What is Coronation Day?
There is a good chance that this may be the first time you have heard of Coronation Day, even if you are a well seasoned, modern retro gamer. After all there are countless games, hacks, homebrews and all sorts of other retro gaming hardware and software out there that it’s pretty much impossible to know about everything. Coronation Day is one of the thousands upon thousands of Super Mario World hacks out there however it stands head and shoulder’s above the vast majority of the other hacks. Why? It’s a very well crafted and thought out, deep story with intricate and complex puzzles. To this day gamers have no discovered everything about the game, however a good portion of the game is known. It took 10 years for the retro gaming community studying this game and it’s workings in order to find solutions to it’s abstract puzzles.
Coronation Day Explained
This hack was first released into the hacking community as a patch for download on the 5th of January 2016, making it 10 years old just over a week ago. It wasn’t long before this game started to get a lot of attention on the internet particularly by fans of creepy pastas which have been around on the internet for a while, ever since Sonic.exe showed up they became exceedingly popular and flooded the internet. The Sonic ones were fairly linear and one dimensional, they basically all had the same premise – an evil version of Sonic would mow down all his friends in a gruesome blood bath. Then Super Mario World hacks started showing up trying to incorporate horror and many of those were just as simple as the Sonic ones. There were literally thousands of them and they were all very mediocre.
Coronation Day broke that trend, inventing a game around a story that you don’t get to see. What you experience when you play the game is the aftermath and you must use the clues the game gives you to work out what’s going on and how to progress. It’s a completely non-linear game, there are many endings and most of them are hidden and require a fair bit of sleuthing to work out. In fact a lot of the game requires video game forensics so advanced that you have to look at the games inner working and assets to find out how to finish it. This is of course far too complicated for the average retro gamer and even for the average ROM hacker. Luckily the game has been mostly discovered by now thanks to the collective efforts of the community. It basically took many years and team work with hackers sharing their knowledge on forums to work out the game’s endings and storyline.
The Coronation Day Experience
To be able get the most enjoyment out of the game you need a guide unless you have a freakishly large IQ and expert video game hacking abilities. I recommend watching a YouTube video by Hey Peter who does a detailed analysis of the game and reveals how to get most of the endings. He also talks about the storyline and pieces together all the clues to come up with his version of the complete backstory for the game. However it must be said that no-one really knows what the game story actually is as the creators have intentionally kept quiet about it instead leaving it to the player to come to their own conclusion. That is a big part of what separates this game from all the other fan creations out there and even professionally published video games, movies and stories.
If you are into the video game genre of horror games then I highly recommend checking this game out. You can find links to the patch below but you will have to source the Super Mario World ROM yourself. The website romhacking.net has an online patcher so you don’t even have to mess around with downloading a patching program. All you need to do is get the Super Mario World SFC file, the Coronation Day patch and plug them both into the online patcher. It will then spit out the Coronation Day ROM which you can load via RetroArch, Snes9x or BSNES emulator or on real hardware using a Super Everdrive or similar flash cartridge. I recommend getting the earlier patch (linked below) as it’s compatible with retro achievements to help you get the most from the game. For an important hint watch the RGN YouTube video embed below.
Things to Consider Before You Play the Game
After nearly 10 years the game has received a significant new update, right before it’s 10th anniversary. I haven’t seen this myself yet so I don’t know what the differences are. I had a cursory look and for the most part things looked the same, at least at the beginning. It’s highly possible it’s kept the same but that extra paths and content was incorporated additionally. My recommendation, if you have never played this before, is to first download the original version and the play the hack on your own. See how far you can get on your own, which may not be very far because of how complicated it is.
Don’t spend too long trying to work things out all on your own. Once you can’t find any new ways to progress then watch the video in the middle of the article to help you. After that play it again and get as far as you can and try and get as many retro achievements as possible. Once you have gone as far as you can with the video as a guide then you should try the new patch. After that checkout link #4 which has a complete guide to the game. This way you will squeeze every ounce of gameplay, story and lore out of this game as possible. You can always try playing without watching any videos or reading any guides but you likely won’t get very far on your own but feel free to try.
Relevant Links
- Retro Achievements Coronation Day Supported Files Webpage [https://retroachievements.org/game/2921/hashes] Download the patch for Coronation Day here.
- Romhacking.net Online Rom Patcher [https://www.romhacking.net/patch/] When you have the Super Mario World ROM and Coronation Day Patch combine them here.
- Super Mario World Central – Coronation Day Webpage [https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=41112] You can find the latest patch here uploaded 6th September 2025 which significantly expands the game.
- Coronation Day Peach – House of Horrorbrews Fandom Wiki [https://house-of-horrorbrews.fandom.com/wiki/Coronation_Day_Peach] The definitive guide to the game, I believe it has been updated to include the latest patch game information.
