There’s no rest for the wicked — especially where game night’s concerned.
In the first iteration of Disney Villainous, from Ravensburger, players take on iconic Disney villain personas in a quest for game domination and to prove who is the baddest of them all. The original game — in which players play as Ursula, Maleficent, Captain Hook, Jafar, Prince John, and the Queen of Hearts — is a fun battle of wits and strategy to complete your own nefarious agendas and rule the realms.
But the fun doesn’t stop with those six iconic villains. Now, it’s time for a new class of villains to shine through and reign supreme over their Disney realms with these two new Disney expansions. Disney Villainous: Wicked to the Core welcomes the Evil Queen, Hades, and Dr. Facilier to the game, while Disney Villainous: Evil Comes Prepared brings along Ratigan, Scar, and Yzma to the Disney Villainous game board. Each expansion pack, available now for $24.99, can be played separately or combined with another for even more wicked fun.
The game instructions are mostly similar no matter which iteration you play, with individual rules and options based on your villain and its allies. The purpose is to complete your villain’s objective in your own realm. For example, Evil Queen is destined to defeat (and poison) Snow White; Dr. Facilier is poised to rule New Orleans; and Hades must untrap three Titans atop Mount Olympus in a quest for glory in Wicked to the Core.
Each player’s character exists and plays in their own realm, with a separate, themed game board and card decks. In order to complete the character’s objective, there are certain tasks that must be completed along the way. The in-depth instructions may be confusing on a first read, but if you are familiar with the original game, it’s basically the same gameplay format. For newbies, the game is a bit tricky to understand at first. To put it succinctly: The goal is to complete all of the personalized tasks by moving around the game board, collecting actions and items, and vanquishing any heroes in your path.
During each turn, a player can play and draw cards, move locations, and Fate their opponents. All turn actions are based on the player’s location: Each player must head to a new location during each turn, and each place has its own helpful acts to get them one step closer to the end goal.
Players can only have four cards in their hand at a time, and each card has different actions, effects, and conditions that help and hinder them from achieving their ultimate goal. During each round, a player will move to another locale and perform the available actions, using their hand of cards to move closer to completing their main objective. Each turn will last as long as they have open action icons in their given location, and it ends by drawing new cards for their hand.
It’s primarily a game of strategy (which is right up any a villain’s alley), as players must use their cards to think ahead about what is needed to complete objectives, from collecting and playing ingredients to playing fate cards and adding titans into their realm. Other players can play personalized fate cards to your realm to block your next actions because it essentially skips half of a location’s actions, and you will need more power, abilities, and allies to vanquish the pesky heroes and continue your nefarious agenda. The first player who accomplishes their main goal first is deemed the wickedest of them all — and the winner.
Gather your best wicked allies and settle in for a fun game night to see who will reign supreme. You can even get into character (ahem, speaking from experience) and fully embrace your powers as you brew a potion, defeat heroes, and Fate your opponents. Who’s ready to embrace their inner wicked villain for your next game night??
Photos: Ravensburger
