Can you combine LEGO Mario and Mario Kart Live TOGETHER?
Hi, I’m Dan. Together with my partner, Saki, we run Playfool, a design studio with a mission to create opportunities that spark imagination and cultivate creativity through play.
Over our last few articles, we’ve bootlegged barcodes and outsmarted AR to stretch the creative limits of LEGO Super Mario and Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit. Now that we’ve pushed the play potential of each individually, only one question remains: can you combine them together?
Combining the Marios
So, before we can combine the gameplay of LEGO Mario and Mario Kart Live, we need to combine them physically first. Unfortunately we can’t simply tape them together and call it a day, as LEGO Mario needs to be at just the right position to scan the barcodes.
So we’d like to introduce SADDLE. Expertly engineered to hover Mario’s blocky body just above the floor, while blending neatly into the kart’s design, SADDLE (SNUG, AND, DAPPER, HOLDER, (FOR) LEGO Mario) is the way to go.
Just print the provided design you can find at the end, slice it out and follow the indicated fold lines and glue zones to origami that bad boy together. Then hook it onto the back of the Kart, use the tab to lock it in place and nestle LEGO Mario snuggly like so.
And just like that, we’ve got ourselves LEGO Super Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit: Double Dash! Now that LEGO Mario can tag along with the kart, it’s time to implement some barcodes!
Implementing Barcodes
For starters, we can use the start and goal barcodes to make a start and finish line, which we’ll lay down at the first gate to trigger LEGO Mario at the beginning and end of our course.
Using the timer block barcode, we can also create these checkpoints for a little time boost mid-race. And it wouldn’t be mario kart without items, so we made some question block barcode panels that you can ride over to grab some power-ups, just like in the original Super Mario Kart!
Finally, we of course had to make some barcoded goombas which you can tape down, stand up and run over.
LEGO AR Markers
By the way, let’s not forget about what we can do with Mario Kart Live as well. We’ve already proven its AR markers can be made using just about anything, so Lego should be no problem!
By first pixelating the markers to simplify their design, we can easily build a bricky counterpart of each gate as well as the arrows. Even though one could now mistake them for minimalist art, the game can still recognise them just fine.
Course Playthrough
So now that we’ve shown the possibilities, you can create a 2 for 1, LEGO Mario / Mario Kart Live course like this! You can see the whole course from here.
As always, we’ve linked our files here, including the mini gates, giant gates and much, much more. If you want to watch the whole process and the course, check out our YouTube & follow our Twitter / Instagram for more Playfool-ness!
