The LEGO Super Mario is one of the surprisingly high-tech toys featuring the Italian plumber. It’s got tech that would make more sense to see in phones than LEGO. And now, a hacker has managed to use the tech inside to turn it into a controller.

Self-declared hardware hacker @r1ckp shared his handiwork on Twitter, in the form of a short video clip. In it, you can see the LEGO Super Mario being used as a controller to play, fittingly, Super Mario Bros. And the in-game character is being controlled by his LEGO counterpart.

https://twitter.com/r1ckp/status/1301467861085573123

The way this is done is by making use of the sensors inside the LEGO Super Mario. These range from an accelerometer, colour sensor, gyroscope and Bluetooth connectivity. That last one was reportedly the most complicated part of the process. After that, it’s all about getting the sensors to simulate key presses, and sending the signal over via Bluetooth.

Overall though, there’s no denying that it’s a nifty trick to cook up. But it does have issues, most obviously the latency between the input action, and when the character in-game performs it. For what it’s worth, @r1ckp says he will share the code once he’s done cleaning it up.

(Source: @r1ckp / Twitter via The Verge)