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Summary
- Nxnative runs Switch ARM64 code on iPhone/iPad/Mac, rebuilding Switch graphics on Metal.
- About 85 Switch titles are already compatible with Nxnative, including Mario Kart 8, Super Mario Odyssey, and Tears of the Kingdom.
- You need to build each IPA or .app via the command line, Xcode 27.1, and Homebrew.
We've already seen a few Switch games make their way to Mac unofficially, notably The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Most of these early projects are tied to MacNativeGames, a tool that runs the game's original ARM64 code directly on Apple hardware and rewrites instructions as needed for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS compatibility.
While Nxnative is similar, the app initially focused on bringing Switch games to the iPhone and iPad (though it now supports Mac as well). The tool's key advantage is that roughly 85 Switch games are already compatible, including Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age, and several more.
There's even a community-made Mac app called NX2Apple with a GUI that streamlines the process, though seedds, Nxnative's creator, describes it as a "separate project that follows this one." Otherwise, you'll need to use the command line, Xcode 27.1, and Homebrew to build the unsigned IPA or .app for each title. With Nxnative, some Switch games support higher frame rates, render scaling, and more, though most seem to run like they would on the regular Switch (which is usually roughly 30fps).
"Nothing from any game is in this repository, and the project is not affiliated with Nintendo or any game publisher," writes seedds on the project's GitHub repository. With this in mind, like similar port projects, you'll need to dump your own Switch games to use Nxnative.
It's a new era for Switch ports on Mac
Nxnative runs Switch code directly on Mac, iPhone, and iPad
I haven't tried Nxnative myself yet, but based on a video from YouTuber Andrew Tsai (check it out above), most supported games seem to run reasonably well, though some titles have graphics and performance issues. Because both Nintendo's Switch and Apple's iPhone, iPad, and Macs use Arm-based chips, Nxnative can run some Switch game code right on the device, but certain sections of the code still need to be rewritten. Still, this lowers the hardware overhead required to play Switch games smoothly, and is Nxnative's key advantage over more traditional Mac Switch emulators like Astris.
In fact, Nxnative takes an approach similar to Wine, an open-source compatibility layer that lets Windows applications and games run on other operating systems, primarily Linux and macOS. The tool also utilizes hle (high-level emulation), which, in the context of this Switch-focused project, recreates certain system services and operating system functions that Switch games require to run.
It's worth noting that Nxnative uses work from several other projects, including the Switch emulators Ryujinx for its shader translator and Yuzu for its "Maxwell instruction encodings for the shader reference tool, and a cross-check for kernel behavior."
In other port-related news, Nxnative was recently used it as the basis for getting the Switch 2 title Mario Kart World running on a Mac.