Super Mario World: Call of Cthulhu (or just Call of Cthulhu) is a romhack for the platform game, Super Mario World, published by Nintendo. It was developed by Yashum and released in 2012. As its name would have suggested, this is a fan-made game that is based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft of the same name, which is all about a monstrous entity that lives in the abyss, and has the power to influence and corrupt the dreams and reality of man.

The core gameplay of Super Mario World: Call of Cthulhu is a 2D side-scrolling platform game, and pretty much works the same as the original game. Use the arrow keys to move, the X key to jump, and the Z key to spin-jump. Join Mario as he somehow finds himself in R’lyeh, the sunken city where Cthulhu is said to reside in. He has to rescue a potential victim of sacrifice from the cult that worships Cthulhu, all while maintaining his own sanity in order to escape the place himself.

As you would imagine, this game is horror-themed, so play at your own risk! Other than that, the formula of the game hasn’t changed too drastically in that you will still be journeying through 6 different levels that were creatively invented just for this romhack. And, just a word of advice - be sure to collect all the tokens you find before meeting with the final boss.

The graphics of Super Mario World: Call of Cthulhu is pretty atmospheric and dark, essentially capturing the creepy vibes of a horror-themed game. The familiar characters that appear in the Mario series now look quite odd and disturbing, the result of joining the cult that worships Cthulhu. Moving on to the more technical side, there used to be an issue of being unable to save the game as it was in SNES. However, this will not be an issue as you can use save states in retrogames.

To sum it all up, Super Mario World: Call of Cthulhu is a really interesting and spooky version of the ever-popular platform game. Head on over to retrogames to play this one for free now.