Core, the official distributor of Nintendo in South Africa, has jumped on the bandwagon of offering sales around the time that people usually receive their monthly pay. This new system is called Power-Up Payday Deals and has started at the time of writing.
These deals are stated to be unique to newsletter recipients but, as far as we can tell, anyone can make use of the codes therein. We do recommend signing up now so you can catch future deals. The sign up is usually on the front page of the Nintendo Distributor South Africa store.
“An exclusive deal will be delivered straight to your inbox at the end of every month. The deal will only be valid for the last Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the month, with each month featuring a different deal. Deals can only be redeemed by using the unique voucher code below at checkout, online or in our Sandton City store. Be sure to keep an eye on your inbox for future deals!” reads the announcement.
So what’s on offer to start these promotions off? Between now and 30th May the entire range of LEGO Super Mario products is 30 percent off using the code PDLEGO30%.
The product page for these items can be found right here but we do recommend reading up a bit about how these products work before making a purchase, if you’re so inclined.
The basic idea here is that the LEGO Super Mario system works with an electronic toy based on Mario. This toy has integrated circuitry and a sensor that can detect stickers on certain LEGO pieces.
Wave Mario over these pieces and the computer inside will keep track of a physical game you can play, which allows you to build real world Super Mario levels.
That’s just the basics and you can see more in the trailer at the bottom of this page, as well as our interview with the LEGO designer who created it.
Because the electronic Mario toy is pivotal to all of this you need to buy it to make the rest of the sets work. He is included in the R999 Starter Course which, with the code, becomes R699.30.
From the Starter Course you then need to buy smaller sets to further your real Mario levels, so if you already own it the 30 percent code can come in handy for bulk buying.
But is all of this worth it, even with the discount? We’ve played around with these sets in the past and they can be a lot of fun, but they can also become stale quickly.
If you have the capacity to visit Sandton City both the aforementioned physical Nintendo Store and the official LEGO store usually have displays of some of these sets available so you can give it a try before you buy.
If not many reviews from LEGO fan sites, as well as more casual users, are available online. This review of the Starter Course is a good place to start. In terms of value this first Power-Up Payday offering is a decent chunk off of the price of these sets.
As for the Power-Up Payday Deals in the future we hope to see Switch consoles and games receive a similarly deep discount, or better. With rumours of a new Switch on the horizon we wouldn’t be surprised to see older units get steep reductions in the future.
