Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been busy building and reviewing the new LEGO® Super Mario sets. That’s every single expansion set, the Starter Course and the Power-up suits. If you haven’t been following the reviews there is a handy Round-up below. But this is also a good time to offer my overall opinion on this interesting new theme.
For many years, fans of both Nintendo and LEGO have yearned for the iconic companies to work together. Well, it turns out teams in Billund and Kyoto have secretly been working on Project Leaf. Earlier this year we learned Project Leaf was, in fact, the LEGO Super Mario theme. But it’s safe to assume no-one expected the direction the theme has taken. But as I’ve said in some of my reviews, when has Nintendo ever done anything by the book. The entire LEGO Super Mario theme blends the DNA of both companies to create a truly unique LEGO play experience. The main complaint I’ve seen is why Minifigures weren’t included. I can understand the concern but with the unique nature of the various Mario characters, they would require some many unique parts, they would lose the essence of the Minifigure. After all how many people hated on the Trolls, Angry Birds and Friends Mini-dolls. Plus Minifigures wouldn’t offer the same sort of interactive element that LEGO Mario does.
The technology packed into LEGO Mario is fairly impressive, the LCD screen brings him to life and the sound effects instantly transport you into a Mario game and the various actions are similar to how Mario plays in those games.
Building the sets is very different, firstly there are no physical instructions. Instead, a companion app guides you through the build. This I’m a little torn on, smart devices play a key role in our day to day life and for many years LEGO has battled to wrestle playtime from these digital devices. Although the app plays a role in the game aspect of the sets, it isn’t a necessity so turning people to solely build via the app does seem a little odd. Plus I found some stages of the building via the app, extremely confusing as it would skip to new bags, left elements over or show one configuration of the set, only for the various elements to be put together in a completely different way. Admittedly, that was with the pre-release version of the app, this may have been fixed for the final version.
Once you’ve built the various sets, this is where the fun really starts. You are free to create your own real-life Mario game. The Starter Course set is obviously the key to the entire range as it contains the most important elements you’ll need to be able to play the game.
There are many like me who have been playing Nintendo games since the 80s but they forget that nearly 40 years on, there are younger generations who have just as much love for the Italian plumber as we do. And it’s this new generation of Nintendo gamers who the LEGO Super Mario sets are aimed at. That’s not to say older LEGO fans won’t get any joy for the range. I loved seeing how the LEGO actions recreated elements from the game. The same can be said about the character design. The cubic take on Mario and the other brick-built characters works surprisingly well and also feels an extension of the games. Nintendo loves sending their characters into different styles worlds and this LEGO take on the Mushroom Kingdom feels the same as that.
Would I change things? Absolutely, character distribution falls a little flat and parts of build experience could certainly have been better. But as it stands I’m impressed with how these much-loved brands have brought the world of Mario to life, whilst still retaining the aspects of why their respective fans admire them so much.
Starter Course
71360: Adventures with Mario Starter Course
Expansion sets
71362: Guarded Fortress Expansion Set
71363: Desert Pokey Expansion Set
71364: Whomp’s Lava Trouble Expansion Set
71365: Piraha Plant Power Slide
71366: Boomer Bill Barrage Expansion Set
71367: Mario’s House & Yoshi Expansion Set
71368: Toad’s Treasure Hunt Expansion Set
71369: Bowser’s Castle Boss Battle Expansion Set
71376: Thwomp Drop Expansion Set
71377: King Boo and the Haunted Yard Expansion Set
LEGO Super Mario Power-up Packs
LEGO Super Mario Promotional Sets
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22nd September 2020
If you had to choose 1 expansion set for a 7 year old and his 9 year old brother, which one would you chose/. Which expansion set has the biggest bang for your buck?
22nd September 2020
In terms of how much it adds and the play factors, it has to be Bowers’s Castle. It’s just great fun to play with. In terms of adding the most amount of things to build a great course then it’s Toad’s Treasure Hunt and the Guarded Fortress. But they are quite costly so maybe Pirahna Power Slide or Desert Pokey, they are smaller and thus cheaper but have fun things to interact with and between the pair of them they could use these to beat each others scores. Hope that helps 🙂
5th May 2021
its also a blast to build with family (especially if they are currently playing or grew up with a mario game) now if this is too expensive choose a medium set like guarded fortress or king boos yard. also a blast but much shorter.