Have you ever stepped on a LEGO? For a plastic toy usually smaller than the length of your pinky, it sure does pack a punch! And for good reason—LEGO pieces are designed to withstand just about anything you can feasibly do to them. While they’re not indestructible, LEGO pieces generally come pretty close, and the brand does its best to make sure we all know it.
Well, Nintendo’s not to be outdone when it comes to quality assurance. We’re talking about the company who bombed the Game Boy just to see whether it survived, here. But what happens when these two powerhouses join forces?
Poor LEGO Mario has a very bad day, apparently. Nintendo Life’s interview with Jonathan Bennink—LEGO Super Mario’s lead designer—revealed that Nintendo tested the new LEGO Mario’s durability very thoroughly; by dropping each prototype model 6,000 times.
That’s right. Six thousand times per model. It makes you wonder whether Nintendo hired someone specifically to knock these prototypes to the floor or if they brought a cat to the office and started counting. Even Bennink seemed startled by Nintendo’s dedication to quality assurance; he confessed that LEGO “never had a partner challenge [them] in safety and quality” before.
Bennink noted that the design team wanted to ensure that the LEGO Super Mario set had replay value. As such, the resulting product is more of a Super Mario Maker than a Mario game. Based on Bennink’s description of the set, there appears to be a point system in place to challenge players to build creative Super Mario maps using the set. Players can continuously redesign and build maps to aim for a higher point score.
However, not all Super Mario LEGO sets are meant to follow this system. The upcoming Bowser set is designed to be more display-friendly, so if you want to put something together once and show it off, that’s the set for you.
The LEGO Mario set launched August 1st and can be purchased on LEGO's website or from most major retailers, such as Walmart or Target. While the starter set is a bit pricey at $59.99, it promises hours--or, considering its indestructibility, years--of fun!
Source: Nintendo Life