Carla Chahrour

Toymaker Lego announced the “Lego Nintendo Entertainment System” on July 14, which allows adults to build their own mechanically functional consoles with Lego bricks and features an interactive television displaying Super Mario Bros.

The latest kit from the Danish company, known for its colourful plastic bricks and Nintendo’s partnership, offers a brick-built NES model stored with realistic details, including the accompanying 1980’s style Lego television set.

In total, there are 2,646 pieces, including a controller with a connecting cable and plug, a buildable retro TV, featuring a flat 8-bit Mario figure on the scrolling screen.

Additionally, the Mario figure can be moved around the game course shown on the TV through turning a knob present on the side of the TV, enabling him to conquer on-screen obstacles and enemies.

The Lego NES simultaneously incorporates digital technology within the building set through making the kit compatible with the Bluetooth-enabled Mario figurine from the Adventures with Mario Starter Course. The Lego Mario from the Starter Course can be placed on top of the TV to produce sounds identical the ones in the iconic Super Mario Bros. game.

“Super Mario has been a cherished figure in the gaming world for over thirty years now,” said Maarten Simons, Creative Lead on the Lego Nintendo Entertainment System, the Lego Group, said in a statement.

“With the Lego Nintendo Entertainment System, we’re letting them truly indulge in that nostalgia, recreating one of the most-loved consoles of all time so they can see the Super Mario from their childhoods once again – and even to share the experience of gaming in the 1980s with their own children,” Simons added.

Lego’s Nintendo Entertainment System Building Kit will become available for purchase from Lego stores and the Lego website from August 1 and will be sold for $229.99.

The LEGO Nintendo Entertainment System! Now you're playing with power…and bricks​.https://t.co/rC5mjFfJvo pic.twitter.com/ZGgBll0N4w

— LEGO (@LEGO_Group) July 14, 2020