Disney Villainous - Review

It’s good to be bad. Who doesn’t like playing a villain every now and again? And in Disney Villainous, you can do just that! You get to play as a Disney villain, and attempt to achieve their goal, whether that be trying to rule the seas, defeating Peter Pan, or simply winning a game of croquet! Every game is different, every villain has a different goal, and you must attempt to achieve yours whilst thwarting your opponents!

Prince John attempts to gain power are thwarted by Robin Hood and Friar Tuck.

There are eight basic actions in this game, although most characters don’t have access to all of them. Every villain can Gain Power, Play a Card, Discard Cards. They also have the option to Fate other players, which you use to stop other players from achieving their goal. Nearly all the villains can also Move an Item or Ally, with the Evil Queen being a notable exception – for some characters this is even a key part of their objective. Most characters also have a Vanquish action, although some villains, such as Ursula and the Evil Queen, don’t, instead using cards to defeat heroes. The two actions that are available to a select few villains are Activate, which you use to gain a bonus from a card already in play, and Move a Hero.

Each player gets their own reference card and villain guide.

Cards are broken down into five different types, although some characters, such as Ursula and Hades have an additional type of card in their deck. Items and Effects are in both the Villain Cards and Fate Cards, whilst Allies and Condition cards are only in a player’s Villain deck. Hero cards are only in the Fate deck, and can, usually, only be played by an opponent when they Fate you.

Maleficent faces off against Prince John.

Set Up: 9/10

Disney Villainous is incredibly easy to set up. All you need to do is deal a board out to each player with their corresponding card decks and characters and shuffle the cards. Some characters have extra tokens, usually in the form of lock tokens, but these are equally easy to set up.

Mechanics: 7/10

Although they vary slightly between the different villains, the game mechanics are easy to learn; at the start of your turn, you move to another location in your realm and do as many of the available actions at that location that you wish. The tricky part is learning the cards from each villain and learning how each one plays. As each villain has their own set of cards and playstyle, this is something that requires practice and a few playthroughs of each villain to learn.

The Queen of Hearts attempts to convert Card Guards to Wickets to achieve her goal.

Replayability: 10/10

With a multitude of villains and combinations of opponents to choose from, you can play Villainous any number of times and have a unique game each time you do. As each Villain has their own goal and set of cards, and individual playstyle, playing the same character against different villains each time is still great fun, as you adapt your strategy to beat your opponents. With a multitude of expansions to choose from, this increases the game’s replayability significantly. We usually play with two people, but playing with a different number of players lets each character shine, as some characters are improved or hindered by increasing the number of people playing.

Speed: 6/10

Sometimes this game can be quite slow, especially for new players, who are learning their cards and the game. Some villains have a faster play style than others or are quicker to learn. With two or three players, a game can still be fairly fast, taking half an hour to an hour, but with more players games may drag out, with lots of downtime between turns. However, Condition cards are more likely to come into effect, somewhat offsetting the longer play time.

Maleficent uses every trick at her disposal to achieve victory.

Overall, I love Disney Villainous, and it’s currently our go-to game. I’d strongly recommend picking up a copy – as each villain has a different playstyle, you’re guaranteed to find one you like! For me, The Worst Takes It All is the best place to start; it contains six villains to choose from, with a good mix of difficulties, allowing players to learn the game at their own pace. I’ll be reviewing each of the Villains in future posts, so stayed tuned for that!

If you’re a Legend, look out for my post later in the week, as I’ll be discussing which villains I think should join the game next!

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I hope you find this review helpful - happy gaming!

Chris