Xbox 360 emulation hits Android — some games are already running surprisingly well

The XenDroid project has appeared on GitHub as an emulator aimed at running Xbox 360 games on Android smartphones and portable consoles. For software that's not even a month old, the results look unexpectedly decent.

The emulator running on the AYANEO Pocket S Mini handheld with a Snapdragon G3X Gen 2 chip. According to the devs, the bare minimum entry point is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and Adreno 740 graphics. So if you're on MediaTek, Exynos, or Tensor, don't hold your breath for smooth performance just yet.

As for compatibility, it's a mixed bag but still encouraging. Call of Duty 2, Project Gotham Racing 3, and Forza Motorsport 2 ran at acceptable or near-acceptable frame rates, while Skate 3, Fable 2, and UFC 2010 turned into a slideshow with graphical artifacts. Trials HD suffered from some pretty nasty visual glitches, too.

The project was originally conceived as a fork of the aX360e emulator, but later the developer decided to switch the codebase over to Xenia Edge — a version of the well-known PC emulator. XenDroid also supports custom Turnip drivers, and the author recommends Whitebelyash or StevenMXZ builds. Setup doesn't require any console firmware, which makes the first launch a bit easier. But there's a catch: the emulator doesn't see files inside subfolders, so it's best to drop your game images right into the root directory.

Let's be real — Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 emulation on Android is still a long way from being rock-solid. That said, there's been a noticeable shift in this space over the past few months: besides XenDroid, we've already seen aPS3e, aX360e, RPCSX-UI, X360 Mobile, and ARMSX3 pop up online. Clearly, this scene is no longer a dead end and is steadily picking up steam.

Are you willing to put up with janky performance to run past-gen classics on Android, or would you rather wait for more mature builds? Drop your take in the comments.