At one point, the design team was going to put a "No Yoshi Allowed" sign in the game. Instead, they made an animation of Mario jumping off Yoshi when entering haunted houses, fortresses, and castles.
The Koopa Kids were all named for celebrities:
-Larry Koopa: Larry King, a famous newscaster
-Morton Koopa Jr.: Morton Downey Jr., an actor
-Wendy O. Koopa: Wendy O. Williams, a musician/actress from the eighties
-Iggy Koopa: Iggy Pop, founder of classic rock band The Stooges
-Roy Koopa: Roy Orbison, one of the pioneers of pop-rock music
-Lemmy Koopa: Lemmy Kilmister, singer/bassist for metal band Motorhead
-Ludwig Von Koopa: Ludwig van Beethoven, the famous classical music composer from the 19th century
With sales of 20 million units it is the best selling Super Nintendo game and the best selling fourth generation console game.
Yoshi's arms in the game are orange no matter what color Yoshi you are riding. Art on the box and in the game manual portray only green Yoshi with green arms. The re-release on the Game Boy Advance now has each color Yoshi with arms matching the color of his skin.
The spin-jump was introduced in Super Mario World.