The connective tissue between LEGO Animal Crossing and Super Mario

There’s something familiar between LEGO Animal Crossing and LEGO Super Mario and it may as well be named the Nintendo element.

The recent reveal of LEGO Animal Crossing’s first sets in the 2024 theme may have reminded you of another line of Nintendo sets. This is likely because of a handful of pieces shared almost exclusively by these Nintendo themes.

The five LEGO Animal Crossing models coming in 2024 are designed to be mixed and matched to create an island of your own, much like you can in the most recent title in the series – Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This is recreated with the help of the very same rounded corner plates used in every LEGO Super Mario set – aside from 71426 Piranha Plant.

They come in a variety of sizes and are right at home in the theme thanks to their similar design to the environment in the games. However, this also means that any spare LEGO Super Mario modules you have on hand can be creatively combined with the new LEGO Animal Crossing Sets to quickly expand your island.

Items including the Question Mark Blocks can be left alone too, as they appeared in Animal Crossing New Horizons for the 35th Anniversary of the series.

These rounded corner plates mostly only appear in Nintendo themes. However, it’s not exclusive enough to name it the Nintendo plate as it has featured in a select few other models from City to the promotional Adidas model.

That still won’t stop you from using current and retired LEGO Super Mario models in your collection to easily expand your Animal Crossing display next March though. In the meantime, there might be reason to at least nickname these rounded corner elements the Nintendo plates.

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