LEGO’s Donkey Kong arcade machine set comes with a working barrel-jumping game

LEGO has announced a new set that recreates the classic Donkey Kong arcade cabinet, designed by Carl Merriam, known for previous nostalgic sets like the Nintendo Game Boy and Piranha Plant.

The set includes a functional game mechanic: a joystick moves Jumpman (Mario) left and right, and a button makes him jump over barrels. The barrels roll down from the top in an endless loop powered by a pump mechanism. The pump holds up to 20 barrels; pulling a lever adds one to the bottom of the stack while the top barrel rolls out, creating a continuous flow.

Merriam told The Verge that the biggest challenge was making the barrels roll slowly enough without stopping. He “rolled thousands of barrels” to fine-tune the combination of steps, slopes, and Technic beams. Another hurdle was getting barrels from bottom to top again; the solution was simply more barrels.

Reportedly, Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Donkey Kong and Mario, is “very happy with the execution.” Nintendo’s only specific request was to make the poison barrels heavier by adding Minifigure heads inside. The Jumpman figure is detachable, so you can manually move him.

The joystick controls Mario via a long lever behind the model, while the jump button works like a seesaw: pressing it lifts a rod with Jumpman, and gravity returns him when released.

The LEGO Donkey Kong arcade cabinet set releases on August 1st for £149.99 / €169.99. Pricing for the US and Canada has not yet been announced.