Super Mario Odyssey

The next destination in our Super Mario Odyssey tour is the Wooded Kingdom, where flower fields and trees grow amongst a mountain of rusted metal. This is the greater location of the Steam Gardens, a verdant, sun-dappled forest containing several large iron structures. If you look out towards the horizon, you’ll see that the Steam Gardens are actually contained within a massive glass dome. The whole area is essentially a giant greenhouse, insulated from the cold mountains beyond. It seems this dome is climate-controlled and self-sufficient; it has operated with little to no maintenance since ancient times.

The original name for the Steam Gardens was Kogwald, which is German for ‘Cog Woods’. This suggests that the forests of central Europe inspired this kingdom. The vast mountain range in the background certainly resembles the Alps.

The Wooded Kingdom is a land where nature and machinery coexist. No one knows who built the giant buildings and machines dotting this land, or what their original purpose was, but they have long been abandoned. Today, the facility is heavily overgrown, and in some places, the infrastructure is crumbling. The rusted steel buildings and pipes have since been remodelled to grow plants. In fact, the Wooded Kingdom has become the world’s greatest flower garden.

Visitors to the Wooded Kingdom are welcomed not only by the humid air, but also by caretaker robots tending the flowers. Known as Steam Gardeners, these autonomous residents of the kingdom are shaped like yellow watering cans. Extremely devoted to their work, they serve mainly to water the flowers, but they also maintain the rest of the facility and give Mario advice. Though they are friendly and polite, they can come across as eccentric and socially awkward due to their robotic nature. They rely on moon-fuelled charging stations for energy, and their exhaust comes out as harmless water vapour.

Character artist Akiki Hirono provides more information about the Steam Gardeners: ‘These robots grow flowers, so we considered water-related motifs and settled on a watering-can shape in the end. Their parts are old-fashioned and rusted, befitting the abandoned factory around them. Only their right arms move to water plants, but they shift around clumsily while talking, and they spray like a water fountain when happy, making rainbows. This allows them to emote in some form. The plants growing on their heads are just seedlings at the beginning, but as the story progresses and peace returns to the land, they bloom. This makes for quite a happy scene. Small birds perch on their heads sometimes. The birds were the lead designer’s idea. Anyone can see how kind the robots are if they can coexist with such delicate creatures. They may appear cold and inhuman at first, but they’re actually quite emotional beings.’

From where Mario sets the Odyssey down, a trail leads through a forested area towards the Steam Gardens factory. Beyond a cave lies the base of the Iron Road, notable for its red maze of moving platforms and narrow ledges. You will start to see Uproots, onion-like creatures that usually have a brown flowerpot over their heads, with a broken opening to look through. They have green, thorny, root-like legs, which can telescope upwards. Uproots use this ability to push their bulb-like bodies high into the air, then retract them in an instant to jump – an ability that Mario can use himself if he uses Cappy to capture one of these strange creatures.

From the forest area, you enter a dense field of flowers. The flowers, which are nurtured by the Steam Gardeners, contrast with the rough red machinery. The most famous and revered flower fields, however, are higher up in the factory. Here, the famous Soirée Bouquet can be found – a precious flower arrangement that only this kingdom can produce. It features giant white flowers that charm all who lay eyes on it. It is by far the most popular bouquet for wedding ceremonies, sought after by wedding planners worldwide. Would-be brides travel from far and wide to the facility to see these valuable blooms. However, many intruders also seek them, including Bowser. The Steam Gardeners take great care in cultivating the Soirée Bouquet, as it supports the kingdom’s industry.

In the higher sections of the Steam Gardens, pressing a ‘P’ switch causes a Flower Road to grow, with plants stretching into the open air. This provides a temporary path made of living vegetation for Mario to use. Such paths were once used as temporary scaffolding to construct the dome itself. These old roads will disappear over time, so make haste when using them. It’s no place for those afraid of heights.

While exploring the flower fields in the upper reaches of the Steam Gardens, Mario will come across a boss that he needs to defeat: Torkdrift. Looking a bit like a cross between a flower and a UFO, Torkdrift is a giant mech built by Bowser to collect flowers for the Soirée Bouquet. This bloom-shaped bot blasts laser beams at Mario, and its eyes float independently, remaining in the same place even when its entire body is flipped over.

Concept artist Akane Yoshida explains a bit more about what went into designing Torkdrift. ‘As it’s a state-of-the-art machine, we wanted to make it both charming and slightly futuristic. This led to its detached googly-eye-like protrusions. Cybernetic characters are rare for Mario, so this injects some novelty into the game.’

The Explorer Hat and Outfit that Mario can purchase from the Crazy Cap store in the Wooded Kingdom is a reference to the 1994 Game Boy game Mario’s Picross. In this puzzle game, players must carve out hidden images using numbers on the top and sides as hints. Because the game likens solving puzzles to deciphering ancient stone tablets, Mario is decked out in an archaeologist’s outfit, as shown in the artwork to the right.

It doesn’t appear on any tours, but there is an area in this kingdom untouched by the machines of the Steam Gardens, in the forest far below the old facility. The Deep Woods, as it is called, is a dim, eerie place with no in-game map. There is also no background music whatsoever, only ambient noises, which adds to the creepiness. It’s almost like you’re walking through a dense redwood forest at night, only instead of the usual flora and fauna, you stumble upon a T. rex. And unlike the slumbering dinosaur you encountered in the Cascade Kingdom, this one is awake and hostile and will chase Mario if it spots him. The Steam Gardeners discourage visiting the Deep Woods due to the danger posed by the giant prehistoric monster.

Well, that’s it for our tour of the Wooded Kingdom. Next time in our Super Mario Odyssey sightseeing trip, we’ll be heading to the Lake Kingdom – a submerged sanctuary of fashion inhabited by mermaid-like beings called Lochladies.