Let's-a build!
- "LEGO Mario time!""LEGO Luigi time!""LEGO Peach time!"
LEGO Super Mario is a 2020 LEGO theme centered around Nintendo's portly plumber mascot. It was initially announced in March of 2020 before being released on August 1 of the same year.
Unlike most LEGO themes, LEGO Super Mario incorporates many more elements of its license than usual. Rather than simply having a few building sets with special Minifigs, as K'Nex did with their Mario sets for years previously, the sets are built around an interactive, Bluetooth-enabled electronic Mario figure. This version of Mario uses a visual sensor and motion controls to react to how the player moves Mario around the courses that the player builds. Special barcode tiles allow Mario to know when he is placed in the starting pipe, when he steps on an enemy, when he lands on the flagpole, and more.
With Mario connected to the LEGO Super Mario app, finishing a course will show how many coins were collected and how, which are then tracked in the app. The player can then take pictures or video and upload them for others to see. The total number of coins collected is also tracked for the lifetime of the player account.
Around the same time, LEGO and Nintendo also released a TV and Nintendo Entertainment System building set, which included an NES with controller, Super Mario Bros. cartridge, and a mechanical scrolling TV set with a short, looping section of World 1-1 controlled by turning a crank on the side of the TV. As the background scrolls, a Mario in the foreground jumps, stomps and climbs. Placing the electronic Mario figure on top of the TV will allow it to scan barcode tiles as they scroll by, adding sound effect as appropriate. In 2021, a Luigi set was released, letting Mario team up with his brother on adventures.
The announcement of the theme was met with a combination of excitement and confusion. While a Mario-themed LEGO set had been suggested and shot down numerous times through the LEGO Ideas site, many of them were designed around using the existing Minifig design with special head pieces the same way The Simpsons sets had previously been made. The inclusion of not merely a special electronic Mario but motion controls and smart device connectivity was a huge surprise, as was Mario's unusual but charming blocky figure design. The launch of the line exceeded expectations, garnering favorable comparisons to both Super Mario Maker and Nintendo Labo and possibly paving the way for future collaborations between both companies.
One year after the launch of the line, LEGO Luigi was released with his own Starter Course which includes all of the terrain types not included in the first set, plus updates light brown tiles to register as a wooden ship type surface. It also included a Pink Yoshi which registers as its own power-up, giving extra coins for jumping and changing the jump sound to Yoshi's voice.
On October 31st, much to the surprise of many came an announcement of three sets for Luigi themed after Luigi's Mansion and arrived on January 1st, 2022. A LEGO Peach figure was later revealed on March 10th (Mario Day) and would see release in August 1st, 2022. On August 1st, 2023, another wave of Mario sets came out, including a wave partially inspired by the Donkey Kong Country video game series.
LEGO Super Mario provides examples of:
- All Deserts Have Cacti: Both the Piranha Plant Slide and Desert Pokey Expansion Sets, as well as the Bullet Bill Character Pack, have cacti. The Monty Mole Super Mushroom set may also, if the flowers included with it are meant to be small barrel cacti.
- Alternate Company Equivalent:
- Has been described as this for Super Mario Maker. Both allow the player to design and share courses which other players can then play through. Unlike a lot of examples, the difference is the medium rather than the brand - one is a video game and the other is a physical toy, both in the Mario franchise.
- More directly, K'Nex had previously produced Super Mario themed sets that used stud-and-tube style bricks in addition to the rod-and-connector pieces the brand is known for. While K'Nex playsets tended to be smaller with fewer set pieces, some of the same basic ideas were executed very similarly in the LEGO Super Mario series.
- Anti-Frustration Feature:
- Since the sets are fairly large and complicated even by LEGO standards, the instructions are provided by the app rather than including a massive, potentially ambiguous instruction booklet. Each step is accompanied by animations to show where each piece goes, and the 3D model can then be freely rotated to give a better view of what it should look like.
- And for those who can't or don't want to use the app for some reason, the same digital instructions are available on the website, albeit without the interactive 3D models.
- The Starter Course is built in small chunks that make the process feel more like reaching a goal rather than just steps toward the building of the complete set. The builder has to first make a few parts - the start pipe, a Goomba, and the flagpole - before the instructions for more sections unlock. These few parts are enough to make a short but fully playable level, giving the builder and/or player a better idea of how to make courses. This also makes it easier for people who have busy schedules to feel like they're accomplishing something rather than just hacking away at finishing a build. The first section can be finished in less than a half hour, and the modular nature of the set pieces means someone can just build a few easy bits at a time and have something to play with for their efforts.
- If Mario or Luigi is left on without playing with him for a few seconds, the lights and sensor under his feet will turn off and his main display (eyes, mouth, chest) will dim slightly to save on battery life.
- Bat Family Crossover: In addition to sets based on the traditional Super Mario platformers, there are sets based on the Shared Universe with Luigi's Mansion and Donkey Kong Country.
- *batteries not included: At $60, they still didn't include even a cheap pair or use a built-in rechargeable as one might expect from a premium toy of this kind.
- Blind Bag Collectables: How individual enemies are sold.
- Big Boo's Haunt: The King Boo and the Haunted Yard Expansion Set. It includes a few towers, a small house, bats, and King Boo as the boss.
- Big Fancy Castle: The Bowser's Castle Boss Battle Expansion. It has a giant statue of Bowser with movable arms and battle on the bridge. The player has to launch the arms backwards by making Mario stomp on a pair of levers, which makes it possible to beat Bowser. It's also one of the most expensive sets in the theme.
- Bootstrapped Theme: The Luigi's Mansion Expansion Sets use a Start Tile that sets the music to the main theme from the original Luigi's Mansion, which in the overall series has become more of a special jingle than a central musical theme.
- Boss-Arena Idiocy: All in the name of play.
- Bowser's Castle is set up specifically in a way to make Bowser slide off of the bridge so that he can be stomped. He even has mechanisms specifically to lift the back end of the bridge and make it shake.
- The Reznor's rotating platform is located right next to a skewer that can knock them off their perches.
- Boss Battle: Some courses and expansion sets include a Boss enemy that has to be defeated in some way to expose its tile, and then need to be stomped repeatedly. Bowser, for example, is standing on a bridge which can be wiggled by having Mario move a fire bar back and forth until Bowser falls face down in front of it, letting Mario stomp on him. Pokey has to be knocked apart to get to its head, while Bowser Jr., Larry, and Boom-Boom just need to be knocked over from wherever they're placed in the level.
- Breakable Power-Up: The Super Mushroom can be lost if the Bro who has it takes damage from fire or poison, or if the player tries to jump on the rare enemy that can cause damage without a Super Star.
- Bubblegloop Swamp: Luigi's Starter Course is a combination of this and Shifting Sand Land and Gangplank Galleon. Several other sets including the Pirahna Plant Puzzling Challenge and Chain Chomp Jungle Encounter are more straight examples.
- Build Like an Egyptian: the Paragoomba Character Pack includes a small pyramid at its base. The Monty Mole Super Mushroom Expansion Pack has a flat "pyramid" in front of the Stone-Eye, as well as a brick ruined building that the Monty Mole itself is hidden in based off of a mastaba.
- Built with LEGO: Obviously. And not just single set pieces, but characters and entire levels.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: What color Mario or Luigi stands on represents a type of terrain. Green for grass, yellow for sand, blue for water, tan/light brown for wood, red for lava and fire, and purple for poison. Red and purple tiles cause a short build-up period, after which Mario and Luigi will take damage. The other types will change the sound the Brothers make when they walk or jump and then land. This can have some weird side effects, like when stepping on a mushroom - if Mario is too far to the side, his sensor will see the red plastic and treat it like fire.
- Combinatorial Explosion: The Starter Courses alone has a dozen main set pieces and pathways each, and there is no "default" included in the instructions. The packaging and quick-start guide even have different layouts. Combined with even only one each of the Expansion Sets, Power-Up Suits, and Character Packs, there are almost too many combinations to count. And as long as the Start Pipe is on one end and the flagpole is on the other, they are all perfectly legitimate. And since the courses don't have to be limited to a single pathway, you can make them branch out as little or as much as you like.
- Cool Airship: The Bowser's Airship Expansion Set is, on its own, just as cool as its appearance in the modern Super Mario games. But it also contains a whole host of Continuity Nods, like the giant mechanical hand from New Super Mario Bros. U, a pirate-themed Goomba based on the version from Super Mario Odyssey, and a whole bunch of call-backs to Super Mario Bros. 3: playing the theme from that game, having a hidden Rocky Wrench in the helm, and being able to open up into a much longer form that looks more they did back then. Plus, Mario can be put at the helm to have a ship's wheel pop up and let him fire cannon shots.
- Coop Multiplayer: A Mario and Luigi can be synced up using Bluetooth and will get bonus coins for performing in-sync, with their final coins being added together once the course is completed. Finally, it has a POW block as one of the very few references to Super Mario Bros. 2 besides recurring enemies that came from that game.
- Cut and Paste Environments: While there is a lot of potential for course design based on what sets the player has collected, they're still mainly made of the same handful of pieces and sections. The main option for making something new is rearranging the sections of the course. This can become literal if multiple copies of the same course are used together.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: In as much as it can even be treated as "death." Standing on fire or poison block or tiles too long will make Mario lose any items he's carrying and leave him in a state where he can't interact for a few seconds. Once he's recovered, he can attempt to recollect the same items if the special blocks for them are included or if there's a Question Block in the current course.
- Dem Bones: Dry Bones and Bone Goomba both get brick-built figures. The Skull Raft is used in the Thwomp Drop set.
- Design-It-Yourself Equipment: The courses and expansions are designed to be modular so sections can be added and removed at will, and the building of unique, self-made courses is heavily encouraged.
- Easter Egg: When building the NES set, a number of colored bricks and panels are used in a section that ends up covered once complete, and there are no callouts to what the actual purpose of doing things this way actually accomplishes. Removing the side panel of the console reveals a recreation of the end section of World 1-2 from Super Mario Bros., including the Warp Zone.
- Expansion Pack: Almost everything is designed to be an add-on to the Starter Courses. Even additional courses are designed in a way that their set pieces can be mixed, matched, and added as a way to expand that than just a stand-alone set.
- Foreshadowing: In April 2021, several people discovered that if Mario is woken up after being left sleeping for a couple of minutes, he will call out to Luigi. Later in the year, Luigi gets introduced as a character and can interact with his brother when they are connected via Bluetooth.
- Fireballs: The Fire Mario Power-Up Pack lets you lean Mario forward to "shoot a fireball", represented by him making a mischievous grin while a fireball sound plays. Doing this randomly awards coins.
- Gangplank Galleon: Brown tiles read as wood bobbing on the tide, and are used predominantly in the Bowser's Airship playset. They are also included in the Luigi Starter Course.
- Genre Shift: The Timer Start Pipe that comes with the Creator Bundle introduces a new 30 second speedrun gameplay model, while the Reznor Knockdown expansion's Coin Challenge Start Pipe has the player collect 50 coins as quickly as possible. Both use the track "Slider" from Super Mario 64.
- The Goomba: Unique in that almost all enemies have an equal threat level - i.e, none. Bosses need to be stomped repeatedly to "defeat" them, they still can't hurt Mario. The Pokey has to have its sections knocked out one at a time, but again nothing is stopping the player from just moving around except to be "fair". Only ghosts like Peepa and Boo can scare Mario and Luigi for a few seconds, but can also cause them to drop any hearts, Yoshis, or Super Mushrooms they're carrying.
- Goomba Stomp: Mario does this to almost all enemies, and in fact anything he can interact with. Question Blocks and Power-Up items like Mushrooms have to be stepped on to register them. Beating a boss like Bowser or Bowser Jr. also involves interacting with the playset to knock them over, then stomping on their back.
- Green Hill Zone: The Mario Starter Course and the Guarded Fortress, Toad's Special Hideaway, Toad's Treasure Hunt, and Mario's House and Yoshi Expansion Sets are this, though the Starter Course and Guarded Fortress also includes a bit of Lethal Lava Land.
- Ground Pound: The Builder Power-Up Pack give Mario a super stop that sounds like crushing bricks. This allows him to collect coins just by jumping and landing.
- Guide Dang It!:
- Mario can have his volume adjusted. This isn't mentioned anywhere at all. You have to do it through the app, by connecting Mario and then tapping his image in the top left. This means anyone who doesn't have a smart device is going to be stuck with him at full volume. Even those who do might not find out that they can adjust it.
- Beating Bowser on the bridge of the Bowser's Castle Boss Battle Expansion Set can be frustrating if you don't set him up properly, which will cause him to get stuck near the bottom of the bridge. The position of his arms and tail matter. The position of his arms affects his center of gravity, and his tail needs to push against the bridge when he gets close to the bottom to prevent him from just landing flat on his feet and getting stuck.
- Hat of Flight: The Propeller Suit gives Mario "flight power", having him make a propeller noise when he jumps and giving extra coins in the process.
- Idle Animation: When not moving, Mario will blink and look around.
- Intercontinuity Crossover: With the introduction of Luigi's Mansion sets, it's now possible to mix and match enemies, set pieces, and power-ups freely between the two. Luigi can use the Poltergust to beat ghost enemies that never appeared in his spin-off series, or Mario can take on Bogmire using a Starman. You can even set up a level with both versions of King Boo.
- Invincible Minor Minion:
- Ghost-type enemies like Boo and Peepa will spook the Plumbers and Princess when they scans them, taking away a Super Mushroom unless under the effect of a Starman. Oddly enough, both versions of King Boo can be jumped on like normal enemies. The Poltergust suit allows them to be jumped on normally as well.
- Piranha Plants, if you count them as enemies and not just hazards. Bumping into the ones on Piranha Plant Slide will make Mario lose a Super Mushroom if he has one, and they don't even have a scan tile to step on anyway. The ones in the Puzzling Challenge set instead have no way to defeat them, only being able to flip them out of the way.
- Invincibility Power-Up: Mario can randomly get a Starman powerup from the Question Block or a Star Block, allowing him to defeat most normally unbeatable enemies like Boos and Peepas, as well as taking out any enemy including bosses in only one hit.
- Lethal Lava Land: Bowsers's Castle Boss Battle, Whomp's Lava Trouble, and Thwomp Drop Expansion Sets all only have red "lava" terrain pieces to connect the sections together.
- Long Song, Short Scene: When the Creator Bundle set first came out, the yellow Start Pipe it comes with was the first time the Super Mario 64 "Slider" music was used. Since the challenge from this pipe is only 30 seconds long, it cuts off early. The Reznor Knockdown expansion also uses this music, but since it has a much longer time limit, you can now here the full loop which stops just short of the bridge.
- Level 1 Music Represents: The main gameplay music is the Ground Theme from Super Mario Bros. Some of barcodes in the Donkey Kong sets play DK Island Swing.
- Loophole Abuse:
- Beating an enemy that gives extra coins will prevent any duplicates on the field from doing the same, only giving one extra. But nothing is stopping you from putting multiple different bosses or special enemies in the course, then using a Starman to blast through them.
- The most extra time the player should be able to get is 55 seconds - one brown time block, one blue one, and an extra 15 seconds from a Question Block. This gives 1 minute and 55 seconds of total play time - unless you use a Luigi's Mansion set start tile or the cannon from Bowser's Airship to start with 90 seconds instead. Now you can get up to almost 2 and a half minutes.
- Magic Mushroom: The Super Mushroom as per usual. Holding onto it until the end of a course will give Mario an additional 5 coins. It can be lost by standing on lava for too long, bumping into Piranha Plants on the sliding cart, or trying to step on a ghost without using a Starman first.
- Mythology Gag: Mostly as music and sound effects.
- The rotating platform from the Starter Course, the sliding platform from Whomp's Lava Trouble, and the spinning tower in Bowser's Castle will all play the Bowser's Castle theme from Super Mario Bros.
- Super Mario Bros. 3:
- Shaking Mario after having him jump has him make the Raccoon Mario tail sound, despite not wearing the Tanooki Suit. However, doing it too much will make him dizzy. He makes the same sound when riding the cloud platform. He can do this while wearing the Tanooki Suit for extra coins.
- The rail cart in Piranha Plant Slide plays a simplified version the Boom-Boom/Koopaling boss music.
- The swinging hammer in the Desert Pokey Expansion Set plays the World 2 overworld map theme.
- The music that plays on the seesaw in Luigi's Starter Course is from the World 8 map.
- The cannon for Bowser's Airship changes the gameplay music to the airship theme.
- The hidden tile under the Rocky Wrench on the airship plays the overworld music for World 5, Sky Land. Possibly a cheeky reference to this being the stage where the airship could potentially get stuck on a fake part of the map due to a bug. The same tile also plays the sound effect of cannons firing from the same game if Mario bounces on it by pressing the POW block in front.
- Riding in the Goomba Shoe plays the map theme for the lower level of World 5's map, which is the only place in the game where said power-up shows up.
- Putting the Bros. onto the Fire Bar control panel in Bowser's Castle, or the lever on King Boo's stand in the Haunt and Seek set, plays the final boss music from Super Mario World.
- Super Mario 64:
- Mario's snoring when laying down for long enough, his pained scream from lava, and the "OOF" from being knocked down are all taken from this game.
- The cannon used for the Bowser's Airship set can be adjusted up and down while one of the Bros. is inside it. This plays the aiming sound from 64.
- Challenge Start Pipes use the "Slider" theme from secret stages.
- Some of Luigi's voice clips are taken from Luigi's Mansion. All of Egad's lines, the sound of ghosts, and the sound of the Poltergust are all taken from that game as well. This even applies to ghost enemies in other sets.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: There are very few things that can actually hurt Mario, and nothing can actually defeat him. The only thing close to damage he can take is losing a Super Mushroom or other power-up from ghosts, lava, poison, or the Piranha Plants on the slide. Staying in poison or lava for too long won't kill him, but he will be incapacitated for a few seconds, shown with the "X eyes" detail. Otherwise, nothing will make a course end except hitting the flagpole tile or running out of time, effectively making Mario invincible.
- No Fair Cheating:
- Mario won't register more than one Super Mushroom or one of each Timer Block per playthrough of a course. The only way to get a second Super Mushroom besides the actual mushroom figure is to get one randomly from a Question Block - and even then, you can only get one per run of the course that way. He can also get one, smaller time boost per run from a Question Block, putting the absolute maximum extra time at 55 seconds.
- Time Blocks, which add time to the clock, come in two varieties (brown and blue), and only one of each per course will register to prevent the player from just repeatedly jumping on them for more time. The same goes for extra time from Question Blocks - you can get one, smaller boost and that's it.
- Enemies that have special defeat conditions or that give multiple coins can only be used once per level. After they're defeated the first time, trying to beat them a second time only gives a single coin. This seems to be to prevent the player from beating the same boss over and over for the 10 coin bonus. Of course, there's nothing stopping the player from putting multiple bossed in one course, then using a Starman to beat them all in one go.
- Non-Standard Character Design:
- Mario and Luigi don't look very much like either their home series or LEGO in terms of design. Instead, they incorporates both in a way that makes them look more like Crossy Road or Pokémon Quest. They also have a screen on their chests like a Teletubby. This is in contrast to even other characters in the same theme, with most looking like standard LEGO near-approximations. Even Lego Peach looks far more like herself than either Mario or Luigi.
- Thwomp has its spikes on its front rather than sides.
- Oddly, the Spiny in terms of gameplay - while physically it looks about like you'd expect for a LEGO version of the creature, it can be stomped on without damaging Mario.
- Original Generation: Boomer Bill from the Boomer Bill Barrage is seemingly a new enemy as the name has never been used before. It appears similar to a Banzai Bill but longer and seemingly a rocket rather than a bullet.
- Perpetual Smiler: Given that their faces are molded this way in hard plastic, Mario, Luigi, and Peach always smile even when they're knocked over or standing in lava.
- Power-Up:
- The initial wave of sets included four: the Fire Suit, Builder Suit, Propeller Suit, and Cat Suit. They each give Mario an extra motion controlled means of gathering coins.
- A second wave, Penguin Mario and Tanooki Mario, add belly sliding and tail whipping respectively.
- The Super Mushroom, part of its own bagged mini set, give the player bonus coins for carrying it to the end of the level without taking damage.
- Wave three of the Power Suits includes Frog Mario and Bee Mario, letting him jump and fly respectively.
- Luigi finally gets one themed around himself with the Mansion Lab and Poltergust set, letting him use his signature vacuum to suck up ghosts.
- One that can be used by both the Bros. and enemies is the Bowser Jr. Clown Car, which gives coins to the Mario Bro who flies in it.
- Power Up Letdown: One of the "power-ups" available in blind packs is a poison mushroom, which makes Mario dizzy like if he is shaken too much.
- Shifting Sand Land: Yellow tiles and bricks are read by Mario as sand. The Piranha Plant Slide, Desert Pokey, and Monty Mole & Super Mushroom Expansion Sets are desert themed.
- Songs in the Key of Panic: If Mario's timer gets below 15 seconds, it plays a warning sound and speeds up. Oddly, for the 50 coin time challenge introduced with the Reznor Knockdown set, it doesn't speed up after playing the warning jingle.
- Spectacular Spinning: The Tanooki Suit lets Mario "tail spin" for coins. Though the tail is simply painted on. Thematically, it's supposed to be done by spinning him to knock over an enemy for an extra coin before stomping, but nothing's stopping you from just swiping left and right repeatedly.
- Tail Slap: How the Tanooki Suit is supposed to work; the instructions show it being used to knock over enemies before stomping them. But you can also just keep tail slapping back and forth as much as you want.
- Technicolor Toxin: Bright purple tiles register as poison to the Bros, building up until it makes them dizzy with sickness. Shaking them or standing on a water tile will cure them.
- Toys-To-Life Game: Takes the concept in the opposite direction from normal, incorporating video game elements into the toys themselves rather than a video game that reacts to toys.
- Unwinnable by Mistake: The boss fight with Bowser can end up this way if he's posed wrong - if his arms are too far out to the sides and too low at the same time, he'll actually catch the railings on the bridge and not slide forward enough to be stomped.
- Video Game Caring Potential: If Mario grabs some bananas in any of the Donkey Kong sets, he'll be rewarded with extra coins the next time he meets up with one of the Kongs.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential:
- Placing Mario on a red surface registers as fire or lava. Leaving him long enough will make his eyes turn into X's. He then stops reacting until he's removed from the surface for long enough, giving the initial impression that it killed him. However, putting him over a water tile immediately afterwards will make him recover immediately and actually reward you with coins, encouraging the cruelty!
- The same can be done with purple blocks to cause him to get poisoned, but with the addition of shaking Mario to get rid of the dizzying effect. The poison mushroom can also be used as a "power-up" that just makes Mario dizzy until it wears off.
- Shaking Mario treats him as spinning, with the Raccoon tail sound effect to accompany it. Doing this too much makes him dizzy with spiral eyes.
- Knocking Mario or Luigi over will also cause him to make a pained noise. If synced up together, the other will react with concern, same with Peach.
- Video Game Flight: The Bee Suit and Propeller Cap lets Mario fly for extra coins. Bowser Jr.'s Clown Car does the same.
- Wall Crawl: The Cat Mario Power-up Pack gives him "wall climbing," which really just lets him get more coins as he's walking up or down vertical surfaces.
- Wingding Eyes: If Mario is hurt too many times (mainly by "burning" him with red "lava" surfaces), he'll get crossed-out eyes as if he died. Shaking him too much turns his eyes to spirals when he gets dizzy. Knocking him over makes him squint with arrow bracket eyesnote . Falling off of moving platforms or getting poisoned will also stun him with swirling eyes.
