Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System is iconic of the platform, but players who grew up on 16:9 aspect ratios may find older games' smaller 4:3 view jarring. A developer experienced with the SNES has set out to make Super Mario World run natively in widescreen, and the results are impressive.
In 1991, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System released along with Super Mario World as a launch title, and has seen many re-releases including launching with Nintendo Switch Online's SNES library. Super Mario World was designed to be played on CRT TVs, which at release time had a standard aspect ratio of 4:3, so attempting to play the original SNES release of the game on a modern 16:9 display stretches the image out into an unnatural, blurry mess.
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SNES romhacker Vitor Vilela set out to create a patch for Super Mario World to allow the classic game to take full advantage of modern displays, filling the entire screen without any stretching. The patch's GitHub page includes a link to download the BPS patch and a configuration file to be used with SNES emulator bsnes-hd. Players will need to be careful finding a rom download to patch as downloading a rom of a game the player does not legally own is technically illegal, and Nintendo has been filing lawsuits against rom distribution sites recently. Players lucky enough to have access to a cartridge backup device may also back up and patch the game that way.
The widescreen patch for Super Mario World is available as a free download, and Vilela has a Patreon which appreciative players can support to make development of future hacks feasible. Vilela has years of experience developing unique SNES romhacks that go beyond other hacks that change the level layouts of games or tell new stories. Super Mario World has many great romhacks already available, and other romhackers are already building off of Vilela's work with level edits, so the future of Super Mario World romhacking is sure to be exciting to fans of the game.
Super Mario World is currently available on all of Nintendo's consoles that still support online connectivity, but no re-release has changed the game significantly. Vilela's hack not only works on PCs, but theoretically any system capable of running a libretro distribution and the bsnes-hd core, such as the RetroArch build for Xbox Series X. Vilela has also confirmed future resolutions planned with upcoming releases, including 2:1 and 21:9 for ultrawide monitors.
Some retro purists will shun emulators as imperfect experiences, but the improvements made with so many years of development and the support for unique romhacks such as Vilela's widescreen hack is undoubtedly impressive and unique. Even developers of modern games releasing on outdated hardware such as The Shapeshifter stress the importance of emulation, even outside of the romhacking and development spaces. Considering even large companies like Nintendo have embraced emulation for modern game re-releases, it may be time to let go of real-hardware elitism and welcome the new possibilities afforded by emulation.
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