Review: Super Mario suits
Posted by Huw,
The Super Mario Power-Up packs provide a means of giving the Italian plumber additional powers in the game.
Adding to the four released earlier in the year, two new ones are now available: 71384 Penguin Mario Power-Up Pack and 71385 Tanooki Mario Power-Up Pack. As before they are priced at £8.99 / $9.99 so seem expensive for what they are.
Let's slip into something more comfortable and see if they are worth it...
As I have no idea what a Tanooki suit is I'll quote directly from the Super Mario wiki: "It is based on tanukis, Japanese creatures who, according to mythology, can use leaves to shape-shift and cause chaos. The suit is an add-on to the Raccoon form that allows Mario or Luigi to temporarily turn into a statue and become immune to enemies and obstacles, in addition to flying and attacking enemies with tail swipes."
Its effect in the game is negligible: spinning him around during play will earn points. I suspect the main reason anyone would buy this is to make Mario look cuter.
The penguin suit is slightly more interesting on account of the flippers that attach to his hands and cover his arms.
Its effect in the game is also negligible: points are earned by belly-sliding him from one place to another.
As far as I can tell points are not accrued at a faster rate than simply walking him, which earns points in his default suit, so they are pretty pointless (excuse the pun...) and frankly, unless you particularly like the look of Mario in them, you're best saving your money for one of the expansion packs instead.
Thanks to LEGO for providing the sets for review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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26 comments on this article
The arms on the penguin suit are kinda cool...not that anyone wants to pay to have those though.
Please, please, please turn Mario on for review pics so his bottomles chasms that pass as eyes don't haunt my dreams
Unfortunately with the amount of flash I'm using his eye backlight doesn't register in the photo.
How about photoshopping the brightness back into them? It really does look like Mario got eyeball tattoo work done, which is terrifying to me haha. But other than trying to unsee his soulless eyes, I like the review. The only thing I don’t like about the suits is that they don’t fully hide his red outfit underneath.
It seems odd that these Power-Up Packs are reviewed but not the previous ones. 71370 Fire Mario and 71372 Cat Mario provide, respectively, great and decent play value compared to the rest.
Tanooki Mario's coin bonus doesn't seem negligible from what I see in video reviews. You get a coin for every spin you make. If you spin your way through an entire course (or rather, twist and flick Mario repeatedly), you can rack up a substantial amount of coins as compared to if you just walk through it. However it doesn't extend the physical play much, since you just need to spin Mario to get coins and it isn't actually dependent on knocking enemy characters over or something like that.
Am i the only one thinking this isn't really LEGO?
@LegoSonicBoy said:
"It seems odd that these Power-Up Packs are reviewed but not the previous ones. 71370 Fire Mario and 71372 Cat Mario provide, respectively, great and decent play value compared to the rest ."
I would imagine because Lego sent these ones to be reviewed and didn't send the last ones
The physical manifestation of in-app purchases.
It's interesting to think that the functionality of these suits is already pre-programmed into the Mario-brick and thus theoretically already available.
Kids love skins though!
I still think a lot about this one store in my area that only got the costume packs as their mario set offerings...
@bananaworld said:
"
The physical manifestation of in-app purchases.
It's interesting to think that the functionality of these suits is already pre-programmed into the Mario-brick and thus theoretically already available.
Kids love skins though!"
Also it's not terribly fun to hold legless Mario with your fingers or some toothpicks constantly pushing on the switches in whichever combination activates the suits, while making sure your hands don't get in the way of the scanner.
I think the suits are a fantastic idea, and a great way to recreate a feature from the game.
So, basically these add-ons are just as useless as the rest of the theme. And as overpriced.
Easy pass.
I definitely lucked out getting my hands on many of the expansions and suits for 30% off over Black Friday. I'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who thinks any Super Mario set other than the Starter Course is worth it at full price.
@LegoSonicBoy said:
"I definitely lucked out getting my hands on many of the expansions and suits for 30% off over Black Friday. I'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who thinks any Super Mario set other than the Starter Course is worth it at full price."
I'd contend that even by the common AFOL standard of 10 cents per piece or less, the Bowser's Castle Boss Battle set is a very good value for money. It makes a pretty substantial fortress with great functionality and has some of the best brick-built foes the theme has to offer.
The power-up packs definitely don't hold much appeal to me but that may be partly due to me being more or less satisfied with Lego Mario's standard functionality. A lot of the power-up packs seem more conducive to the sort of "whole house" play that kids might get into, where the sets might be spaced out more and gaps, furniture, and wide-open floor space become part of the "course", but as an adult who is not as organized as I wish I could be, I tend to prefer making the courses tighter and more focused just to make the best use of the space I have. A part of me also wishes that power-ups like these instead involved scanning a power-up item like the Super Mushroom or Starman items in the other sets, so that you could potentially cycle through multiple power-ups in a single playthrough. But I suppose that wouldn't look as visually impressive for kids who want a more visual "transformation" for Mario.
I might still keep an eye out for sales on the first series of power-up packs. While I wasn't really that driven to get them at full price, they are cute.
@Lyichir:
Ah, it looks like Bowser's castle is cheaper in the US than it is here; its price here is equivalent to 120 USD. Not great! If I had more money to spare I definitely would've picked it up during Black Friday. It could've included at least one more Dry Bones or Boo IMO; King Boo comes with so many Swoops and Goombas in exchange for a sparser environment build, it's not even funny. In fact, I've elsewhere called King Boo a "discount Bowser's castle".
As for the Power-Up Packs, while I could always hope for 50% off, I'm more than happy with the 30% off the two that I mentioned. And you're right about the "whole house" play aspect. I know I'm taking Cat Mario everywhere... just like a real cat would go. And if I make my courses tighter I can always pretend I'm performing out-of-bounds glitches by "abusing" Cat Mario's mechanics!
The Mario sets were a massive hit with my kids for Christmas and they’ve been playing with them non-stop. I’ll definitely be getting these as well. Thanks for the review!
These don’t look good as collectible figures, aren’t exactly useful for play, and generally aren’t even a good value. Lego probably should go back to the drawing board.
These would probably be better if they were included in some sets, rather than being standalone kits.
My kids love the suits so we're big fans of them all. They offer fun extras to the game but also in free play. We have competitions of who can get the most coins just using the suits.
Lego can make so many new Mario molds, yet they print the tail. Really.
Every year, in Australian shops, there's something that nobody wants.
Last year, when the Lego shelves had been picked clean ... there was a pile of Unikitty sets that nobody wanted to touch. They were too expensive and nobody watched the show anyway, so the shops couldn't get rid of them, even when all the other Lego had been bought.
This year it was the Super Mario sets. Aisles that have been picked clean by shoppers for Christmas ... except for the piles of Super Mario sets, that were just sitting there and gathering dust.
Which I found interesting, because when the sets were first available earlier in the year, everyone was like, "oh they're flying off the shelves and they're so popular we can't find them anywhere!" and yeah, that's just not happening here.
I'd say the price was the biggest factor. You have to pay hundreds just for two or three sets that'll entertain the kids for, like, ten minutes? What's the point?
@Zordboy said:
"Every year, in Australian shops, there's something that nobody wants.
Last year, when the Lego shelves had been picked clean ... there was a pile of Unikitty sets that nobody wanted to touch. They were too expensive and nobody watched the show anyway, so the shops couldn't get rid of them, even when all the other Lego had been bought.
This year it was the Super Mario sets. Aisles that have been picked clean by shoppers for Christmas ... except for the piles of Super Mario sets, that were just sitting there and gathering dust.
Which I found interesting, because when the sets were first available earlier in the year, everyone was like, "oh they're flying off the shelves and they're so popular we can't find them anywhere!" and yeah, that's just not happening here.
I'd say the price was the biggest factor. You have to pay hundreds just for two or three sets that'll entertain the kids for, like, ten minutes? What's the point?"
Aren’t the prices higher in Australia as well?
@PixelTheDragon said: "Aren’t the prices higher in Australia as well?"
They tend to be.
The starter course is $80 to $90, and that's just to get Mario. Add in the fact that the economy was in a bit of trouble for most of 2020 thanks to businesses closing (temporarily or permanently) which meant people didn't have a lot of money to spend, and it really doesn't surprise me that it's a shelf-warmer.
@bananaworld said:
"
The physical manifestation of in-app purchases.
It's interesting to think that the functionality of these suits is already pre-programmed into the Mario-brick and thus theoretically already available.
Kids love skins though!"
Actually the functionality isn’t built in. Some functionality is built in, but oftentimes purchasing a new set requires a firmware update. My son did discover on his own how the pants push buttons on Mario to activate his powers and I think discovered all of the initial wave of suits already built in, but we never saw either of these. At the same time, Lego is introducing purple as poison, and currently purple does nothing, so that is another firmware update.
We did buy the fire suit because my son just had to have it. It can add play value if you put it to work, but it’s much faster just to jump on an enemy multiple times. As a result we never use the power up, but Mario is constantly changing outfits. I can see my son asking for the penguin suit because it’s cute. I hate paying $10 for something so small, but at the same time, there are no other $10 Lego sets out there that would make him so happy.
@Zordboy said:
"Every year, in Australian shops, there's something that nobody wants.
Last year, when the Lego shelves had been picked clean ... there was a pile of Unikitty sets that nobody wanted to touch. They were too expensive and nobody watched the show anyway, so the shops couldn't get rid of them, even when all the other Lego had been bought.
This year it was the Super Mario sets. Aisles that have been picked clean by shoppers for Christmas ... except for the piles of Super Mario sets, that were just sitting there and gathering dust.
Which I found interesting, because when the sets were first available earlier in the year, everyone was like, "oh they're flying off the shelves and they're so popular we can't find them anywhere!" and yeah, that's just not happening here.
I'd say the price was the biggest factor. You have to pay hundreds just for two or three sets that'll entertain the kids for, like, ten minutes? What's the point?"
Price is definitely the biggest factor. These sets are overpriced, and I think pretty much everyone (fandom or not) agrees. By getting just the few Super Mario sets I want, at discount, I've saved at most a hundred bucks compared to getting a Switch Lite (not even the full Switch console). And I myself only spent my money because I love LEGO Super Mario (once again, despite having "Sonic" in my handle and having played more than 20 different Sonic video games and seen most of the shows, and less than 5 Mario games in my lifetime). FWIW, over here Super Mario sets were flying off the shelves at a similar rate to other themes over Black Friday. I had to come back the next day for 71362 Guarded Fortress!
The fun factor and longevity of Super Mario is extremely variable from individual to individual. There are people young and old who will get bored of it after ten minutes, and I understand and empathize with their perspective. And then there are people like me who, despite being in their late 20s, are getting hours out of it. I myself have zero interest in many of the themes that are popular among AFOLs. But unlike some people on here (referring to others), I don't consider it a failing on LEGO's part that they don't appeal to me.
@Zordboy said:
"Every year, in Australian shops, there's something that nobody wants.
Last year, when the Lego shelves had been picked clean ... there was a pile of Unikitty sets that nobody wanted to touch. They were too expensive and nobody watched the show anyway, so the shops couldn't get rid of them, even when all the other Lego had been bought.
This year it was the Super Mario sets. Aisles that have been picked clean by shoppers for Christmas ... except for the piles of Super Mario sets, that were just sitting there and gathering dust.
Which I found interesting, because when the sets were first available earlier in the year, everyone was like, "oh they're flying off the shelves and they're so popular we can't find them anywhere!" and yeah, that's just not happening here.
I'd say the price was the biggest factor. You have to pay hundreds just for two or three sets that'll entertain the kids for, like, ten minutes? What's the point?"
Funny, it's the same thing here in Germany. No one seems to want these. No one I know has any of them, and when talking about the theme with friends or colleagues who are in the market for LEGO or Nintendo, everyone agreed this theme was as uninteresting as it was overpriced.
@KnightOfRen said:
" @Zordboy said:
" @PixelTheDragon said: "Aren’t the prices higher in Australia as well?"
They tend to be.
The starter course is $80 to $90, and that's just to get Mario. Add in the fact that the economy was in a bit of trouble for most of 2020 thanks to businesses closing (temporarily or permanently) which meant people didn't have a lot of money to spend, and it really doesn't surprise me that it's a shelf-warmer. "
YIKES!!! And I thought they were expensive in the US! Understandable that they are just sitting on shelves at that price!"
Singapore and Australia trade blows on which gets the higher prices considering how equal SGD and AUD are. The Starter Course is $85 here. It went 20% off for two months.
Meanwhile, the Master Your Adventure Maker Set, despite costing exactly the same as the Starter Course in the US, is a whopping $100 in Singapore. Let that sink in... the Starter Course with Mario costs less than the Maker Set without...