The Switch 2 is finally giving fans the GameCube NSO, letting players experience some of these classic titles on official Nintendo hardware. We already know that Soulcalibur 2 and Zelda: Wind Waker are some of the games coming to this online service. It finally gives fans a way to experience these classic titles again.
Switch 2 NSO is good, but fans who want to play GameCube games without a subscription service should get a Steam Deck. Fans who don’t want to be limited by the games that Nintendo gives out should use Valve’s handheld instead. Assuming fans have legally dumped the ROMs of their legally purchased GameCube games, they should be able to play them on Steam Deck fairly easily.
How do you play GameCube games on Steam Deck?
Download Emudeck through the Steam Deck’s desktop mode and install the Dolphin emulator. After that, playing your GameCube ROMs on Valve’s handheld should be fairly easy.
Emulators are technically legal. These are just ways to play classic games that aren’t readily available for purchase anymore. Getting ROMs is where the legal area becomes grey, so it’s better to use GameCube games you already own and dump them on your computer.
Once the emulator is installed through EmuDeck and players configure the controls to their liking, they will soon be playing GameCube titles on their Steam Deck. It might take some getting used to, but players will soon be able to relive their childhood nostalgia with Valve’s ridiculously powerful PC handheld.
Why should you play GameCube games on your Steam Deck?
Through Dolphin, players can upscale the resolution of these classic GameCube titles and make them look better. Emulators also allow for save states, gameplay rewinds, and mods that can improve certain games.
Having these options at your disposal makes playing these titles a ton of fun on the Steam Deck. Zelda: Wind Waker looks phenomenal on the Steam Deck with widescreen hacks and X3 resolution, even if it doesn’t compare to the Wii U HD port. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn has never looked better than on here, at least until that game comes to Switch 2 NSO.
More importantly, you won’t have to wait for Nintendo to release new games in order to play them. If players have GameCube ROMs on their Steam Deck, they can pretty much play whatever title they want in this console’s library. Even CPU-heavy games like Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 2 play well on the Steam Deck.
Don’t get us wrong, the Steam Deck is more than just an emulation machine. This is a system that can play powerful games like Final Fantasy VII Remake and God of War: Ragnarok. But it’s also a fabulous emulator that can play systems like the PSP and PS2. It doesn’t have to be an emulation machine, but you can make it one.
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