The announcement of a collaboration between Lego and Nintendo for a set dedicated to Super Mario has sparked the enthusiasm of fans of both universes, which often intersect. But after seeing the first images the enthusiasm soon gave way to curiosity: the sets dedicated to Super Mario are something very different from the classic Lego licensed products. They are not dioramas with minifigures, which recreate scenarios of the game, nor is it a Duplo-style product dedicated only to children. And there is a strong technological component that allows Mario to interact with the environment and the other characters, to compose levels that can be tackled in many different ways.
To find out more, we talked to Jonathan Bennink, the Lego designer who has taken care of the project since its inception, about four years ago.
“In some of the early drafts Mario told the player what to do, but he prevented the children from feeling in control of the game, in others there was an interaction between the video game and some bricks, in a motion control style, but it was all too little” physical ” , something was missing – explains Bennink – this instead is the perfect balance between two worlds that have always valued each other and that finally join forces. The goal was to create something that only Nintendo and Lego could do together, reinventing the concept of play, something classic, but technologically advanced, something designed for children aged six and up, but also for their parents ”.
The heart of the whole project is the character of Mario, whose dimensions could not be that of the classic Lego characters invented by Jens Nygaard Knudsen , due to the various components inside. On the bust, Mario mounts a small screen that displays icons and information, he can emit sounds, like the classic one when he picks up a coin, but the interesting part lies in the interaction with his surroundings. To obtain it, no remote sensors or RFID antennas were used but a camera at the bottom that looks downwards, which allows it to recognize colors and some bar codes.
“Mario was the first thing we came up with in the design phase and around which we built the whole project. Obviously it wasn’t as pretty as you see it today, it was roughly painted and definitely more sketchy in design, but we fell in love with it right away. I had thought of using RFID, but it consumes too much battery and is slow, the camera allows us more speed and versatility, since it also allows you to use the bricks already in use. We wanted a solid, versatile, easily reconfigurable project that encourages creativity and in which there is no right or wrong “.
But how does this Mario reload? For the moment the information cannot be revealed, just as we do not actually know how many sets the collection is made up of, even if there are rumors that speak of 14 sets with a range of prices ranging from 9.99 to 59.99 euros. . The only certainty is that other characters and other details that will be revealed later and that expansions are probably in the pipeline that will only come out if the project is successful.
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But what can Super Mario actually do, are there any rules to follow? “Mario can collect coins by performing certain actions and there are some secret combinations that are activated by performing certain actions in a precise order, but there are no real rules. On Nintendo’s recommendation, Mario cannot lose lives, but in the event of an error he is only prevented from collecting coins for three seconds, there are interactions with his teammates and with question mark bricks that we want to remain a surprise. For the creation of the levels, it is all in the hands of the children, it can be played as a board game or according to personal inclinations, but there is no fixed scheme. Obviously we will provide ideas to create more levels and help those who feel a bit stuck and uninspired ”.
The release date of all Lego Super Mario sets is still shrouded in mystery, we know it will be within the year. For now, therefore, we are left with only a lot of curiosity, but also the fascination for the collaboration between two historic companies that are apparently distant, yet very similar in their approach that mixes tradition and innovation. Perhaps this very similarity has allowed the creation of an object designed for the little ones, but desired by many adults who took their first steps in the world of video games with Mario.
