Adding Luigi and Multiplayer, Lego Mario finally feels that he is reaching his true potential

Lego Mario continues to grow and improve.

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This time last year, Lego Group was associated with Nintendo to deliver Lego Super Mario , a single turn both in the typical LEGO construction toys ornaments as in the roots of Mario video games. It was a construction toy, yes, but one who was gamified through Mario himself, rendering in the form of blocks and full of sensors that allowed him to interact with the worlds and characters that could be built from the different available sets.

While Lego's unconditional nerds were always a little disappointed with Lego Mario because he did not provide intricate models of the Mario Series icons (although a leak suggests that a more traditional Peach's Castle game could be on the cards), Lego Mario was Perfectly designed for children. - As you would expect from the union of two companies so well practiced when responding to children's wishes. But no matter how many sets were thrown and no matter how many enemies and locations were recreated in the format of Lego Mario, he always felt as if something was missing, until now.

Enter Lego Luigi, which will be launched more or less exactly one year later to give the whole range a reorganization of the first anniversary. Luigi appears here in the same format as his brother, with digitized eyes and a small state screen on his chest, and is compatible with all the anterior accessories of Lego Mario, from courses to suits of enhancers. I am pleased to report that Luigi is appropriately only a little higher than his brother, exactly for the very important Mario Canon, even though it would have been easy for Lego simply to change the color of the existing Mario Mold.

Luigi fanatics can play alone with him, but the really exciting thing is that having access to Lego Luigi unlocks multiplayer functionality.

There are two ways to link the brothers in block. The first is simply using the Lego Mario smartphone application, which is available in iOS and Android. Alternatively, you can connect the two through your native built-in Bluetooth. Once you are both connected, two players can take a character around the creations of his LEGO field, either working together to get to the goal or running to collect as many coins as possible before the weather.

The level of detail is charming and, often, pretty cute. The brothers will know, for example, if you are forming equipment to trample a boss enemy. One will react if the other is hurt or falls. There are many small interactions like this: Children (and children's adults, like me) will have a great time.

If you are playing through the application, at the end of each course, you will be given a breakdown of what each player has made, including the coin count and the level elements with which each one has interacted. While there is not much difference from one moment to another compared to the way it is played alone, and because of this, at first it was skeptical about how much value Luigi could bring. However, after playing with multiplayer mode for a while, I think it is fair to say that bringing a second person to mix definitely increases the level of experience.

The other half of the experience is being built, of course. The Adventures With Luigi Initiation Course, as it is called, comes with a generous set of options to expand your Lego Mario levels for £ 50. However, it is fair to say that what Luigi includes feels more like an expansion than as a Secondary start set. While you can use this as an alternative entry point, it feels like a more advanced package, with a variety of terrains and few basic enemies.

Includes Pink Yoshi, Bone Goba and Boom Boom as a chief character who is stopped over an articulated rocker designed so that brothers jump to dethrone and defeat Boom-boom. It is a good package.

LEGO LUIGI also marks the beginning of a new wave of Sets of Lego Super Mario. That includes new Frog & Bee enhancer packages, new packages of characters from 'blind bag' enemies and, which is more important, four new complete expansion sets that vary in price from around £ 25 to £ 90.

The star of this is naturally the most expensive: a set of Bowser aircraft that recreates the aircraft that debuted in Mario 3 and became a basic element of the series. It is a charming construction with some great interactive pieces, including deliberately destructible parts that Mario and Luigi can break with a stomp.

Another set includes Lakitu, the Favorite Favorite, and my Group's personal favorite is a set in which Reznor, one of the best heads of Super Mario World, has the mechanics of his boss replicated faithfully in the Lego mechanisms in movement.

This material is vital for the attractiveness of Lego Super Mario, both for end users and obviously, for Lego. More sets means that they have more to sell you, of course, but it is also supported by the entire proposal of these sets. The reais 'LEGO constructions' involved here are not as complicated or attractive, but each construction gives you small modular pieces of the design of Mario levels that you can then chain in unique courses designs. The more sets, the more variety you have, and it seems that there is more creativity and experimentation by the LEGO designers with this new range.

It is great to see that more and more basic Mario characters are represented in basic sets, and leaves one reflecting on where more could be this series. I would love to see deeper cuts, but I also wonder if we could get things as expansions related to Mario Kart.

All this is to say ... well, you probably have to update my list of the best expansion sets of Lego Mario last year. But also, it is clear that Lego Mario is now not only a piece of crazy experimentation: it has worked and is successful, and now it is growing in exciting and curious ways. In particular, Peach and Daisy have not yet seen any representation of Lego, so I wonder if the adventures of three or four players could be the next ones.