Home > Emulation > Emulation How To

How to play multiplayer with Dolphin

Last Updated on December 1, 2023
PC Guide is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Read More
You can trust PC Guide: Our team of experts use a combination of independent consumer research, in-depth testing where appropriate - which will be flagged as such, and market analysis when recommending products, software and services. Find out how we test here.

Playing multiplayer is why most of us come back to the Gamecube time and time again. Mario Kart Double Dash!!, Kirby Air Ride, Metroid Prime 2’s weird inclusion of multiplayer and then all those Wii titles you love. Who doesn’t want a game of Wii Sports, but in 4K?

The way to do this is really simple. Plug in your designated device and head into the controller settings. From here, choose port 2 and put either Standard Controller or whatever else you intend to use. 

If it is 4 players, you’ll just want to do the same for ports 3 and 4 too. 

For the Wii, you’ll want to configure either your real Wii Remotes or whether you’re going to be ‘emulating’ one with another controller. By pressing configure, you can assign the buttons to a more traditional controller in the process. 

How to play online with Dolphin

But can you play online? Well, actually now you can! While LAN play is a little convoluted and is only really limited to Mario Kart Double Dash!! for anything worth a dime, you can actually play online with any game and the setup box is quite straightforward with the rules needed for everyone to play. 

It has text chat, you can host it so anyone can join via a server browser and the default does limit it to whoever you share the information with. 

Starting out with Dolphin and emulation? We’ve got the following guides for you!

Joel is a a lover of janky games, Magic the Gathering, and going down rabbit holes. For PC Guide he has written about peripherals, the Steam Deck, retro games, news and more.