The history of LEGO & Nintendo

With extremely exciting rumors we may finally be getting a LEGO® set inspired by the Legend of Zelda, but the collaboration between the LEGO Group and Nintendo shows no signs of slowing down.

Long before the two toy industry titans joined forces, they were actually bitter rivals. In the late 1960s, Nintendo Co Ltd was still involved in non-gaming activities. One such product was N&B Blocks, a rather familiar-looking system of interlocking bricks. So similar in fact that the LEGO Group unsuccessfully sued Nintendo. But N&B Blocks didn't last long and we were discontinued for the next decade.

The next clash would be a much more friendly situation, as the LEGO Group would join forces with the Big N via TT Games for a Nintendo-exclusive LEGO game.

Using TT Games' beloved format, LEGO City Undercover has been created exclusively for the Nintendo Wii U console. The game was full of Nintendo references, such as superstars, green pipes, Bob-ombs and even the ability to unlock a Mario cap. The gameplay was introduced by LEGO Satoru Iwata, then president of Nintendo, during a Nintendo Direct. LEGO City Undercover has since been ported to other consoles, with the Nintendo references removed. It was accompanied by a prequel game, called LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins, which was released on the Nintendo DS handheld.

In 2020, the LEGO Group and Nintendo announced a new partnership to bring the world of Super Mario to life with LEGO bricks.

Teams in Billund and Kyoto have worked closely to create the LEGO Super Mario theme and provide a new way to experience the iconic Mario gameplay. Instead of simply recreating moments from previous games in a standard playset, the LEGO Super Mario series introduced an entirely new play system.

While LEGO bricks remained at the core of the experience, an interactive version of Mario was created. Mario was soon joined by his little brother Luigi and ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, Princess Peach. These special figures could interact with the sets via colored surfaces, special stones and certain movements.

The introduction of LEGO Luigi, another iconic Nintendo game series, would inspire a handful of expansion sets. Luigi's Mansion debuted on the GameCube and has seen sequels on the Nintendo DS and Switch.

With Mario missing, Luigi, with a little help from Professor E. Gadd, had to battle a creepy enemy armed with a vacuum cleaner. This introduced new characters and gameplay to the LEGO Mario sets.

Last year, another iconic Nintendo game franchise was introduced as a subtheme for the wider LEGO Super Mario ecosystem. Inspired by Rare's Donkey Kong Country games, the Donkey Kong expansion sets recreate the famous DK Crew as buildable characters. The sets also include some of the animal mounts used in the games to drive through levels.

While there was some disappointment that the Mario sets didn't include minifigures and the customizable sets weren't great for display purposes, these 18+ sets were well received. The first of the larger Nintendo sets replicated the non-Japanese version of the Nintendo Entertainment System . The NES was Nintendo's first major home console, and the LEGO version was a near 1:1 recreation of the console and included a mini TV that 'played' part of a level from the original Super Mario Bros. game.

This was followed by a question mark block hiding microscale reconstructions of Super Mario 64's worlds. A buildable version of the Mighty Bowser was subsequently released.

Both sets used the scannable Action Bricks so they could interact with the various interactive characters. Late last year, the Piranha Plant became the newest spicy, albeit smaller, non-expansion Mario set, and it was the first Mario set not to connect to any of the previous sets.

In October 2023, the LEGO Group expanded their partnership with Nintendo to bring the world of Animal Crossing to life with LEGO bricks.

Animal Crossing started life as a social sim on the Nintendo 64 before an updated version of the same game was ported to the GameCube. This version of the game was also released outside Japan and has since developed a cult following. The game exploded in popularity with the Switch release, New Horizon, as it was released just as much of the world went into lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first LEGO Animal Crossing sets will be released on March 1, 2024 and will look more like traditional LEGO playsets, featuring unique minifigures of the series' various animal residents. The sets even get unique Japanese packaging.

There have been numerous rumors about what the future of the partnership with Nintendo holds. As an official LEGO dealer, we do not yet know everything, or are not allowed to publish what we know. So we don't do that either 😀😀😀😀