It has been a little while since I reviewed a Pixel Pal but I really enjoy my Super Mario 3 one and have been on the lookout for Nintendo ones, I just haven’t come across any others.  That all changed this week at my local Best Buy who is now carrying these and they had a Mario one no less!  I picked it up and am excited to review another Pixel Pal for you.

Box and Contents – The style of this box is very similar to the Super Mario 3 Pixel Pal with the brick motif and colors from the Nintendo game it is based on.  The box art isn’t amazing but I do like it and appreciate that it is mostly collector-friendly.  What I mean by this is that you can take out the figure and put it back in the box later if you want though the plastic shell is not always easy to get situated back inside the box.  One key difference from the Super Mario 3 Pixel Pal is that there is not a pair of AA batteries so you will need some to light this figure up.  It is too bad those don’t come with each figure as that felt like a great value but I can understand that PDP can’t do that with every Pixel Pal.

Design – This is the 8-Bit style from the NES which is sure to tickle your nostalgia bone!  While this is no fault of PDP or this Pixel Pal, I would say that this design of Mario is well represented in other figure lines including Amiibo and World of Nintendo so if you have those figures, you may not be too excited or inclined to pick up this design again since there isn’t too much new here.  I was happy to add this to my collection because of the feature I’m going to discuss next.

Light-Up Feature – The main draw with Pixel Pals is the light-up feature and in this area, Mario does not disappoint!  When I first tried Mario, I thought he looks a bit brighter and when I put him next to the Super Mario Bros. 3 one, I could notice the difference even more.  Maybe it is just the brighter colors on the figure but I appreciate that the newer Pixel Pal seems to be an even better product.  You want these figures to really shine so to see PDP making them brighter can only be a good thing.

Closing Thoughts – These figures really are perfect for your game room or if you have an arcade setup in your house.  They look great in low-light and the only annoying part is having to turn them all on individually.  If that can be addressed in the future by PDP, I think product is something many Nintendo fans will want on their shelf.  Other than the fact that I already own a couple of figures in this retro style, I can find very few areas where this product can be improved.  PDP have a winner here and this is a figure I would recommend to just about any Mario fan!