The recently released LEGO Super Mario theme introduces over twenty ‘enemies’ for Mario to defeat over the course of different games: some are easy to beat with a single scan on their barcode; some require specific powerups; some need to be scanned multiple times by Mario. In this article, we look at the enemies that Mario encounters, consider some of the things unique to that character; and how many coins can be gained by defeating them.

You may have already bought a couple of LEGO Super Mario sets – the Starter pack is essential for Game Play, while the expansion sets provide us with more opportunities to have fun with the game. You might be trying to decide which expansion set is for you. You might be looking for a specific enemy, or you might be looking for a way to maximise your score in a run through the game: hopefully, this guide will help.

Of course, it’s not just about what is already available. It is LEGO after all. You might be looking to create your own challenges for Mario, using your own designs for characters that don’t exist in LEGO Super Mario yet. But the first step towards building some new enemies might be to know who you already have, and the rewards Mario receives for defeating them. There might be some nifty ways that you can reuse the Action Bricks from different characters to incorporate your favourite alternative enemies.

In this guide, we shall look at all of the enemies included in the first wave of LEGO Super Mario, consider their potential to be ‘rescanned’ in a level of game play as well as any special conditions that apply. At the time of writing this post, I have yet to see concrete evidence of the effects of scanning Spiny, or Buzzy Beetle (two of the characters seen in the collectible character packs).

If you are new to LEGO Super Mario, it is probably important to know that the elemctronic Mario Brick interacts with the environment around him, through a variety of accelerometers, as well as a scanner between his feet: this can read the color terrain that Mario is standing on, as well as read a barcode: LEGO Super Mario barcodes, also referred to as Action Bricks identify threats, Powerups, Friends, and Bonuses in the game, as well as different environmental interaction tools – such as platforms, swings and a Cloud. In theses latter elements, the music played by Super Mario might change, as well. These printed aspect of these Action bricks are in fact pre-applied stickers with a protective layer. The printing is probably more robust, and will withstand regular scanning/hitting by Lego Mario.

Mario’s goal in the game is to collect coins: by walking, moving, and scanning the tile on the back of bad guys. Some need only one scan, some need many. Here are the ones we know about at this time.

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The Rogue’s Gallery

One Coin Wonders

A number of Mario’s opponents, whom he encounters in the wild are worth one coin, and can be rescanned as often as you wish. Looking at the app, it becomes apparent that the color code for these groups of figures is the same:

The land creatures: different Goomba’s, Paragoomba, Monty Mole, Bullet Bill, Fuzzy and the Lava Bubble/Podaboo are all worth one coin when scanned. The app even groups them in together. I stacked the bar coded Action tiles that came with these characters side by side, and it would appear that, as far as the scanning in the game is concerned, they are all treated the same way.

The Water Creatures: Urchin, Eep-Cheep, Cheep-Cheep and Blooper are also processed together. They also share a common barcode and when you scan these characters’ tiles, you gain a coin and Mario makes a splashing sound.

Goomba

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• Sets:71360, 71365,71367 (alt face), 71368, 71377 (x2)
• Scans to defeat: 1
• Coins: 1
• Rescannable: Yes

Paragoomba

• Set: 71361
• Scans to defeat: 1
• Coins: 1
• Rescannable: Yes

Podaboo

• Sets:71362, 71364, 71369, 71376 (x2)
• Scans to defeat: 1
• Coins: 1
• Rescannable: Yes

Monty Mole

• Sets: 41404, 71363
• Scans to defeat: 1
• Coins: 1
• Rescannable: yes

Bullet Bill

• Set: 71361
• Scans to defeat: 1
• Coins 1
• Rescannable: yes

Fuzzy

• 71361
• Scans to Defeat: 1
• Coins: 1
• Rescannable: Yes.

Cheep-Cheep

• Set: 71368 (two included)
• Scans to defeat:1
• Coins: 1
• Rescannable: 1
• Comments:’Splash’ sound on scanning by Mario

Eep-Cheep

• Set: 71361
• Scans to defeat:1
• Coins: 1
• Rescannable: 1
• Comments: ‘Splash’ sound on scanning

Urchin

• Set: 71361
• Scans to defeat:1
• Coins: 1
• Rescannable: 1
• Comments: ‘Splash’ sound when scanned.

Shy Guy

• Set:71366
• Scans to defeat:1
• Coins: 1
• Rescannable: 1 coin
• Comments: I suspect the shy guy’s Barcode is different to the other single coin land opponents, because it is a round, rather than square tile. However, this theory has been debunked by the ghosts. Perhaps there is a mysterious effect of an undocumented power up combo that I am yet to work out…

Slightly More Complicated ‘1-coin’ Enemies.

These guys might be able to be defeated with one single scan, to yield one coin BUT there are ways that they might deliver much higher rewards, when incorporated in the game.

Swooper

• Set:71377
• Scans to defeat:1
• Coins: 1
• Rescannable: 1 coin
• Comments: The Swooper’s are scanned in the process of ‘winding up’ King Boo, to fall out of the tower. If struck frequently enough, a multiplier bonus takes effect. Multiple strikes are required to ‘drive’ King Boo into a position where he might be defeated.

Bob-omb

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• Set: 71361, 71362
• Scans to defeat: 1
• Coins: As many as you can gather through rescanning, before the bo-bomb explodes.
• Rescannable: no
• Comments: If you are scanning Bob-Omb when it explodes, you lose all the coins gained

Desert Pokey

• Set: 71363
• Scans to defeat:1
• Coins: Variable, depending on the number of swings before the scan: typically up to 24.
• Rescannable: for 1 coin
• Comments: If rebuilt, and additional hammer swings are used, you seem to be able to rescan for bonus coins. With addition hammer swings, you can rescan for coin bonuses, but is probably not as much as a payoff as the first time.

Higher Scoring Enemies

I could consider some of these as bosses – particularly Thwomp and Whomp, but they don’t really have this role in the LEGO Super Mario game – more acting as significant obstructions to movement.

Koopa Troopa

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• Sets: 71362, 71365 (different tiles)
• Scans to defeat:2
• Coins: 3
• Rescannable: Single coin.
• Comments: There are 2 different tiles for Koopa Troopa – one in each set he appears in, and both can be scanned in the course of a game, for full points.

Dry Bones

• Set: 71369
• Scans to defeat: 1
• Coins: 5
• Rescannable: NO
• Comments: He might be easy to kill, but this reanimated Koopa skeleton cannot yield any more coins in the game. Scanning this tile is similar to scanning the 5 coin bonus tile, seen in the Haunted Yard.

Whomp

• Set: 71364
• Scans to defeat: 6
• Coins: 6
• Rescannable: for single coin
• Comments:

Thwomp

• Set: 71376
• Scans to defeat: 5
• Coins: 10
• Rescannable: single coin
• Comments: unable to be readily scanned until Thwomp has dropped

Ten coins, single scan

These two have tiles that scan to give you 10 coins, but you must first defeat them to enable Mario to have physical access to them. These tiles behave in a similar way to the 10 coin bonus tile seen in 73162 The Gurded Fortress.

Piranha Plant

• Set: 71362
• Scans to defeat: 1
• Coins:10
• Rescannable: Single coin
• Comments: The tile is only able to be scanned once the piranha plant has been driven back into the Warp Pipe.

Stone Eye

• Set: 41404
• Scans: 1
• Coins: 10
• Rescannable: single coin.
• Stone Eye’s barcode tile is only visible once he has been knocked over.

Something Spooky

Peepa and Boo appear in different sets: Peepa as a 71361collectable figure, and Boo appearing in 71369 Bowser’s Castle. It would appear that the LEGO Super Mario app considers them both the same way, and closer inspection of their barcode demonstrates that they are considered to be the same by the game. If you are putting these two in a level, you will only get the full coins from one of them.

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Peepa

• Sets: 71361 – random bag
• Scans: One scan with Star Power
• Coins: 12
• Rescannable: 2 coins with star power; one coin without. If you scan Peepa without star Power, Mario becomes scared, and earns no coins from Peepa. Peepa is one of the highest scoring characters to be found in the collectable character bags.

Boo

• Set: 71369
• Scans to defeat: 1
• Coins: 12
• Rescannable: With star power: 2 coins; No star power: 1
• Comments: unable to defeat without star power. Mario becomes ‘scared’ for a few seconds, if Boo is scanned, without Star Power.

Bosses

These bosses all require multiple scans by Mario to be defeated. You could also include Koopa Trooper, Thwomp and Whomp, as they both require multiple scans to be beaten by Mario. I was surprised to see that King Boo can be defeated by scans alone, and does not require star power. All of these characters can be defeated with one scan, if Mario has the Star Power Power up in action. Star Power also means Double coins for any enemies defeated, as well as invulnerability for Mario. Star Power is obtained through the Question Mark Block (71360 Starter Set, 71369 Bowser’s Castle, Super Mushroom and Question mark box poly bag) , as well as the Star Power Block ( 71367 Mario’s House; 71377 Haunted Yard)

Baby Bowser

• Set: 71360
• Scans to defeat: 5
• Coins:10
• Rescannable: Yes – single coin
• Comments:

King Boo

• Set: 71377
• Scans to defeat:7
• Coins:12
• Rescannable: single coin
• Comments: Unable to be scanned until King boo is ejected from roof of the tower.

Bowser

• Set: 71369
• Scans to defeat: 10
• Coins: 15
• Rescannable: For single coin
• Comments: cannot be readily scanned until Bowser has fallen over.

Indestructable Enemies: Best avoided. Or at least dodged!

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There are, of course, a several members of the Rogues’ Gallery in the expansion sets that are unable to be defeated: Mario’s only real defence is to avoid them – to carefully balance on the power slide, rather than crash into the piranha plants in 71365 Piranha Plant Power Slide; and to stay on his platform and dodge the Boomer Bills from 71366 Boomer Bill Barrage. In either situation, should he fail, Mario will be stunned for a few seconds, unable to gain further coins for a short while.

The Missing Menaces:Turtle Time!

There are two 71361 character Pack enemies I have not had a chance to look at, and understand how they work in real life: hopefully, they are on the way to me: Spiny and Buzzy Beetle.

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In the video games, Spiny is invulnerable to attack from above, but can be defeated with fireballs: as such, it will require Mario to have the Power Up Fire Suit. Buzzy Beetle is invulnerable to fire balls, but can be defeated by jumping onto him. Presumably without the Fire Suit. I will update this paragraph, when I have had the chance to play with them.

Edit 10th August: I have now had a chance to actually play with these characters and I was surprised to see that these two characters, who are functionally opposite in the video games, are treated the same way by Lego Mario: no fireballs required for Spiny, fireballs work on Buzzy Beetle. There is no special bonus for the use of the fire suit. Indeed, they use the same barcodes as each other. Personally, I think this is a missed opportunity – a chance where game play could have been made a bit more interesting…but wasn’t. Essentially it is another tag that behaves the same as Koopa Troopa’s!

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• Scans: need 2 scans
• Coins: 3 coins
• Rescanning: 1 coin.

Where to from here?

I hope you have appreciated this ‘quick’ survey of LEGO Super Mario’s enemies. Some aspects of game play are readily predictable, while some, such as Desert Pokey, provide a less predictable scoring model. Mario has appeared in over 30 games, over the course of the past 40 years, and his Rogues’ Gallery is extensive. Certainly the LEGO version is incomplete.

So I’d like to throw you a little challenge: If you are familiar with Mario’s world, and think there are a few foes missing, why not have a think about how you might build them, and how they might function in a LEGO game environment. How would you score them? Multiple jumps, or just a 5 or 10 point bonus – or a mere minion with only one coin to collect.

Remember: this is LEGO Super Mario. And it is quite alright to include traps, obstacles and enemies of your own design in a game, for Mario to face. It could be a great challenge for your household to.

Its time to get creative, beyond the box. It’s time to take what we have, add a little Bricklink and build your own thing.

Who knows…. I might be getting ready to set up some sort of competition, where you design a missing expansion pack. In the meantime, I hope to have a guide to LEGO Super Mario’s Powerup Bricks, Friends and Bonuses coming up soon as well as Mario’s Power up Suits reviewed.

I hope this has been a useful guide to Mario’s enemies: leave your comments below and until next time…

Play Well