Silent Hill 2 ported natively to 3DS, playable through all six endings

sh23ds runs Silent Hill 2 natively on New 3DS and 3DS, from the prologue to the six endings: an engine rewritten based on the PC version, using your own copy.


The 2001 Silent Hill 2 on 3DS

sh23ds, d’ankushKun, is a new engine written in C for the 3DS. It plays Silent Hill 2 using the data from the PC version Director's Cut: the game logic, camera, lighting and events are rebuilt from the PC executable and run as native code. Nothing is emulated, and the fixes from the Enhanced Edition (PS2-style flashlight, fixed fog and lighting) are included. The first release dates from 18 October 2026; version 0.2.2 was released on 20 October.


What works

• The whole game: all areas, puzzles, enemies and bosses, the six endings, New Game+ and the scenario Born From a Wish;
• the engine's 128 cutscenes, and the videos re-encoded for the console;
• the music, sound effects and voices from the PC version;
• two screens: the game on top, the map, items and memos on the touchscreen (version 0.2.0 from 19 October).

On New 3DS, the CIA install requires the 804 MHz CPU and the 124 MB memory mode. The original 3DS and 2DS get a lighter profile capped at 30 fps (less fog, no character shadows), tested so far in the Azahar emulator and not yet on console.


Installation

You need a console running Luma3DS (see our MSET9 tutorial), about 1.3 GB free on the SD card, and your own Silent Hill 2 PC Director's Cut: version 1.0 is not accepted. A converter that runs in the browser, without uploading anything, or a Docker image turns your files into data for the 3DS. Sound requires dumping the console's DSP firmware once with DSP1, and sh23ds.cia is installed with FBI. The project neither provides nor links any game files.


Good to know

The author describes it as a development version: expect some rough edges. The code is open source (GPL v3). For the rest of the scene, see our selection of 3DS homebrew.


Sources: sh23ds (GitHub) · Version 0.2.2 · Project website