It looks as though this is just a brick with lights and sounds. I still think the Mindstorms are a better platform for "smart" play.

As play feature go I'm pretty excited for this as I think my kids will love it.

I hope we can reprogram the bricks in some way.

It seems like there's a lot still to see about how these work and interact, but from initial impressions I don't see these outshining Spark Blocks, a recent kickstarter that my 9 year old son is having tons of fun with: https://www.blockandcode.com/