LEGO Super Mario sets let you make and play your own Mario levels

A couple of days ago, LEGO began teasing an apparent team up with Nintendo. The teases obviously didn't make it clear what this team up would entail, but today, LEGO and Nintendo pulled the veil back. As expected, LEGO will be producing some Super Mario sets, but these will be a little bit different than the LEGO sets we're used to seeing.

LEGO's goal with these sets is essentially to allow players to make their own levels and play through them with Mario figures. The figures shipping with these sets are different than standard LEGO minifigures – they're larger, for example, and Mario at least is battery powered with LCD eyes and an LCD display on his chest.

LEGO hasn't given us too many details about these sets yet, but it did show off some functionality in a video published to YouTube today. In it, we see children constructing Mario levels out of LEGO blocks, then guiding Mario through the stage, jumping on enemies and bouncing on "?" blocks to collect coins along the way. The goal, as it is in many Mario games, is to reach the flag at the end of the level before time runs out.

Some of the other figures we see in the video include a Goomba, Piranha Plant, Shy Guy, Blooper, Yoshi, and even Bowser Jr. There's no sign of Bowser or Princess Peach, but we're sure that we'll catch glimpses of them before long as well.

At the moment, there's no indication of how many different sets LEGO will make. We also don't know anything about pricing, though LEGO does say that the sets will be out later this year. The company also says that more information is coming in the future, so we'll keep our eyes peeled for that.