LEGO Super Mario Mario’s House & Yoshi Expansion Review

Thanks to our friends at The LEGO Group, we have been looking and and reviewing a number of fantastic LEGO Super Mario products. You can read our review of the Starter Kit here! While my kids really enjoyed putting the starter set together, it became quite obvious that more sets were going to be purchased, as the kids really wanted to expand their course building options. Let’s take a look at LEGO Super Mario – Mario’s House and Yoshi Expansion!

The Build

Mario’s house build is fantastic, and although the house itself only hides a secret star block and serves little purpose other than that, it’s a fantastic looking build that will make your courses pop! This house is modeled after the Paper Mario 64 house, which brings back so many nostalgic vibes! putting the house together was fairly simple, as there isn’t a lot of detail inside to worry about – all you are really doing is building a facade, attaching a roof, and slapping on a front door. The house itself has a few unique pieces to this set, including a 2×4 rounded smooth plate with “Mario” written on it.

In addition to Mario’s house, fans can also put together an outdoor hammock that Mario can lay in – cool fun fact, if you lay Mario in the hammock and use the built in moving attachment, you can rock your LEGO Mario to sleep!

While my 11 year old would have blew through this build in relatively short time, the swinging mechanism that is used here to give the hammock some sway was a bit of a difficult build for my 5 year old, who required some additional help putting this portion of the set together. Once finished, however, the hammock added an other amazing, albeit unnecessary touch, to our many designed courses.

The Yoshi LEGO build is easily one of my favourites across the entire lineup of Super Mario LEGO toys. This could be because Yoshi is my favourite Super Mario character, but it also could be because it’s just a fantastic build. Like the Koopa from another Super Mario LEGO set, the Yoshi build is fairly simple, but kudos to the design team on implementing some fantastic pieces to give him that unique Yoshi look! Like with the Toads in another set, Yoshi has his own interactive piece that can be placed on the ground in front of the character, allowing Mario to say “hi” to Yoshi on his way through!

The last build in Mario’s House set is the small goomba – this is a really straightforward build, with the ends result being a very chunky and solid character to play with.

The Play

A lot of what is added in the Mario’s House level is for aesthetics, as opposed to something you are really going to interact with. Unlike the Piranha Plant Slider – which has a fantastic play mechanic as the base for the build – there really isn’t much in the Mario House set to get players excited. Yes, you get the interactive block on the Goomba, and in front of Yoshi. And yes, you get an awesome Star Block piece which can really add to your courses in the future. But your money is better spent on other sets if you are looking to maximize the number of interactive moments you add into your course that matter when tallying your final score.

The hammock is cool, and putting Mario to sleep in it is incredibly cute. And Mario’s house is a fantastic build that brings back so many great Paper Mario memories. But they don’t add to your coin count, and at the end of the day, isn’t the goal to obtain more coins?

Conclusion

Mario’s House and Yoshi Expansion is a fantastic set that will add a ton of cool backdrops to your future courses. But if you are looking for interactive elements to elevate your course and add to your coin count, this likely isn’t it.

CONTEST – Want to win a Starter Kit, courtesy of GamesReviews.com? Comment below this article what LEGO Super Mario set you would buy AFTER getting the Mario’s House & Yoshi Expansion!