Link

I admit I'm not much of a gamer. Not from lack of enthusiasm or interest, but time (and skill, I'm pretty bad). But there's one game character that gets a squee out of me every time, and when I saw this brilliant Link from Legend of Zelda by builder NKubate I'm not ashamed to admit a sharp inhale of breath and an eye pop. This is by far one of the best renditions of Link I've ever seen, and it makes my nerd heart go pitter patter.

Let's-a-go!

Even though they were some of the more difficult levels, I always enjoyed the airship levels when playing Mario. They're just so different from the rest of the levels, even though that auto-scroll gets obnoxious. This awesome version of Bowser's airship by Nick Brick has all the necessary features: the cannons, the goofy propellers, and Bowser Jr.'s little flying machine. I really like how clean and polished this build is, it makes it feel very cartoony (and therefore accurate to the source material). It's very cool to see a 3-dimensional version of this ship.

Henchman in a Half-Shell

 Koen (whose video-game style you may recognize) has just put out a fantastic model of Koopa Troopa from the Mario games. In the brief amount of time I spent playing Nintendo games as a kid (mostly Mario Kart), I remember enjoying this character more for his name than anything else, because it was so fun to say. Koopa Troopa!

Wiggler

So there you are, minding your own business, out for a stroll on a lovely sunny day. Then suddenly this apparently lost plumber comes along, bouncing around like an idiot and comes crashing down on you. You might be excused for going beast mode right? Builder Koen brings us this wonderful Wiggler.

Gameboy

Way back in 1989 I was working on location on a pretty terrible film called The Boneyard. One day me and some other crew members went to Walmart and I spotted these, the brand new Gameboy from Nintendo. I immediately bought two, one for me, one for my girlfriend, and we played and played. This version by Kloou brings back all the nostalgic feels. 

Plumbers On A Mission

I've played Mario and his brother in many of their adventures. The stand outs are Super Mario 64 and Luigi's Mansion of course, but there's been a lot of mischief these plumbers have gotten into. Interestingly enough, Mario actually started as a carpenter, and he only had a mustache because the limited pixel graphics of the age made it difficult to make faces. But even with the limited ABS voxels of today, builder 2 Much Caffeine managed to perfectly capture these two intrepid turtle stompers.

Professor Layton

This brilliant MOC of Professor Layton by Pistash has a puzzle for you...

Following the destruction of the Death Star, rebel leaders tried to determine who deserved medals. Below is a summary of their statements:

Red Eleven:  it wasn't Han Solo
         it was Gold Three

Gold Three:   it wasn't Red Five
         it wasn't Han Solo

Red Five: it was Han Solo
         it wasn't Red Eleven

Red Two:   it was Red Five
         it was Gold Three

Han Solo:  it was Red Two
         it wasn't Red Eleven

It was well known that each pilot was humble and told exactly one lie. Can you determine who destroyed the Death Star?

King Dedede

Hey Nintendo fans, It's Kirby's hammer wielding arch nemesis King Dedede! This guy loves nothing more than smashing stuff, which is sort of odd behavior for a penguin in my opinion. But then again, so is wearing kingly robes and carrying a hammer. Nice build Pate-keetongu.

There's A Riddle To Be Solved

The Professor Layton games on Nintendo DS have been a favorite of mine. But I have to admit, there's not much that will make you feel more dumb or more smug faster than that game. Some puzzles you reach through, feeling like a genius, then there's those others... Either way, there's Professor Layton to guide you along the way, here brilliantly recreated by Pedro Vezini. So anyway, there's three vessels, one 2/3 full, one 1/4 full and one 2/5 full, how are you going to....

Samus

Nintendo fans of Metroid should recognize this badass beauty. It's spherically morphing heroine Samus. This is actually a rework of an older MOC by builder Pate-keetongu, and she looks better than ever. The free flowing style and pose-ability of this figure are stunning. You can read more about her and see more pics on his blog.

Shy Guy

If you've spent much time paying Mario or Yoshi games you've had to content with these little trouble makers. It's a Shy Guy, perfectly done by builder Swan Dutchman. Wouldn't it be funny if under the mask they all looked like Shigeru Miyamoto? Ok, not that funny, but an easter egg like that would be pretty epic. 

The Wind Waker

There seems to be an intrinsic link between Nintendo gaming and MOCs. Think about it, there are SO many cool creations out there inspired by the likes of Mario and other Nintendo characters. But by far my favorites are Zelda MOCs, and this one is actually in the home stretch on LEGO Ideas. It has just over a month left and only about 1500 votes needed to get it into consideration. It's got my support, how about yours?

Hey! Listen!

My love for the Zelda franchise is well known, I'm also pretty fond of builder powerpig. So to have this pop up in my Flickr feed was a total squee moment for these very weary eyes. When Link was "cartooned" for the Windwaker title it was controversial to say the least, but I can honestly say I never really cared much. It took a short while to get used to, but the game was phenomenal. This Brick Sketch of our favorite quiet hero is perfect.

Kirby

Oh Kirby, you lovable lump of whatever you are. Through it's many years Nintendo has brought many iconic characters to life in it's games, but few are so simultaneously cute and baffling as Kirby. What kid hasn't been playing Kirby Air Ride just to be interrupted by a visiting relative and tried to explain what Kirby is (and failed to really do so). Here's a quick tip when grandma asks "What is Kirby?": Just hit pause, look her dead in the eyes and say "pink", then it's game on. This rendition by Swan Dutchman totally captures...whatever he is.

Kirby

My affection for Nintendo is well known, so it probably comes as no surprise that this is getting blogged. Builder One More Brick has crafted a series of everyone favorite bubblegum lump Kirby. I know, Kirby isn't bubblegum, but to this day that's what he reminds me of. My favorite Kirby title is the one no one else seems to remember, Kirby's Pinball Land.

Yoshi

The topic turned to video games at the studio yesterday and while waxing sentimental I realized that it's been a while since I've seen a cool Nintendo MOC. Thankfully DξβS has come to the rescue with this marvelous Yoshi. Now my problem is I've got a deadline, and I want to play Super Mario Sunshine instead.

Race Ready

My love for all things Nintendo is well documented, so this collaborate series of MOCs from 6Kyubi6, 74louloute and fujiia instantly caught my eye. I haven't played MarioKart in quite some time, but I still have fond memories of playing with my boys (before they were too cool for Nintendo). Now I have to admit I want to go fire up the Wii!

The Perfect Pass

Just when I thought I could go back to not caring about soccer (hey, the World Cup is over and I'm American), Siercon & Coral bring us their entry to the Eurobricks Turtle Madness Contest. And just like Koopa Paratroopa dominates the field, I think they may dominate this contest with this entry.

I Had Every One Of These

In fact, I still have my original GameBoy in a box in my garage. None of these MOCs by lego27bricks is new, but they've all been assembled for the first time to show a proud heritage of the greatest handheld gaming device, the Nintendo GameBoy. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some dungeon mischief to manage in Lowrule on my 3DS XL...

Bowser

He may not have been the very first final boss, but he was probably the one the most people have gone up against. Meet Bowser, from Nintendo's ubiquitous series of Mario games. Bowser is the widely considered the principal cause of damage to Nintendo game controllers (due to caffeine-fueled rages of frustrated gamers). This version by Sir Nadroj is pretty perfect (and not likely to cause any damage).