Comparison

Linking Boy vs BigPEmu

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Linking Boy

Experience fast and feature-rich emulation for Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy games. Enjoy multiplayer Link cable emulation, unlock achievements with RetroAchievements, and customize your gameplay with speed control, cheats, and enhanced visual options.

Highlights
  • Fast GBA/GBC/GB emulation
  • Link cable multiplayer
  • RetroAchievements support
  • Speed control (fast-forward/slow-down)
  • Cheat support
  • Customizable virtual controls
  • Save states
Features
Read full description

Linkboy is the successor to the popular My Boy! emulator, offering fastest GBA/GBC/GB emulation with unique features like Link and RetroAchievements. KEY FEATURES • Optimized performance — smooth, efficient emulation with minimal battery use • High compatibility — runs nearly all games flawlessly • Link cable emulation — play up to 4 players via local network or on the same device • RetroAchievements support — unlock achievements while you play • Speed control — fast-forward up to 100× or slow down for detailed play. • Cheat support — codes for multiple systems • Cartridge features emulation — gyroscope, light sensor, rumble • Controller & keyboard support — flexible many-to-many button mappings • Customizable virtual controls — move, resize, and configure buttons freely • Save states — multiple slots, save and load anytime • Visual enhancements — combine multiple GPU shaders for a new look • Manage game folders — easily add, remove, or organize your game collection • Modern UI — clean design with Material You styling DISCLAIMER This app is not affiliated with, authorized, endorsed, or licensed in any way by Nintendo, its affiliates, or subsidiaries. No games are included. Screenshots feature either public domain titles or copyrighted works owned by their respective rights holders. IGRS Rating: 3+ — by the Indonesia Game Rating System (IGRS).

About

BigPEmu

This application emulates the Atari Jaguar console, offering high accuracy and performance for its entire retail game library. It provides advanced features like saved states, movie recording, and customizable controller support, enhancing the classic gaming experience.

Highlights
  • Full retail library compatibility
  • High performance emulation
  • Accurate emulation
  • Saved states and movie recording
  • Jaguar CD support
  • Customizable controller overlays
  • Fast forward and rewind
Features
Read full description

BigPEmu is the first Atari Jaguar emulator to feature compatibility with the entire retail library, along with excellent performance and a wide variety of unique features: • Fast. The emulator runs the entire Jaguar retail library (with default settings) at full speed on most devices. • Accurate. It's the most accurate Jaguar emulator to-date, although it's still being improved all the time. • Better than hardware. Although the emulator defaults to settings which are catered toward compatibility and accuracy, it's capable of far more. BigPEmu enables you to play lots of Jaguar games at a full 60 frames per second for the first time ever! • Saved states and movies. Everything is completely deterministic, just like real life. That's right, I went there. This means that all "randomness" is also controlled by a preserved seed. BigPEmu can record movies from nothing but controller inputs, and play them back with perfect accuracy. You can even interrupt a movie's playback and start playing yourself at any point. • Jaguar CD support. In addition to supporting the entire retail disc library (along with Memory Track), complete hardware emulation means that the Virtual Light Machine is fully functional. Also featured is a virtual disc system with an audio loopback option, allowing the VLM to be used as a native audio/music visualizer. • Excessive presentation detail. There's native support for the Jaguar Game Drive's MRQ format in the software browser (as well as box art sourced from PNG files), support for global and per-game backgrounds, and even support for controller overlays! Everything about the touch overlay for the iOS port is fully customizable, from appearance to collision boxes. • Extra device support. Featuring emulated device support for analog controllers (both via external bank switching and the ADC), driving controllers, rotary controllers, and Team Tap. For native input devices, the iOS port supports any MFi "Extended Gamepad" type device as well as keyboards through Apple's Game Controller API. • Glorious shaders. The emulator comes equipped with a powerful, fully customizable postprocessing system. The system supports any type of effect you can imagine, from applying smoothing filters to simulating CRT displays. • Per-game profiles. Mapping the Atari Jaguar controller to anything other than a telephone with wings can get a little complicated, so you might want to switch your controller mapping up for different games. You can do that! With per-game profiles, you can automatically load up a new input scheme (or any other emulator setting) each time you load a game. • Time travel. Native fast forwarding and rewinding capability means you can speed forward through time or go back in time whenever you please. • Flexible scripting. BigPEmu features a powerful scripting system. The emulator comes with a variety of scripts to enhance popular Jaguar games in amazing ways, from analog controller support to native-resolution and stereoscopic rendering! • The usual. Enjoy all of the emulator niceties you've come to expect in modern times. Automatic preservation of EEPROM, PAL support, custom boot ROM images, native support for multiple display aspect ratios, resolution scaling, custom display cropping, extremely customizable input, and a whole lot more. BigPEmu and Swinecrafters LLC are in no way affiliated with Atari. The name "Atari" and all associated game console names are the property of their respective owners.

Screenshots

Linking Boy4 screens
BigPEmu3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Linking Boy at Free against BigPEmu's $9.99. Linking Boy also leads on update cadence (monthly vs every 4 months). BigPEmu's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.2) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). On ratings volume, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Linking Boy is free to download; BigPEmu costs $9.99 up front. Linking Boy sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. BigPEmu asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

BigPEmu holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 41 and 26 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 80% of Linking Boy's written reviews are positive against 94% of BigPEmu's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Linking Boy ships an update monthly, BigPEmu every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on September 9, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Linking Boy versus BigPEmu: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLinking BoyBigPEmu
PriceFree — better$9.99
Rating4.2 (41 ratings)5.0 (26 ratings) — better
Positive reviews79.5% of reviews94.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings41 — better26
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015
Further details — not scored
Size53 MB16 MB
Age rating4++9
DeveloperPixel Respawn LLCSwinecrafters LLC

Customer experience

Linking Boy

All ratings41 ratings
Positive80.5%
Neutral7.3%
Negative12.2%
Written reviews44 reviews
Positive79.5%
Neutral9.1%
Negative11.4%

BigPEmu

All ratings26 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews17 reviews
Positive94.1%
Neutral0.0%
Negative5.9%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Linking Boy

One-time1
  • Premium Features$5.99
None

BigPEmu

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Linking Boy free?
Linking Boy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is BigPEmu free?
BigPEmu costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Linking Boy or BigPEmu?
BigPEmu is rated higher. Linking Boy averages 4.2 out of 5 from 41 ratings, while BigPEmu averages 5.0 from 26 ratings.
Do Linking Boy or BigPEmu have ads?
Neither Linking Boy nor BigPEmu shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Linking Boy or BigPEmu?
Linking Boy ships an update monthly, and BigPEmu every 4 months. Most recently, Linking Boy was updated on September 9, 2026 and BigPEmu on September 23, 2026.

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