Best GBA Emulator for Android

The Game Boy Advance, also known as GBA, is one of the most popular portable game consoles among retro-style games lover. As we know, Android is spreading widely and capturing a wide area of the game market. If you have an Android smartphone, you can easily play this all-time favorite "Game Boy Advance" game on it with the help of an emulator without buying these games separately.

You need a GBA emulator for Android devices to play GBA (Game Boy Advance) games on your Android smartphone. This software tool lets you play GBA games on your Android smartphone without any problem. After spending several minutes on the web, we have shortlisted some of the best GBA Emulators of Android that run on most Android phones without any hassles. After getting any of the below-mentioned GBA emulators on your Android phone, you can play and enjoy your all-time favorite games.

Top GBA (Game Boy Advance) Emulator for Android

Following are the top and highly popular Game Boy Advance (GBA) emulators for Android devices:

1. Pizza Boy
2. My Boy!
3. GBA.emu
4. VGBAnext
5. EmuBox
6. John GBAC
7. RetroArch
8. Nostalgia.GBC
9. My OldBoy
10. VinaBoy Advance
11. John GBA
12. GBC.emu

Pizza Boy

Pizza Boy is the newer Game Boy Advance emulator to play GBA games smoothly. It is one of the highly accurate GBA emulators for Android devices. In addition to great performance, Pizza Boy has advanced features to support console games. Some of its features are fast forward and slow motion, support hardware controller to play game, saving game states, local and network multiplayer game, etc.

Pizza Boy is a lightweight GBA emulator, making it low in battery consumption. This gaming emulator is available in free and paid versions, but most of its impressive features are locked under the paid version. It is one of the few GBA emulators that don't popups or display ads, which makes it a favorite among gamers.

Additionally, there are several customizable themes to choose from for different gaming experience that makes Pizza Boy stand out among the competition. In this way, you will always be energized while playing games on it. It executes 60 frames-per-second gameplays, even on some older Android smartphones.

Other features of the Pizza Boy GBA emulator

• Best gaming quality (video & audio).
• Support game state saving and load from where left.
• Support multiple emulators.
• Support external hardware controller.

Pros

• Customizable theme.
• Support to Google Drive synchronization.
• Allows to play multiplayer in-game via Wi-Fi or locally.
• Offers 60 FPS Gameplay.

Cons

• Due to its being newer in the market, several people (game lovers) are unfamiliar with all interfaces.
• Bug reports.

Download Pizza Boy from Play Store

My Boy!

My Boy is one of the well-known and popular Game Boy Advance (GBA) emulators for Android that you can download from the Play Store. It is widely used for playing GBA games because of its features. This emulator has features such as compatibility with most GBA games, excellent performance, accuracy, save/load game states, fast forward and slow down modes, great hardware support, battery saver feature while using the app, etc.

In My Boy GBA emulator, you will find a better graphic experience due to the advanced feature like OpenGL rendering. It also comes with BIOS emulation, so you don't need to install BIOS files separately. Overall, you will fill an almost great gaming experience with it on your Android device.

Other features of My Boy!

• High gaming compatibility.
• Supports external hardware.
• Game state saver and load.
• Facilitate fast forward and slow down mode.

Pros

• Comes with OpenGL rendering.
• Better graphic experience.
• BIOS emulation.
• Provides regular updates.

Cons

• Bug reports.
• Glitches are frequent.

Download My Boy! Emulator from Play Store.

GBA.emu

GBA.emu is one of the incredibly solid Game Boy Advance emulators for Android phones that support a complete GBA library with great features. It provides all the essential features required to run GBA games smoothly without any hassles. You will also get features like a BIOS emulator, quick game saves and load at any time, hardware controller support, and more.

GBA.emu emulator mainly focuses on performance and low audio/visual latency. In addition, it is also cross-platform support; you can play games on your personal computer without losing any data and performance. Several support features for ROMs help you play most Game Boy Advance games. It also lets you use an external hardware controller to ensure a consistent gaming experience.

Other features of GBA.emu

• Support external hardware controller.
• Save and load the game state.
• It offers BIOS Emulation.

Pros

• It also supports cross-platform.
• Supports numerous ROMs.
• It is handy to operate.
• It is an open-source emulator.

Cons

• It doesn't offer any free or trial version.
• There is no sensor support.

Download GBA.emu from Play Store

VGBAnext

VGBAnext is an all-in-one GBA emulator that contains several emulators inside it for different gaming consoles such as Game Boy Color (GBC), Famicom, Game Boy, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), DiskSystem, and VS System. You can play some mysterious things on this emulator. In addition, to make your gaming experience smoother and more enjoyable, connect an external hardware controller with it.

You can play modern and old gamepads over the VGBAnext Game Boy Advance emulator. Its interface has a button to rewind gameplay by 16 seconds to retry that section. Also, you can save game states and share them between users. One advanced feature is playing multiplayer games with other users over the Wi-Fi Network.

Other features of VGBAnext

• Support external hardware controller.
• Supports different games type GBA, GBC, & NES.

Pros

• Allows to rewind the game by 16 seconds.
• Support multiplayer features over a network (Wi-Fi).

Cons

• There has no free version to use and try.
• Bug reports.

Download the VGBAnext emulator from Play Store.

EmuBox

EmuBox is a new option for GBA emulator lovers, which supports multiple retro gaming consoles such as Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, and PlayStation. However, this emulator does not offer any advanced features other than the usual ones, like saving game states, load game states, and fast forward. This emulator is suitable for beginners with basic functionality. If you are looking for a full-featured GBA emulator for your Android device, look elsewhere.

The advantage of using EmuBox is that the app is free, but you must compromise with ad popups. One another point is that the app supports emulating consoles like Nintendo DS, PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, and Game Boy Color.

Features

• Nice interface, which is designed with Material Design.
• Provides 20 slots to save ROMs.
• Support to capture the screenshot of your game anytime.
• Support external hardware controls.
• Offer to set up advanced configuration.

Pros

• It is completely free to use.
• Supports multiple gaming consoles.

Cons

• Only contains the limited and primary features.

Download EmuBox Emulator from Play Store.

John GBAC

John GBAC is another accurate GBA emulator, a successor of the John GBA emulator for Android. It is easy to use because of its simple user interface that keeps everything simple. Like other GBA emulators in this list, it contains all the fundamental features like save game states, load game states, SD card support, and turbo buttons. There has the option to use a fast forward up to 16 times and 0.25 times slow down option.

Additionally, it supports uploading your game state to Dropbox cloud so that you can resume playing on any other Android device. However, it needs to include more advanced features.

Features

• Option to upload game state to Dropbox cloud.
• Support Cheat Code.
• SD card support.

Pros

• Contains turbo buttons.
• Fast forward and slowdown options.

Cons

• Less hardware control support.

Download the John GBAC emulator from Play Store.

RetroArch

RetroArch is open-source emulation that helps you to run different emulators. Simply put, it is not an emulator but a separate app that allows you to interact with other emulators. To play a GBA game using RetroArch, install emulators as cores, which differ for different platforms. Each platform includes Game Boy Color, Advance, and the original Game Boy. No doubt, the app is highly compatible while playing games. You can use this app for free, but it doesn't provide feature-rich options like other GBA emulators for Android.

Feature

• It is all in one app that allows you to install other emulators.
• Highly compatibility rate with most GBA games.
• Offers cores for each emulator.

Pros

• It is an open-source platform and free to use.
• Even if it is free, there have no ads to destruct you.

Cons

• It is not itself an emulator.
• Complicated to use.
• Offers limited features.

Download the RetroArch emulator from Play Store.

Nostalgia.GBC

Nostalgia.GBC emulator contains a unique feature, even is less popular for Android than the GBA emulator. It offers all the essential functionality, including high game compatibility, turbo buttons, on-screen controls, and hardware control keyboards. Nostalgia GBC is available in both free and paid versions. However, in its free version, you have to compromise with ads.

Another feature is that it offers players to rewind the game for a few seconds so that players can try any portion of the game repeatedly and fix mistakes if they do. This feature makes Nostalgia.GBC is unique and different from other GBA emulators for Android.

Features

• Allows to rewind the game for a few seconds.
• Highly gaming compatibility.
• Support external hardware control.

Pros

• Contains turbo buttons.
• Support to Game Boy Color.

Cons

• Paid Emulator.
• Not much popular as Game Boy Emulator.

Download the Nostalgia emulator from Play Store.

My OldBoy

My OldBoy is another popular Game Boy and Game Boy Color emulator offering many features and options to control games. It is published by the same developer of the My Boy emulator. The My OldBoy GBA emulator allows to link cable emulation, hardware controller support, cheat code support, fast forward and slow motion, and much more. Also, My OldBoy emulator includes OpenGL rendering and Rumble emulator similar to Old Boy. Mostly like Old Boy, it supports Game Boy and Game Boy Color.

Features

• Support Cheat Code.
• Save and load the game state at any time.
• Options to Fast Forward and Slowdown game.

Pros

• Allows to link cable Emulation.
• Support external hardware control.
• Included OpenGL Rendering and Rumble Emulation.

Cons

• No Free Version.

Download My OldBoy emulator from Play Store.

VinaBoy Advance

VinaBoy Advance is a simple and easy-to-use GBA emulator to play games on it. It allows to quickly and easily load ROM within the emulator. VinaBoy Advance emulator does what it claims. It plays a game that has a file format with an extension .GBA, .GBC, .7z, and .ZIP. This amazing emulator has smooth, featuring fast, multi-threading, and in-game antialiasing.

However, you can't find advanced features in this emulator, such as rewinding, transferring save states between devices, and no tweaks. Even people love to use it because of its free services and no annoying ads.

Pros

• Quickly save game states.
• Support external hardware control and remapping.
• Allows to record the game and takes a screenshot.

Cons

• Poor performance on old hardware.

Download VinaBoy Advance from Play Store

John GBA

John GBA emulator is another best option to play Game Boy on Android. It has a features-rich emulator with function activity such as fast forward, and slow down modes, saves and loads game states, cheat code support, and lots more. This GBA emulator is for those users who want to keep everything simple. The John GBA emulator supports syncing your game over Dropbox Cloud so that you can load and play the same game on another supported device. However, no good hardware support disappoints its users, who prefer to play games with an external controller.

Features

• Supports cheat code.
• Option to upload game state to Dropbox cloud.
• 16 times fast forward.
• Turbo buttons.

Pros

• Easy to use.
• No ads.
• Easily configurable.

Cons

• No longer actively developed.

Download John GBA from Play Store

GBC.emu

GBC.emu is a Game Boy Color emulator published by Robert Broglia, which support both Game Boy and Game Boy Color system. In GBC.emu, the same developer included most of the features of GBA, such as save & load states, external hardware controller support, cheat codes, etc. Due o its high compatibility rate, you can play most games on it. Like GBA.emu, it also supports cross-platform playing on PC. The only downside we find is that this emulator has no free version. You have to pay to use it.

Download GBC.emu from Play Store.