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 of Yoshi when entering haunted houses, fortresses, and castles.
With sales of 20 million units it is the best selling Super Nintendo game and the best selling fourth generation console game ever.
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
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.
In the Special Zone, listen to the music. Two minutes into that music, the music brings back memories of the original Super Mario Bros. theme.
In the Super Mario All-Stars version of Super Mario World, Luigi has his classic look from Super Mario Bros. 2 - tall and slim.
The Sunken Ghost Ship level, which is the level to beat to open passage to Bowser Valley, is the Flying Ship from SMB3(or at least a generic Ship level). It is the only level in the game with Cannon Balls(from SMB3), and the "?" orb(which you would get after defeating Boom Boom in the fortress levels in SMB3). It is also the only Ghost or Fortress level where you can play while riding Yoshi. By getting the Orb, you unlock the passage to Bowser Valley, which is a direct takeaway from unlocking a route or road on the Level maps in SMB3.
Much like Bowser's Koopalings, the Reznors in this game also reference a musical artist: in this case, their name refers to singer/songwriter Trent Reznor.
There is a secret area found early in the game. It has no time limit or enemies, provides a free Yoshi, and free items such as Super Mushrooms (if you're Small Mario), Fire Flowers, Cape Feathers or 1-Up Mushrooms if you have a Yoshi.
The sound of Yoshi coming out of an egg is the same as Tamagon from Devil World coming out of his egg.
Super Mario World was featured on the cover of Nintendo Power V28, making it the first Super NES game to ever appear on the cover of Nintendo Power magazine.
The game won five awards in the 1991 Nintendo Power Awards: Best Graphics and Sound (Super NES), Best Theme and Fun (Super NES), Best Play Control (Super NES), Best Overall Villain (Bowser), and Best Overall Super NES Game.
Despite Super Mario World being a bundled game with the SNES, the Virtual Console port was not a launch title, and in fact took several months to re-release.
This is the first game to feature Fire Mario's current color scheme, consisting of a white hat and shirt with red overalls.
This is also the first game where Fire Luigi is colored differently than Fire Mario, consisting of a white hat and shirt with green overalls.
Luigi's in-game sprite shows that he is wearing purple overalls. In the official artwork, his overalls are blue. Luigi's sprite colors in this game would later be used as Luigi's default costume in Super Smash Bros..
In the early development, the red switch palace was placed in the Valley of Bowser, as a secret exit of Valley of Bowser 3; but was removed and was placed in the Vanilla Dome 2.
Upon completion of all the Special levels, the landscape becomes autumnal, and some villains wear Mario masks.