch the app from your device’s Home Screen

Even though Apple tried their best to remove the Delta emulator from being usable on iOS, the developers still found a way to make it happen. That alone is reason enough to give Delta the number one Pokemon emulator for iPhone spot on this list. Give it a download to play classic Pokemon games on your iOS devices today!

2. RetroArch

• Price: Free
• Official website

RetroArch is another multi-emulator app that is available for iOS. It can actually support all kinds of different games from various different systems. We also mentioned RetroArch in our list of the best Pokemon emulators for PC as well.

RetroArch can be installed on non jailbreak devices, but in order to do so, users will need to use a third party app. If you read through our previous app above you’ll remember that we listed the AltStore, the independent appstore that was created by the developers of the Delta emulator. RetroArch can be installed via AltStore as well.

To install RetroArch from the AltStore, you’ll need to do the following:

• First download one of the following IPA files depending on your device:
  
  iOS 13+ > Stable
  iOS 9+ (reduced feature set; may not work on newer devices) > Stable
  tvOS 11+ > Stable

• Install and launch AltServer following the instructions from the Delta instructions above.
• Hold Option (macOS) or Start (Windows) when clicking the AltServer icon to reveal new “Sideload .ipa…” menu option
• Select the device you want to install RetroArch on (must be on the same Wi-Fi network as AltServer)
• Enter the email and password for your Apple ID

Note: Do keep in mind that you are unable to add or update cores after installing RetroArch because they are signed executables and can only be updated by updating and resigning the entire RetroArch app. The IPA files linked above contain all of the available iOS/tvOS cores.

The systems that RetroArch can play games from will vary depending on the device that you install RetroArch on. Do keep in mind that mobile versions of RetroArch may not include access to certain systems available for devices like PC due to having less resources.

3. Game Play Color

• Price: Free
• Official website

Next up on our list is an interesting one! The emulator will allow you to play Game Boy Color games on your iPhone or Ipad without needing to actually download an app to your phone. How it works is quite ingenious.

1. First, you visit the Game Play Color page here to begin
2. Next you’ll be prompted to press the Share button
3. After doing so, go ahead and choose the Add to Home Screen option
4. After you have saved it to your home screen, go to your home screen and open it
5. You’ll be prompted to sign in with Google Drive and grant it access
6. If you are concerned with giving the app access to your Google Drive, simply make an alternative Google account to use here for your peace of mind
7. After logging in with Google Drive, you’ll simply select your ROMs and then you can get straight to playing your favorite Pokemon game

Yes, it’s really that simple! No need for downloading alternative appstores or programs. All it takes is just saving the website to your home screen, signing in, and loading up your Pokemon ROMs. Speaking of which, you may be interested in our article on the best site for ROMs.

Talk about a simple process. Game Play Color even remembers your save states where you last left off in the ROM allowing you to continue right where you left off last time. The best part is that because it’s downloaded to your home screen you can play your games offline without internet access, how cool is that?

Game Play Color also automatically pulls in your game’s cover art and stores it along with your ROMs, giving you a fancy little gallery of a game library. Nice touch by the developers indeed. Anytime you want to play a new Pokemon game, simply drag and drop your ROM file into that associated Google Drive account and you’re ready to go.

4. Happy Chick

• Price: Free
• Official website

The Happy Chick emulator is another emulator that can be used on the iPhone or Ipad to play classic Pokémon games. Happy Chick ended up last on our list because it seems a bit shady. While it may be completely legitimate, we’ve personally never used it ourselves and would probably recommend you just go with one of the three other options listed above. The website seems a bit questionable and further down the page you’ll notice they mention it now supports only being a crypto wallet.

If you feel like trying it out, you’re more than welcome to give it a shot as it mentions that it can emulate games from all sorts of systems and handhelds. That being said, if you do a quick Google search on if the Happy Chick emulator is safe, you’ll see plenty of others mentioning potential malware and questionable practices, recommended users to stay away and instead use another option. You’ve been warned!

Summary

We’ve covered what we believe to be the three best iOS Pokemon emulators available along with one final questionable one. The first three emulators you really can’t go wrong with. Delta is a solid choice and a fan favorite, RetroArch comes in close second and can emulate games from more systems, and Game Play Color is ingenious because it doesn’t even require downloading an entire app or additional AltStore to work.

You should now have everything you need to get down on some classic Pokémon games on your iPhone or iPad.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is There A Free Pokemon Emulator for iPhone?

Yes, Delta, RetroArch, and Game Play Color are three free Pokemon emulators that you can download and use free of charge on iOS devices. They can play GB and GBC games as well as Game Boy Advance games too. They are the three best Pokémon emulators for iPhone you can use.

How Do I Install Pokemon Emulator on My iPhone?

We’ve covered how to install each of the emulators above. To see how each one can be installed, simply scroll up to the emulator that you’d like to install, whether that’s Delta, RetroArch, or the Game Play app, and find the installation instructions. You’ll be all setup and ready to play in minutes.

Are Pokemon Emulators Safe For iPhone?

It depends on the emulator that you choose to use. Delta, RetroArch, and Game Play Color are all well known emulators for iPhone and are used by many different gamers. We have yet to hear anything negative regarding the safety of these emulators. Happy Chick on the other hand is likely best avoided and is not one we’d recommend you install. If you do a quick Google search on it you’ll find a lot of people recommending you don’t use it, but instead choose one of the other options to play your games.