Mario's Kingdoms and Places: The Complete Geography
The Mario saga has never had a single official map, and that is precisely what makes its geography fascinating. Between the Mushroom Kingdom, the tropical archipelagos and the kingdoms visited by airship, the series has built a composite world where every installment adds its own region.
The Mushroom Kingdom
The Mushroom Kingdom is the anchor point. It is home to Peach's Castle, which became a gameplay hub in Super Mario 64. Its population is detailed in the guide to its peoples, and its scattered geography in the kingdoms of the Mushroom Kingdom.
A neighboring kingdom also exists: Sarasaland, Daisy's realm, made up of four distinct regions.
A geography without a map
Unlike Hyrule in Zelda, the Mario universe has never been given a coherent official map. Kingdoms pile up game after game without anyone knowing how they fit together: is Isle Delfino close to the Mushroom Kingdom? Is Sarasaland on the same planet? Nintendo has never settled the question, and that is deliberate.
That vagueness is a design asset. It lets every installment invent its own region without worrying about continuity, and makes room for places that could never coexist in a coherent world — a volcano kingdom peopled by living forks sitting next door to a New York-style metropolis. The series systematically favors the idea of the level over geographical plausibility.
One constant remains all the same: every world is built around a single, instantly readable theme — desert, ice, lava, beach, sky. That grammar, inherited from Super Mario Bros. 3, still shapes the most recent games.
Castles and fortresses
Bowser's strongholds form a sub-genre of their own: the Koopa castles, the flying fortresses of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Dark Land, the final world, all dark industry.
Isle Delfino
Isle Delfino is the entire setting of Super Mario Sunshine, a tropical island peopled by Piantas and Nokis. There you visit Bianco Hills and Sirena Beach with its haunted hotel.
The kingdoms of Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey structures its adventure into self-contained kingdoms, each with its own culture. The Cascade Kingdom opens the journey, New Donk City is its metropolis, the Sand Kingdom the largest of all.
Then come the Luncheon Kingdom and its soup volcano, the Wooded Kingdom where robots tend the gardens, the Lake Kingdom under its glass dome, the Moon Kingdom and finally Bowser's Kingdom, a Japanese castle that brings the adventure to a close.
The cosmic worlds
Super Mario Galaxy moves the action into space, around the Comet Observatory, the hub ship of Rosalina.
The RPG lands
The RPG installments have geographies all their own: Rogueport, the port town of The Thousand-Year Door, and the Beanbean Kingdom from Superstar Saga.
Passages and secret worlds
The Warp Zone invented the video game shortcut. The Star World in Super Mario World remains the most famous hidden world, and Rainbow Road the most legendary track in Mario Kart.
The universe in the real world
Since 2021, this universe has existed physically: Super Nintendo World recreates its settings at full scale. And the series crosses paths with other franchises, as catalogued in the guide to official collaborations.
The locations in the shop
These settings turn up on the posters, the mouse pads in large format, the duvet covers and the wall stickers.
Explore the Mario universe
This page is part of a series of guides covering the whole Mario universe:
Frequently asked questions
Mainly in the Mushroom Kingdom, but every installment adds regions of its own: Isle Delfino in Sunshine, outer space in Galaxy, some fifteen kingdoms in Odyssey, Sarasaland in Super Mario Land.
It is the kingdom ruled by Princess Peach and inhabited by Toads. It serves as the default setting for most of the games and is home to Peach's Castle, often used as the nerve center.
Around fifteen kingdoms to visit, each with its own culture, its regional coins and its Power Moons to collect. Bowser's Kingdom wraps up the main adventure.
Yes, at the Super Nintendo World parks open in Japan, the United States and Europe, which recreate the settings of the Mushroom Kingdom at full size.