Lego Super Mario is coming later this year and it's like IRL Mario Maker

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Build your own courses then race to collect coins

(Image credit: Lego Group/Nintendo)

A Lego Mario set is coming, and it's not going to be your typical diorama-style adaptation.

Lego and Nintendo revealed the Lego Super Mario "physical play experience" today, a fashionable two days late after Mario Day on March 10. The set will be released later this year, and you can watch the video below to get a preview of how it combines Lego building with electronics to make its own unique game/toy hybrid. You can find the US version here, and the UK version here.

"Neither a video game nor a traditional Lego brick-based set, Lego Super Mario is a new product line that features an interactive Lego Mario figure who collects coins in real-life game levels created with Lego bricks," a synopsis from the official press release explains. "The new line will let kids experience the playful world of Super Mario like never before. Super Mario will be brought to life in the physical Lego world and new levels of challenge and styles of play will be part of the iconic Lego experience enjoyed by generations."

Lego and Nintendo revealed the Lego Super Mario "physical play experience" today, a fashionable two days late after Mario Day on March 10. The set will be released later this year, and you can watch the video below to get a preview of how it combines Lego building with electronics to make its own unique game/toy hybrid. You can find the US version here, and the UK version here.

"Neither a video game nor a traditional Lego brick-based set, Lego Super Mario is a new product line that features an interactive Lego Mario figure who collects coins in real-life game levels created with Lego bricks," a synopsis from the official press release explains. "The new line will let kids experience the playful world of Super Mario like never before. Super Mario will be brought to life in the physical Lego world and new levels of challenge and styles of play will be part of the iconic Lego experience enjoyed by generations."

The video shows a pair of children creating courses out of individual nodes, with pipes for Mario to descend, Goombas to stomp, and even a boss battle against Bowser Jr. The set comes with a figure for Mario that has an electronic display for his mouth and eyes, allowing him to react to events like getting powerups or catching his pants on fire. Mario also has a little screen on his shirt (right between his suspenders) to show status updates like coins earned and time remaining. He also plays music, and it gets extra fast and frantic when your time is running out.

“I have always liked Lego products and how they help children use their imagination to play,”  Nintendo executive officer Takashi Tezuka said in a press release. "The new product we created together with the Lego Group seeks to combine two different styles of play - one where you freely build the world of Mario and the other where you play with Mario in the very world that you have created.”

We'll have to wait and see what else Lego and Nintendo have planned for the set. Until then, why not start plotting out your own plastic courses from the pieces we've seen so far?

See what else you can play with our guide to upcoming Switch games.

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan
Former GamesRadar+ News Writer

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar+.