According to Wccftech, the long-awaited game Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, which was just released for the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, is already running smoothly on PC through various Nintendo Switch emulators. The game, initially announced at E3 2017, suffered a troubled development that led to a reboot and a significant delay after being handed back to Retro Studios. Despite the crackdown that shut down the Yuzu emulator, alternatives like the open-source fork Ryubing, Eden, and Citron are active and handling the new title. The real breakthrough is that using ReShade 6.6.2 with a specific shader can render the game in stereoscopic 3D for playback through Virtual Desktop software on a VR headset. This process requires legally dumping your own purchased copy of the game and involves technical adjustments to depth buffers and output settings. The result, as shown by a creator named lionellion, is described as a “Nintendo 3DS pop-out” visor effect on a giant virtual screen.
The emulation scene finds a way
Here’s the thing about emulation: it’s a game of whack-a-mole. Nintendo lands a big legal blow, like forcing Yuzu to shut down, and it feels like the end for a minute. But the community is relentless. Open-source projects fork, new ones like Eden and Citron pop up, and the work continues. It’s almost inevitable that a high-profile Switch game, even one released concurrently on the newer Switch 2, would get attention immediately. The fact that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond runs well already isn’t a huge shock—the Switch hardware is well-understood at this point. But it does underscore how quickly the ecosystem adapts. The promise of playing a polished, modern AAA Nintendo title at higher resolutions and frame rates than the original hardware allows is a powerful motivator for developers and users alike.
The 3D magic trick
Now, the stereoscopic 3D mod is the genuinely clever part. This isn’t some built-in feature Nintendo hid. It’s a hack that uses ReShade to intercept the game’s depth buffer—basically, the data the GPU uses to figure out what’s close and what’s far away. The Rendepth shader then reprocesses that flat depth information into two offset images, one for each eye. Getting it to work isn’t plug-and-play; you’re digging into Vulkan APIs, toggling preprocessor definitions, and hunting for the correct depth source. It’s finicky. But when it clicks, you’re not just playing a Switch game on a monitor. You’re playing it in a VR headset with a convincing sense of depth and scale. It transforms the experience from a screen you look at into a world you feel you could reach into. That’s a wild upgrade for a game that wasn’t designed for it.
Why this matters
So what’s the big deal? It shows the enduring appeal of 3D gaming, for one. Nintendo itself largely abandoned it after the 3DS, but enthusiasts never stopped chasing that immersive, layered look. This method proves that with enough GPU power and clever software, you can add a compelling 3D effect to almost any modern game, resurrecting a visual style many thought was dead. It also highlights the PC as the ultimate preservation and enhancement platform. The original Switch hardware will age, but on PC, with tools like Ryujinx-based emulators and ReShade, games like Metroid Prime 4 can gain new life and new visual features for decades. Of course, it all rests on a legal gray area—you must own the game, and the dumping process is for you alone. But for the technically inclined, it opens up a future for these games that the original hardware manufacturers simply won’t provide.
