Can you play The Wind Waker on iPhone?

Yes. Add a disc image of your own copy of The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker to Nagori, an emulator on the App Store that plays GameCube games, and play it on iPhone or iPad with touch controls or a controller.

Is The Wind Waker free on iPhone?

Nagori doesn't include or sell games, so you need your own copy. The app itself lets you add your first game for free.

Which iPhone do I need for The Wind Waker?

An iPhone 12 or newer, or an iPad with an A14 chip or newer, running iOS 17.6 or later. The High quality setting is meant for the newest devices.

Can I save anywhere in The Wind Waker?

Yes. The game itself only saves when you tell it to, but in Nagori you can make a save state at any moment, and the game resumes exactly where you left it when you come back.

How do I move the camera in The Wind Waker on iPhone?

The camera is on the C-stick, which Nagori puts on the right stick. Choose the Twin Sticks or DualShock touch layout, or use a controller.

Does my Wind Waker save sync with iCloud?

No. Nagori's iCloud saves cover PS1 and GBA games. GameCube saves, including the game's memory card, stay on the device you play on.

How to Play The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker on iPhone

Nintendo’s 2002 Zelda traded realism for a cel-shaded cartoon look, and Hyrule’s fields for the Great Sea. Link sails between islands in the King of Red Lions, a talking boat, to rescue his sister after a giant bird carries her off. If you own the game, Nagori lets you play it on iPhone and iPad.

What you need

An iPhone 12 or newer, or an iPad with an A14 chip or newer, with iOS 17.6 or later.
Nagori from the App Store. Your first game is free.
A disc image of your copy of The Wind Waker: .iso, .gcm, .rvz, .ciso or .gcz, or a .zip or .rar containing it. The game fits on a single disc.

No BIOS file is needed.

How to play The Wind Waker on iPhone

Install Nagori from the App Store.
Copy your Wind Waker disc image to the Files app, in iCloud Drive or On My iPhone.
Open Nagori, tap + and select the file. Add GameCube games from inside Nagori: the Files app’s Open in menu doesn’t hand formats like .rvz and .gcm to Nagori.
Find The Wind Waker on the GameCube shelf and press Play.
Switch to a touch layout with two sticks. The default Standard layout has no stick at all. Pause, open Settings → Touch Layout and choose Twin Sticks or DualShock, the two layouts with a second stick for the camera. With a controller connected, you can skip this step.

Controls

Link moves with the control stick, and the camera turns with the C-stick, which Nagori puts on the right stick. A is the action button, B swings the sword, and the items you equip go on X, Y and Z. Press L to lock on to an enemy. If a button sits where your thumb doesn’t reach, open Edit Layout in the pause menu and move it.

With a controller, A is the bottom face button, B the left one, X the right one and Y the top one. Z is on the right shoulder button, and L and R are the triggers. Press the left stick to open Nagori’s pause menu.

L and R register as full presses in Nagori.

Saves: memory card and save states

The Wind Waker only saves when you tell it to, and it writes to the memory card. That card works in Nagori as it did on the console. It stays inside the app, though: it isn’t in the Files app, isn’t part of Export Saves and doesn’t sync to iCloud.

Nagori adds two things on top:

Quit any time. Leave the app mid-dungeon or mid-voyage and Continue puts you back exactly where you were.
Save states. Pause and choose Save before a boss, such as Gohma at the end of Dragon Roost Cavern, then Load if the fight goes badly. Nagori keeps your last four saves per game.

Keep saving in the game as well: a save state may not load after some Nagori updates, while the memory card save stays.

Best settings

Open the pause menu and go to Settings → Quality. GameCube games work an iPhone hard, and this setting trades frame rate for heat:

Low keeps the device coolest, at a lower frame rate.
Medium, the default, is the place to start.
High gives the smoothest motion and is meant for the newest iPhones and iPads.

The Wind Waker is a long game with long stretches at sea. If your iPhone or iPad warms up over a session, drop to Low; on the newest devices, try High. Full Screen stretches the picture to fill the display.

What isn’t available

Higher resolution. Nagori shows GameCube games at their original resolution, without upscaling.
Rumble. The controller doesn’t vibrate in GameCube games.
The Tingle Tuner. It let a second person help through a Game Boy Advance connected to the console. Nagori plays GameCube games with one player.