MM3DHD VS parallel-n64

There are also two texture packs that include improved models and such - I use DeathWrench's via Nerrel (also includes a remastered soundtrack) but Henriko Magnifico includes 4k textures so depends on what you want.

The HD HUD is from the restoration project, the rest of the texture are referenced by the restoration project, but the source is here

Play on Citra or a hacked 3DS and use the Project Restoration mod, easily the definitive way to play. Also if you are playing on Citra this is a good HD texture pack

This is a known issue with the N64 cores when launched via front-end. If you open the RetroArch Quick Menu the controls come back. If launched via RetroArch itself you'll get no issues

Nah, I believe it’s ‘parallel-n64’ libretro core. https://github.com/libretro/parallel-n64

It's an issue with the core when launched from a front-end. I talked about it, along with a few workarounds, here. It's been an issue as far back as 2016.

It's an old issue with the core on Android when launched via front end. Seems to happen on certain games.

Unfortunately there are other cores in the same situation, and I understand that it is a volunteer work, but what bothers me is that many times no one from the team even talks when a core is abandoned or no longer works on some platform. ParaLLEl, for example, is maintained by the RetroArch team and for RetroArch, and has been without updates on Android since 2020. They haven't even answered if there will be updates for the platform again. And this is just an example that I remember at the moment.

The thing is though, there's nothing that was stopping Nintendo to grab one of those emulators and use it themselves as most of them are open source, Sony actually uses an open source emulator on the playstation classic so the precedent is there, Nintendo could have taken one of those emulators and just improve on them: https://github.com/libretro/parallel-n64

According to the docs, mupen64 core doesn't support netplay. Somebody was also having problems with netplay on parallel-64 core. You may try what was suggested there, but it's possible you can't use RA netplay for n64 games.