Have you ever looked down at your Apple Watch on your wrist and thought to yourself, “I wish I could play my Game Boy games on here”? Yeah, neither have I. But now that I know it’s possible, I can’t stop playing or showing it off. My 6-year-old self would think I was crazy if I told him I could play Pokémon on my wrist in the future. But it’s 2025, and now this is possible and even works exceptionally well. Here is how to do this.
Be sure to watch our hands-on video walking you through how to set this all up!
Emulation on iOS
About a year ago, due to some new App Store policy changes and regulations, Apple opened the floodgates to emulation apps. This allowed iPhone users to finally be able to download emulation apps like Delta Emulator legally, directly on the App Store. Prior to that, you either needed to be jailbroken or use a side-loaded app store to get these apps (which was a whole other mess). But since Apple now allows for emulators on the app store, that allowed developers to get creative on just how and where you could emulate, even to the point where you can play on your wrist. That is where ArcEmu steps in!
ArcEmu
ArcEmu is a retro-styled Game Boy emulator purpose-built to work on your Apple Watch. Of course, it plays well on other devices like your iPhone and iPad, but this was truly made to show off that you can play these games on your Apple Watch (which is surreal). This is how it works:
- Download the app (it is a one-time cost of $1.99, worth it for me)
- After it is downloaded on your iPhone, it will auto populate on your Apple Watch as well
- Upload your own ROMs into the iOS app
- ROMs will then auto-populate into the Apple Watch App
- Then boom, you have the ability to play your ROMs
What I love about this app is how much consideration was given to the small quality of life features. For instance, some of my favorite features are:
- Syncing save game data across your devices – you can start playing your game on your iPhone, save it, then pick it back up on your Apple Watch and vice versa.
- You can map the digital crown to replace directional arrows, or press A/B
- Fast forward and slow-mo options
- Wireless link connection between devices for multiplayer gaming
- Ability to customize button layout
- Game controller support (only for iPad and iOS apps)
It really has everything you need to play a game from 1998 on your wrist. I strictly play Pokémon games, so there are no fast-twitch actions that need to happen for those games which is perfect for this setup. If you play other games requiring more precision, then maybe you should not be playing on your wrist…
Other considerations
ArcEmu currently supports Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance ROMs. So, no NES or DS support as of now. You also need to have an Apple Watch Series 3 or newer, an Apple Watch SE or newer, or an Apple Watch Ultra or newer to run this. As you can see, I have this running on my Apple Watch Ultra, and it looks fantastic.
You also need to supply your ROMs; this does not come preloaded with any games. Lastly, as I mentioned above, this is a paid app that costs $1.99. But there are no in-app purchases after that. For $1.99, this app was instantly downloaded once I found out about it.
Let me know what you think. Would you download this? Would you use it? I see myself using this for 5 to 10 minutes to pass time in certain situations, and I love it.
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