Why it took five years to build Lego Super Mario

It's actually surprising that Lego and Nintendo, two icons of family entertainment, have never worked together before.
Warner Bros' various Lego video games are among a select group of third-party titles to have sold big on Nintendo consoles, whereas Nintendo's cast of characters have long proven themselves to be a licensing goldmine for toy companies. The two brands clearly match-up, which is why the news that Lego and Nintendo had collaborated on a Super Mario project was exciting.
The project, however, isn't what anyone had expected. It would have been easy -- and probably quite lucrative -- for Lego to put together some branded sets: blister packs of figures and a giant Peach's castle to build. You could even foresee a Lego video game featuring Mario and chums.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...go-super-mario