Review: LEGO Super Mario August 2022

Jump into action with Player 3 and the all-new line-up of LEGO Super Mario!

LEGO Super Mario – August 2022 Wave

Available from LEGO.com and LEGO Stores from 1st August.

So if you’ve been reading our previous LEGO Super Mario reviews. You would easily know that the LEGO Super Mario theme is one of our favourite themes to enjoy together as a family.

We have two gorgeous children, Zaidia and Karliah – aged 3 and 4. Who love the interactable aspects of the LEGO Super Mario theme, and since the addition of Luigi to the lineup. The girls have found new and exciting ways to play together.

So you can only imagine our excitement when the new LEGO Super Mario was announced with Peach at the forefront! Peach offered a way for a third player (Dad!) to join in on the excitement of LEGO Super Mario time. And better yet, a way for girls to be represented!

We took a look at all the LEGO Super Mario sets coming out in this August, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Oh, and since the kids continue to be the biggest source of inspiration for us with this theme. We’ll be giving this wave a proper 3 and 4-year-old playtest review!

Goomba’s Shoe Expansion

Bouncing its way in as the new small set of the wave. Goomba’s shoe expansion is the 71396 Bowser Jr’s Clown Car Expansion equivalent of this new wave.

The build is somewhat simplistic, and for the shoe itself, but was a fun new addition to mix things up. I particularly like that there is a rubberised piece in the sole of the shoe that gives it a bounce-like movement just like the games.

As a small set, this is clearly entry level for those with a smaller budget.

Characters

Goomba

About as generic of an enemy as you can get, the Goomba is a staple here. There isn’t anything new about him here.

3/4 Year-old Playset Review

Karliah and Zaidia both enjoyed giving their respective characters of choice a bounce around in the shoe for a short while, but the novelty wore off pretty quick. The Goomba has been seen so often that they no longer hold much interest, I’m afraid.

Yoshi’s Gift House Expansion

Yoshi makes his brick-built reappearance in this set, fantastic for those who missed out on the original 71367 – Mario’s House and Yoshi.

This set features a tree-inspired house set up, much akin to the Yoshi houses of Super Mario Bros 3 and Paper Mario, but not without its own fireplace, bed and letterbox. The builds here are all simplistic in nature, but so cleanly executed.

The set also includes the ‘Treat Carousel’, allowing you to change the new interactive treats into gold versions of themselves. These gold treats can then simply be given to Yoshi or put in the new Gift Box. Allowing you to gift the treat to another interactive character that is linked up.

There are two berries in the set, one red and one green. With the green one hiding behind the chimney stack and can be knocked down with a figure.

I cannot express how amazing this feature is. What could be better than teaching your kids to share and interact with each other. Rather than compete against each other? The set changes tone completely when you think about it more as a playset than a course – and I am 100% for it.

Characters

Yoshi

Yoshi here is exactly the same as the previous versions that he has had. The same build and expression as all the different coloured versions too. That doesn’t mean I don’t like him!

Monty Mole

This is a newer enemy to our collection, but definitely not a new one. Monty Mole is very overseen in this set, but is nice to have in the line-up nevertheless.

3/4 Year-old Playset Review

I can not express how much our kids loved this set. Turning the fruit golden and watching them give the gifts to each other melted my heart in a way I cannot put into words. They learned to share, pretended to live about in Yoshi’s house, and made sure everyone got fed.

Absolutely the best set of the entire wave, hands down. And we’re only at set number 2.

Adventures with Peach Starter Course

Bringing in the MVP herself, the Adventures with Peach Starter Course is a must-have with anyone who has little girls at home who like this theme. The set gives us a big sample of the newer play features. Such as the gift box and red berry, the new mushroom platforms and even a friendly interaction platform for Toad.

It’s quite clear that this set isn’t like the other starter courses, as it has a bit more of a passive tone to it. Tea parties, presents, friends and a swing for relaxing doesn’t give an aggressive feel to the set. Highlighting a different target audience. This is for girls.

Am I mad? No, I openly welcome it. To be honest, I like the swing concept a lot and the present is a nice remix of a previous Super Mario build.

Characters

Peach

The titular character of the set, Peach is clearly the reason for folks to get this set. She makes a distinct ‘pop’ sort of noise when she walks instead of footsteps. And she interacts with a lot of the world the same way Luigi and Mario do.

You cannot link Mario, Luigi and Peach together at the same time

My honest favourite part about Peach is that when she eats the new food pieces. She says “Omnomnomnom” in a fun high pitched way that always makes me laugh. I love her.

Yellow Toad

This is the first Toad to appear in the new yellow colouration – and I’m all for it. Toad is interactable with the talk tile that sits in front of him, and with the new fruit interaction. Peach can happily give Toad a berry present as part of the play features.

I do wish they had a new face for our dear Toad friend, however.

Lava Bubble

The Lava Bubble enemy in this set isn’t anything new for the Super Mario lineup, but their inclusion in this set feels a bit sad. The Lava Bubble acts more of a play feature for the set than actually as an enemy. Using the grey lever to launch the Bubble up at Lemmy to knock him off the tower to defeat.

Lemmy Koopa

Lemmy Koopa is the new Koopa Kid on the block, sporting a unique build to separate him from the rest of his siblings. As much as I love him in this set, he seems out of place without his iconic rolling ball.

3/4 Year-old Playset Review

Peach instantly stole the show with this set, and the kids were so invested in the gift-giving system more than anything else. The swing was also a bit of fun for the kids, but massively out shadowed by the berry. Unfortunately, this left Lemmy and the Lava Bubble a bit isolated, seeing almost no play.

Big Spike’s Cloudtop Challenge Expansion

Admittedly one of the weirder additions to the lineup. Big Spike’s Cloudtop Challenge is a set based around a number of different play features to add to your Super Mario course lineup that takes your players to a new elevation.

The set itself includes a Piranha Plant See-Saw, a Boomerang Bro on a floating platform, and Big Spike. A super-sized version of a normal Spike enemy who would normally throw spiked obstacles at the players in-game.

The mushrooms around the set all serve some sort of purpose, with one of them using the new “Spring Block”. A block that allows the player to bounce on top of the mushroom to presumably jump up to the clouds and get the Boomerang Bro. Other two mushrooms tilt the platform that he stands on.

The Big Spike play feature works with a pretty intricate internal system (using the new spring block), where the player stands on the interactable tile at the base; this primes the Big Spike’s arms to pull back, and as soon as the player gets off, launches the spikes at them. After dodging the spike, the top of Big Spike’s head is free to jumped on.

Characters

Boomerang Bro

Technically the only figure in this set – and a unique one at that. There isn’t much to say about our dear friend, but I like that we have some variation in the enemies here.

3/4 Year-old Playset Review

Karliah and Zaidia got very quick to understand how the Big Spike play feature worked, and quite enjoyed the challenge of dodging the projectile. Furthermore, they enjoyed the platform that would tilt from side to side, and very quickly tested how well Peach and co would survive.

Overall, despite how odd the set looks, all the play features worked as intended and the kids seemed to enjoy each one of them independently. Maybe that is because there were no berries? Hmmm.

Cat Peach Suit and Frozen Tower Expansion

This set is probably one of the first LEGO Super Mario sets where LEGO gives us a good guy location under bad guy rule.

The tower hides away the Cat Peach Suit from the New Super Mario 3D World – the first accessory for Princess Peach. It also features a bell tree, a Cat Goomba, and a slew of cat paws across the build to simulate where Cat Peach must climb to save the day.

Once atop the roof, Peach would need to slam some rounded tiles to break away the ice on the opposite side, eventually making her way up to the POW blocks; these blocks would then throw the witch about and off her broom. Finally, Peach sockets into the top of the tower, and with one twist, Toad is free!

Characters

Toad

Toad here is nothing new of the older versions of Toad, other than the scared face. I do wish we got another colour of him though. Where is Green Toad?

Cat Goomba

The Cat Goomba is the only unique enemy of this set, and uses a slightly different build compared to normal Goombas. For one, the scannable tile is on the back of the Goomba so they can have ears, and the tail is build into the side of the body.

I do wish we got more of this Cat Goomba in a few of the other sets, because they are great!

Kamek/MagiKoopa

The Magikoopa in this build is the exact same that came in 71391 – Bowser’s Airship. Nothing new here, but still looks as weird as ever to me.

3/4 Year-old Playset Review

Karliah and Zaidia immediately took to the Cat Peach outfit and loved it. There was one glaringly big problem though.

They loved following the Cat tiles, but as soon as they got on the roof, Cat Peach would panic after scanning the red of the roof – causing the sensor to think she was in Lava and begin to burn her. The kids were immediately not happy with this, and didn’t dare try it or the play features again, despite my insistence. Ouch.

Peach’s Castle Expansion

The big momma. Peach’s Castle is a lofty goal of LEGO to execute in this LEGO form, and I think they did it really well. The Castle comes with a unique warp pipe to start us off, in which the music played is the “Inside the Castle Walls” track from Super Mario 64.

The outside is more of a garnish to the main feature – being the castle interior and play features. On the left-hand side interior of the build is a Bomb-omb who presides over the Bomb-omb Battlefield magic painting from Super Mario 64. Knocking this down will allow Peach (or anyone else) to stand atop of it and be ‘whisked away’ to the world within the painting – with accompanying music.

The right-hand side of the build simply features a clock that would drive Stranger Things fans crazy, but ironically so, above it has an extra time block.

There are two small food play features in the set too – a fruit bowl and cake. The fruit bowl gives us our fourth coloured fruit that can be interacted with, whereas the cake gives us a play feature to launch a Goomba out and nab ourselves a slice of cake too.

The final part of the set is the Throne Room, where with one pull of the steps flicks the throne around to reveal Bowser – ready to take the castle away from the Princess. Whether you want to hold Peach or Mario Captive, it’s just a simple case of putting them on the throne and spinning it around.

To defeat Bowser, simply jump on the chain elements behind him and he’ll fall forward for a stomping.

Characters

Toadette

Toadette appears in this set once again outside of a previous set, and I’m happy to get yet another version of her – even if it is the same face print.

Bomb-omb

Text here

Goomba

This Goomba may look the same as previous ones, but he’s actually smarter than them because he is in a cake.

Bowser

King Koopa himself appears in this set – and rightfully so. I for one am glad to have another one of him.

Ludwig

The new Koopa Kid on the block, Ludwig is the stockiest of the Koopa Kids so far. His build stays basic, but always good.

3/4 Year-old Playset Review

The kids enjoyed running around inside of the Castle and playing with the new features. Highlights for this set is the new cake tile that mixes it up from the berries, as well as having Bowser snappily turn around to scare the heroes as they approached the throne.

Character Packs

LEGO has made a big change this time around – shifting from plastic packs to boxes. This removes the blind bag experience of feeling for parts, but I for one don’t mind it. The characters this time around also have 6×6 baseplates instead of the 4×4, giving access to much more ground and not feeling so… cramped.

Characters

Red Yoshi

Yes! More of these, please! Red Yoshi gives us more variation to the beloved character and we simply need more! Simply jump on the tile in front, and use Yoshi to help knock out enemies in one hit.

Hammer Bro

Much akin to the Boomerang Bro in the sets, this is a new enemy for the Super Mario Wave that I love with open arms. The tile is also very much Bowser-themed.

Waddlewing

Waddlewings come from New Super Mario Bros U, and are one of the more unusual enemies of the Mario Wave. To interact with the Waddlewing, you simply need to flip down its tail and jump on it to defeat them!

Toady

Ah yes, the baby snatchers themselves – Toady is a well-known enemy due to stealing Baby Luigi back in Yoshi’s titular game series Yoshi’s Island. I tell you what, the creepiness definitely conveys.

Baby Yoshi

Though about the same size as regular Yoshi, Baby Yoshi remains distinctively different from the Red Yoshi that comes in these character packs. Although he can’t be taken with you like the other Yoshi character tiles, this little guy can very easily be visited or fed for coins.

Blue Shy Guy

Blue Shy Guy is probably one of the most boring characters in this series, being a simple colour swap of a previous version – That being said, I can’t praise this with Yoshi and then hate on it when someone else does the same. Gotta eat my words.

That being said – this dude has the best base out of all the characters. I love how vibrant it feels and how distinctive it is from everything else.

Purple Toad

Yes. Yes, please. More!

Nabbit

Nabbit was, to be honest, a really unexpected surprise. Nabbit is a character that appeared in the New Super Mario Bros U as an antagonist who would steal from the Item Houses and cause players to have to chase after him.

The Iconic sack that he carries with him can be interacted with much akin to a “?” block, making him a bit of a fun whacky character across the series.

3/4 Year-old Playset Review

With this series containing only 8 characters, half of which are ‘good guys’ and the other half ‘bad guys’, the kids really did favour one side. Their favourites were Red Yoshi, Purple Toad and Nabbit to play with, but Zaidia did also take to the Waddlewing as well.

I honestly think this series is really rounded out – it isn’t congested with too much of A, B or C, and the larger platforms made it easier for the girls to put characters on to or ‘visit each other’s homes’.

Verdict

There is a lot of jam-packed with Super Mario’s latest wave, and by golly are there good ones.

LEGO has really managed to redefine how kids play and interact with LEGO Super Mario – almost entirely changing how the game should be played. It’s more Co-op, more passive, and more inviting to take the friendlier option.

And better yet, more female-friendly and newcomer friendly. Did you not jump on to the initial bandwagon and now want to start collecting? Perfect starting point right here!

There are easy ways to get iconic characters, such as Yoshi, Bowser, Toad and Toadette if you missed out the first time – and heck, many new ways to play too!

What better time than to give LEGO Super Mario a new fighting chance than now?