My Boy! - GBA Emulator

Review by eFreeware

My Boy! is a Game Boy Advance emulator for Android, built by Pixel Respawn LLC, a studio that describes itself as being made up of the actual core emulation developers rather than a reseller of someone else's work. It costs $4.99, carries no ads and offers no in-app purchases. For that one payment you get a program that runs GBA cartridges you already own, on hardware ranging from old budget phones to current tablets.

Its feature list is what sets it apart from the free alternatives. Link cable emulation connects two running copies of the app, either on one handset or between handsets over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, and that is the part most emulators handle badly or skip. The emulator also reads your phone's motion sensors and vibration motor to stand in for the gyroscope, tilt, solar sensor and rumble hardware that a handful of GBA games relied on.

I would treat this as a tool rather than a game. Nothing is bundled, and the developer is explicit that you need to supply your own game files through legal means and place them on your device storage. The app is not affiliated with, authorized by or licensed by Nintendo. That framing matters: you are paying for the emulation layer, not for a catalog.

What running a game actually involves

The core of the app is straightforward. You point it at Game Boy Advance game files on your storage, and it runs them using a JIT recompiler, which is the technique behind the speed the developer advertises. Compatibility is described as very high, with nearly all titles expected to run without trouble. High-level BIOS emulation means you do not need to track down a separate BIOS file, which removes one of the more annoying setup steps in this category.

Controls are handled with an on-screen keypad that supports multi-touch, plus shortcut buttons for common actions like loading and saving. A screen layout editor lets you set the position and size of each control individually, and you can do the same for the game video itself. If you dislike the default arrangement, or your hands sit awkwardly on a particular phone, that editor is where you fix it.

Rendering is flexible. There is an OpenGL backend for devices with a GPU and a normal rendering path for those without, so an older or cheaper phone is not automatically excluded. GLSL shader support adds video filters on top, which is the sort of thing that matters more to people who care about how pixel art scales than to those who just want to play.

The emulator also handles IPS and UPS ROM patches, so fan translations and similar modifications can be applied through the app. Cheat codes are supported too, including GameShark, ActionReplay and CodeBreaker formats, entered as multiline codes and toggled on or off while a game is running rather than requiring a restart.

Save states, speed control and picking up where you left off

Save states are the feature that changes how these games fit into a phone. You can save at any moment, with a screenshot attached so you can tell one state from another later. That is a different proposition from the original hardware, where saving meant reaching a checkpoint or a save room and stopping there.

Saves sync through Google Drive. You can play and save on one device and continue on another, which is the practical answer for anyone splitting time between a phone and a tablet. It also means a lost or replaced phone does not necessarily take your progress with it, provided the sync has run.

Speed control is included in both directions. Fast-forward skips past lengthy story sections, and there is a slow-down mode for getting through a level that is too difficult at normal speed. The second option is unusual and, for anyone who bounced off a late-game boss as a kid, potentially the most useful thing here.

Around all of this sits a set of conveniences: key-mapping and screen-layout profiles you can create and switch between, and shortcuts you can place on your home screen to launch a favorite game directly. Those are small touches, but they are the difference between an emulator you open occasionally and one you keep on the home screen.

One payment, no ads, no extra purchases

My Boy! costs $4.99 up front. There are no ads in the app and no in-app purchases, so the price you see is the whole cost of the software. There is no subscription, premium tier or paid unlock for individual features.

That is worth weighing against the free emulators that dominate this category. A one-time charge with no advertising removes the two things people most often complain about in emulator apps, and it means the interface is not competing for attention with anything else. The trade-off is simply that you pay before you can try it.

The purchase covers the emulator only. Games are not included, and you are responsible for obtaining them legally and putting them on your device. Budget for the app, then for whatever it costs you to acquire the games themselves.

The player this suits

The clearest fit is someone with a shelf of Game Boy Advance cartridges and a way to get those games onto a phone or tablet. If that describes you, the combination of high compatibility, save states and Drive sync turns a handheld library into something you can carry without the handheld.

Link cable support is the feature that will decide it for a certain kind of player. Trading and battling across two devices over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, or between two sessions on one device, is the part of the GBA library that emulators most often lose. If your interest is in those multiplayer titles rather than single-player runs, this is the strongest argument for the app.

The sensor and rumble emulation points at a narrower group: players who want to revisit the games that used tilt, gyroscope or solar input, and who would otherwise be playing a version missing those mechanics entirely. Similarly, the patching support and the cheat code formats speak to people who tinker with their games, applying fan translations or entering codes mid-session.

Anyone without existing games, or without a legal route to them, is looking at an emulator with nothing to run. That is not a flaw in the software, but it does mean the $4.99 buys you a player and not a library.

How it has held up

My Boy! has been on the Play Store since August 2012, which makes it one of the longer-running names in this category. It has over a million installs and a 4.1 average from roughly 59,659 ratings. Those numbers describe a mature, widely used app rather than a recent arrival, and a 4.1 average across that many ratings is a reasonable sign of steady satisfaction rather than universal praise.

The most recent update, dated August 28, 2026, fixed some core bugs and brought the app up to target the latest version of Android. Targeting current Android versions is the maintenance work that keeps an emulator installable and stable on new phones, and it is the kind of update that matters more than a new feature would.

The claim to be the original core emulation developers is not something a buyer can verify, but it fits the breadth of the feature set and how long the app has been maintained.

A paid emulator that earns the price for the right player

My Boy! asks for $4.99 and gives you a fast, well-equipped Game Boy Advance emulator with no ads and no further purchases. The features that stand out are the ones that are hard to find elsewhere: link cable play over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, sensor and rumble emulation through your phone's hardware, live cheat code toggling, save states with screenshots, and save syncing through Google Drive. Add the layout editor, the key-mapping profiles and home screen shortcuts, and the package is thorough.

The conditions are just as clear. You need your own legally obtained games, and you pay before you can try anything. There is no catalog here and no bundled titles. What you are buying is the emulation layer itself, and the price is a one-time cost rather than a subscription.

I would point this at players who already have a Game Boy Advance library and want it on Android with multiplayer intact. The link cable support and the sensor emulation are what separate it from the crowd, and for anyone whose interest runs to trading, battling or the handful of motion-controlled titles, those features justify the outlay on their own.

What's new in version 2.1.1

• Fixed some core bugs • Updated to target the latest version of Android