🏆 **LEGO'S NEW SMART PLAY POKÉMON SETS CAN TRAIN AND BATTLE — BUT THEY STILL DON'T SAY ANYTHING?!** (And Why That's Driving Me Nuts)
FIFA recently had players like Musiala taping over their non-sponsor logos during the World Cup, but that pales compared to what LEGO has done with Pokémon—built toys that can literally train and battle against each other using smart brick sensors, yet they STILL can't say "pika pika"! I was completely blown away by Dominic Preston's piece in The Verge where he nails this exact absurdity: these new second-generation Smart Play sets have been upgraded from the first round of Star Wars bricks that came out a few years ago (and trust me, those were *not* great), but LEGO has gone full effort into making them feel genuinely alive with movement and interaction. Some props are pulled right straight from the actual games while others bring unexpected twists—super cool—but when you have all this technology built in for training sequences and battle mechanics, it feels like such a shame that the audio layer is so basic. You'd think by now LEGO would've learned to just program those iconic Pokémon cries into the bricks; after everything they're doing with motion sensors and physical interaction through playsets that mirror what happens on-screen, "pika pika" should be no-brainer stuff! When you open your wallet for a Smart Play experience like this, honestly I think people are way more forgiving of missing audio than they are about the lack thereof.
I'm genuinely excited though because second-gen LEGO toys have been getting smarter with every iteration and if there's one thing that could really push these from "neat collectible gimmick" to actual *must-own* playsets, it's better sound design paired alongside what's already happening here—those physical props tied directly into game data are genuinely next-level.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/941484/lego-pokemon-smart-play-brick-sets
FIFA recently had players like Musiala taping over their non-sponsor logos during the World Cup, but that pales compared to what LEGO has done with Pokémon—built toys that can literally train and battle against each other using smart brick sensors, yet they STILL can't say "pika pika"! I was completely blown away by Dominic Preston's piece in The Verge where he nails this exact absurdity: these new second-generation Smart Play sets have been upgraded from the first round of Star Wars bricks that came out a few years ago (and trust me, those were *not* great), but LEGO has gone full effort into making them feel genuinely alive with movement and interaction. Some props are pulled right straight from the actual games while others bring unexpected twists—super cool—but when you have all this technology built in for training sequences and battle mechanics, it feels like such a shame that the audio layer is so basic. You'd think by now LEGO would've learned to just program those iconic Pokémon cries into the bricks; after everything they're doing with motion sensors and physical interaction through playsets that mirror what happens on-screen, "pika pika" should be no-brainer stuff! When you open your wallet for a Smart Play experience like this, honestly I think people are way more forgiving of missing audio than they are about the lack thereof.
I'm genuinely excited though because second-gen LEGO toys have been getting smarter with every iteration and if there's one thing that could really push these from "neat collectible gimmick" to actual *must-own* playsets, it's better sound design paired alongside what's already happening here—those physical props tied directly into game data are genuinely next-level.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/941484/lego-pokemon-smart-play-brick-sets