Adventures with Interactive LEGO Mario

The LEGO Super Mario playsets allow you to build your own Mario courses. You use an LED Mario figurine to scan barcodes on enemies and obstacles, which creates audio feedback like music and classic Mario sounds. The coins you collect are tallied in an app, which syncs to Mario and documents your progress.

This is the most recent starter set that comes with the Mario LED figure; all the other expansion sets will not “work” without it. It also comes with other essentials: a starting pipe, a Yoshi figure, a flagpole, and a a Bowser, Jr. figure that rides inside a Junior Clown Car.

LEGO Piranha Plant

We built this set for its launch, and it managed to over deliver on its promise. The LEGO Piranha Plant has personality and adorability to spare, and its price belies its quality. It’s rare to feel like you’re ever getting a deal when you buy a LEGO set. But this Piranha in a pipe is reasonably priced and worth every penny. Highly recommended.

LEGO Super Mario World: Mario & Yoshi

One of the best, most nostalgic LEGO sets in recent memory, this depiction of Mario & Yoshi moves with the turn of the crank. And it’s not just Yoshi’s feet – it’s his head and arm, as well as Mario’s cape. A separate mechanism triggers Yoshi to open his mouth and stick out his tongue. It’s also nearly 16 inches tall, so the bright, 16-bit colors really pop. It’s a great set that comes straight from our overall favorite Mario game ever made.

LEGO Great Deku Tree Set

We photographed and wrote about this set when it launched. A 2-in-1 build, this set lets you choose between the Ocarina of Time iteration or the Breath of the Wild iteration. You also get three versions of Link, one Princess Zelda, and accessories that include the Master Sword and a Hylian Shield. While it is definitely fun to put together, it is overall one of the more expensive LEGO sets you’ll find.

Mario Kart – Mario & Standard Kart

The Mario & Standard Kart set mounts onto a tilted stand, which gives the impression that Mario is performing his signature power slide maneuver. We built and reviewed this set for its launch, and we were impressed by its size and expressiveness.

If you prefer Mario’s thinner, more anxiety-prone brother, you should also check out Luigi & Mach 8, which is a perfect companion set to the more traditional kart build. We reviewed and phtotographed this set as well, and we gave it a positive review.

Prince Florian & Castle Bowser

Typically in Mario games, Bowser is the final boss of the final castle. But in 2023’s Super Mario Wonder, he merges with and becomes the castle itself. Prince Florian & Castle Bowser doubles as both a display piece and a playset (compaticle with the other LEGO Super MArio sets). Take the castle off its stand, and the head opens up to reveal additional interactive elements inside.

Game Boy

The LEGO Game Boy has a relatively low price of $59.99, along with a low piece count of 421. However, it’s a near 1:1 scale replica of the classic gaming handheld, and it comes with two buildable “Game Pak” cartridges, Super Mario Land and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.

Yoshi Bike

A self-contained playset, the Yoshi Bike is technically one of the LEGO Super Mario playsets, but it looks sharp enough and complete enough to stand apart from it. The bike itself has a great design (with Yoshi eggs on its sides) and a red shell launcher on its back to protect it from incoming projectiles.

Ocarina of Time – The Final Battle

At the end of Ocarina of Time (1998), Ganondorf reveals his true “Ganon” form —a hideous boar-like demon with tusks and a bad attitude. This LEGO set includes a massive buildable Ganon with two swords, plus minifigures for Link, Zelda and Ganondorf. You can pose these elements within a larger diorama of Ganon’s ruined castle, which also conceals three Recovery Hearts and the Megaton Hammer.

Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise

In March 2026, Pokémon joined with LEGO to launch three incredible sets. But while Evee and Pikachu were the obvious picks for ‘most popular,’ it’s the massive model of Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise that’s made the biggest impact; it’s been on backorder since its launch. The set has you build all three Kanto Starters and then merge them into a single, impressive build. We built this set at it launch and we were blown about by how involved and fun it was to build and pose.

How Many LEGO Nintendo Sets Are There?

As of May 2026, there are 21 LEGO Super Mario sets, six LEGO Sonic the Hedgehog sets, seven LEGO Animal Crossing sets, two LEGO The Legend of Zelda sets, and three LEGO Pokémon sets available for purchase on the official LEGO store.

A Shift in Approach

Prince Florian & Castle Bowser is technically an expansion playset, but it is marketed as a standalone set. It demonstrates what seems to be a new LEGO Nintendo approach for 2026 and beyond: a design ethos that does not strictly delineate a children’s set from an adult set. We saw this with the Mario Kart – Mario & Standard Kart set that launched in May 2025. And we’re seeing it again with the Ocarina of Time – The Final Battle set that launched in March 2026.

We’ve also noticed an increased emphasis on the Mario Kart playsets over the Super Mario platformer playsets. And that makes sense from a financial standpoint. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (not Super Mario Odyssey), was the top selling game on the Nintendo Switch. And 82% of players who bought the Nintendo Switch 2 also bought Mario Kart World Tour, which launched with the console.

The early, child-oriented LEGO Super Mario playsets were very piecemeal and airy – isolated, singular elements and simple, flat plates that connected the elements together. The builds were too rudimentary, even for children’s builds – they felt like LEGO sets designed for children who don’t like LEGO.

What Does the Future of LEGO Nintendo Look Like?

Today, the LEGO Super Mario sets are more substantial and detail-laden, even though they still have the barcodes that designate them as expansion playsets. The best of these sets make the mobile gameplay a secondary concern to how it looks on display, and how fun and engaging it is to build. And that is where the emphasis should always be. Because whether it’s for kids or adults, the joy comes from the build itself; the final product is the outgrowth of that.

There’s a great LEGO documentary on Netflix; it’s part of a running series called “The Toys That Made Us,” and I would recommend it to anyone. My biggest takeaway from the film is that LEGO has tried, many times, to escape or broaden its appeal by creating other toys or by reinventing the bricks somehow – by overlaying them with augmented reality, or repurposing them in some odd, niche fashion. But it never turns out well or lasts, and LEGO keeps returning to the thing that people love most.

Those initial Mario playsets were a step too far and emphasized play over build. And now that LEGO is creating sets that are more in line with their design and company strengths, the future looks bright.

Also, be sure to check out our lists of the best Star Wars LEGO sets and best Harry Potter LEGO sets. And if you’re more into superheroes, you can take a look at the best Marvel LEGO sets as well.

Kevin Wong is a contributing freelancer for IGN, specializing in LEGO. He’s also been published in Complex, Engadget, Gamespot, Kotaku, and more. Follow him on Twitter at @kevinjameswong.