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Wind Waker HD on Android

English · Português · Español

The Wind Waker HD runs natively on Android phones and tablets. It isn't an emulator: the game's own code is recompiled for ARM processors and draws with Vulkan. You need your own copy of the Wii U game; this project never provides game files.

What the Android version does
On-screen controls Both sticks, the D-pad, A B X Y, L R ZL ZR and + −. The 🎮 button under the view button (top left) shows or hides them. They hide while a controller is connected and come back on the next touch. A Bluetooth or USB controller works too.
The GamePad screen on pause Press + and the picture switches to the GamePad screen (map and items), like the pause menu of the GameCube version. Press + again to go back.
60 fps that keeps the game's speed On fast phones the game shows 60 frames a second. When the phone gets hot it switches to a steady 30 by itself, so the game never slows down.
Older phones If your Adreno GPU's driver is too old, the error screen offers to install a custom driver such as Mesa Turnip.
Saves Export and import your save files and keep them in Android's backup. Saves from a real Wii U (USA or Europe) work too.

Tested phones

Measured with the game's own profiler in the busiest part of Outset Island (about 3,900 draws per frame). Game speed is the game's logic steps per second: 30 is full speed.

Device SoC / GPU Frame rate Game speed Status
Galaxy S25 Ultra Snapdragon 8 Elite, Adreno 830 about 59 fps 29.7 / 30 great
Galaxy Z Fold 8 SM8850, Adreno 840 60 fps, 30 when hot 26–30 / 30 great, on both screens
Lenovo Legion Tab Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, Adreno 750 steady 30 fps 28.7–30 / 30 good
OnePlus 8 Pro Snapdragon 865, Adreno 650 (Mesa Turnip) 30 fps 26–30 / 30 runs; one GPU crash still being looked at
Galaxy Tab S6 Lite Snapdragon 720G, Adreno 618 (Mesa Turnip), 4 GB 15–24 fps 15–24 / 30 runs slowly: about half speed in Outset

You need a 64-bit phone with Android 13 or newer and Vulkan 1.3 (or a custom driver on Adreno), and a few GB of free storage.

How to play

The setup app (no PC needed)

The setup app comes with every release: download WindWakerHD-<version>-android-arm64.apk from the Releases page (the android-x86_64 APK is for emulators and Chromebooks). It carries no game code: it builds the game on your phone from your own copy. Later versions install over it and keep your saves and settings (the phone prepares the game again when an update needs it).

  1. Install the APK. If you already have a version you built on your PC, export your save first (long-press the app icon), then uninstall it: the two are signed differently.
  2. Open the app and choose your game: Choose extracted game folder, Choose WUA archive, or Choose WUD / WUX disc image (then also Choose disc key file and Choose common key file).
  3. Tap Start / resume / retry setup. The phone extracts and compiles the game once; the screen shows the progress, for example "Compiling: 30/80 · about 12 min left". You can leave the app meanwhile, and Pause setup stops it safely.
  4. When it says the setup is complete, tap Play current build.

Or: build it on your PC

  1. Install the Android SDK and NDK, JDK 17 or newer, CMake, Ninja and Python 3.
  2. Extract your game and generate its code (steps 1 and 2 under Building in the README).
  3. Run android/build_native.sh, then ./gradlew assembleRelease in android/.
  4. Install the APK over USB with adb install -r app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk.

The full steps are in the README, section Android (build it yourself).

Fair play

  • Use your own copy of the game, dumped from your own disc or console.
  • An APK you build on your PC contains your recompiled game. Keep it for your own phone and never share it.
  • If someone offers a ready-made APK with the game inside, it isn't from this project.

Questions

Do I need a controller? No. The on-screen controls cover the whole GamePad. A controller works too and hides the touch buttons while it is connected.

Which version of the game? The Wii U release of The Wind Waker HD, USA or Europe. Saves from a real Wii U work too.

My phone gets hot. Is that normal? The game is demanding. When the phone gets warm, the game drops from 60 to a steady 30 fps on its own and keeps its full speed.

Something doesn't work. Please open an issue with your phone model, Android version and what happened. After a crash, the next start offers the crash report to share.

The Android port is by rhemfur, part of ZeldaWWHDRecomp. A fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo. The Legend of Zelda and The Wind Waker are trademarks of Nintendo.