Ravensburger Disney Villainous Strategy Board Game for Age 10 and Up - 2019 Toty Game of The Year Award Winner

Preston United States

I love this game...but will you? A review by an owner of all expansions...

This is a game with a lot of excellent design elements, but hampered by a few, particularly late-game, play issues. I currently have the core Villainous game and the three expansions available at the point of writing this. I'll elaborate later, but in short, should you buy this? This game works BEST for intermediate to advanced level adult board gamers with an affection for Disney movies: classic to 90s. The age recommendation is 10 and over but unless you have a young player very engaged by problem solving and patient enough to withstand a lot of setbacks in the flow of the game, I would avoid it. What I will say is that it is an amazing implemantation of a Disney Villain theme into the mechanics of a board game, and it's just a beautiful looking game to have out. If you are a fan of these characters and not averse to some challenging gameplay, it's definitely worth a shot. Specifics: you play a villain! Here they are... Core game: Maleficent, Captain Hook, Prince John, Queen Of Hearts, Jafar, Ursula Evil to the Core: Evil Queen (Snow White), Dr. Facelier (Princess & Frog), Hades Evil Comes Prepared: Scar, Ratigan (Great Mouse Det.), Yzma (Emporer's New Grv.) Perfectly Wretched: Cruella De Vil, Mother Gothel (Tangled), Pete (Steamboat Willie et al) MY favorites: Hades, Scar and Pete. All other villians are still fun, though Ursula and to a lesser extent Jafar I think suffer from comparatively poor play design. Everything is combinable; each expansion can be played without the core or other expansions. Objective: You are a villain and are competing against a number of other villians to realize your evil dreams before they do. Every villain has their own goal, their own allies and resources, and their own set of heroes the other villains will be playing against them. Components: There are a set of black power tokens that act as the game's currency of sorts, and 2-3 other pieces used universally. The core set comes with a plastic cauldron to put the power tokens in, but just a pile will do just fine. These pieces are serviceable but, unlike the villains' components themselves, nothing special. All the villains' components are completely unique and very high-quality. Each has their own fold-out board and two decks. The board and decks feature GREAT art pulled from the source material, given some painterly touches for more vibrant color. Each villain has their own player token, stylized figurines and very nice indeed. In terms of components, this is among the nicest games I've seen, particularly for licensed Disney. Gameplay: You and your opponents take turns. You move to different locations on your board giving you 2-4 different options; these options are sometimes limited by the heroes your opponent can choose to play against you. The turns are normally quite quick, though at the late game you might get some overthinkers. Each villain has a vastly different goal, and the pace of play varies greatly depending on how each one goes about winning. The Good: The implementation of theme into the gameplay is superb. Prince John collecting his taxes, constantly hampered by outlaws, Hades pushing his titans toward Mount Olympus, Scar setting his hyenas and killing lions on his way to the throne, Maleficent cursing the land as the fairies and forces of good try to stop her, the Evil Queen poisoning all those pesky dwarves! If you can get into the spirit of being one of these characters and especially if know your movie well, there is a whole lot of fun to be had here. The amazing art and design specificity make the immersion easy. It cannot be stressed enough how good the cards and the boards look; the art and color pallete really make each villain you play feel special. The Bad: The complaint I hear most often, and it is a valid one, is that your plans are too easily foiled. Opponents, if they sense you are about to win, will play your heroes more actively against you. One opponent hitting you is bad, 2-3 can bury you, and this back and forth can extend the game overlong to the point of frustration. Many times you will be set to win next turn and have victory snatched away. The way to beat this is to get good at the game: understand your specific winning conditions, have a bit of a poker face to avoid gang-ups and set yourself up with contingency plans. You're a villain, remember? Conversely know your opponent's villian and what tools work against them; it's very different for each one. But not every player is going to like to do this, so again, know what you are getting into. If you want to make the jump, Queen of Hearts, Hook, Prince John, Ratigan and all the Perfectly Wretched villains are much easier to play in this regard. Start with them and be aware the others are more challenging. Final thoughts I really do like this game a lot. It's easy to learn, but surprisingly deep and hard to master. The core game is fun, but the expansion villains are uniformly better in design, which is expected with continued play I suppose. I wish it has some official solo variant, but you can always make one yourself. If you are a very casual gamer, or just looking for something quick to play with the kids, I would think twice (OR start with the Perfectly Wretched expansion and go from there-it's an easier set of villains and less $). If you are a serious fan of the films and the characters it's worth taking a chance on it. If you also happen to like midlevel board games and want a Disney addition to the collection this is a villainously perfect choice.

chrissy IN United States

Short Review+ In Depth Review

2-6 Players. 45/60mns In this game, you get to play one of the 6 Disney Villains: Prince John, Maleficent, Jafar, Ursula, Queen of Hearts, Captain Hook. A 10 year old that is used to board games can probably play without much assitance. The games were fun with 2, 3 and 4 players. We ( 2 adults, 2 teens) have played this multiple times and had a blast. We are Disney fans and we play a lot of board games. Each Villain comes with its own board, its Action Cards, its Fate Cards (which are often used against you) and its marker. Depending on the location of your marker, you get to perform actions. Each board is divided into 4 different areas which will give you different possible actions.. depending on the location of your marker, you get to perform specific actions. The main actions are: Play a card from your hand Get a coin/coins Activate a power Move an item/Hero to adjacent location Play Fate cards on another Villain Discard your cards. For instance, one location could allow you to : play a card, get two coins, discard your remaining cards, and Play Fate on another Villain. Another location could allow you to play TWO cards, get 1 coin, Activate a Special power, and play fate. You get to mess with other players by playing their Fate cards onto their boards. Each Villain has one goal: defeat Peter Pan, or Capture the Trident, or Spread curses etc... You start with a hand of 4 Action Cards, Some give you Actions to perform, or Ally to Help, or Items. You start on Location 1, You place your marker on any other location, unless it is locked (cards can be required) depending on what you want to do. You perform at least one action from your location, but can also perform all if you wish. You add your allies and your items on YOUR side of the board, the lower side under each location. You get to choose where you place them. This can only help your Villain. However when other players play Fate Cards on your boards, they also pick a location and place the card on the upper side of your locations thus blocking some of your locations actions. You get to vanquish and fight to achieve your goal. The Disney Theme is cute. It is fun and witty and I am glad they gave special treatment to the artwork. However the game is deeper than it looks, this will take a good 40 minutes. Our first game play took a little over one hour including set up and reading the rules and giggling oohing and aahing at the cards. The game does not come shrink wrapped but taped on the edges. I have not dared to try and remove the tapes. It just looks like bad news.

D. Booth United States

Awesome, fun, different game

This game is so fun. I gave it to one of my sons for his birthday and not only does he love it, but I'm hooked as well. Everyone is a villain, you have a piece to move, power tokens, a board, a small info booklet, and 2 card decks - a helper deck (items, allies, effects) and a fate deck (the heroes). Heroes in this case are not helpful. Other plays put them on your board to thwart your efforts to win the game. Each villain has a different goal, as laid out on the boards and in the little info booklets. Some villains are easier to win with (e.g., Prince John, Queen of Hearts) and others definitely more challenging (e.g., Maleficent, Ursula). There are rules and because the characters are all different and have unique ways of winning, it's not a 20 minute game to learn. If you play with more people, the game will be longer. DO expect it to take one or two times to get down the flow of the game. It took 4 of us 2 hrs on each of 2 different days (4 hrs total) the first time... Now the games are about 2 hrs. When we played with just 3 of us, it was about 45 min. btw, the games are different each time because of the villains being played, different strategies used to play the villains, and the shuffle of the decks. Younger kids will need more help; it's likely for 12 and up? I think Disney fans will love it and those who like role playing games may enjoy it. Also, if you want something other than a roll the dice and move game, it's definitely worth considering. In this house, adults aren't playing just for the kids; we're playing because we enjoy it too. Obviously, I'm hooked.

Caleb United States

Very fun game, easy to get into, expansion opportunities

I got into villainous over the thanksgiving holiday and I’ve been having a blast. It’s an easy game to understand that does require skill and proper play to win against your opponent. But doesn’t require intense strategy to understand or have fun with. The game itself focuses on completing the plan your Disney villain had in their movie of origin, so the thematic elements are there. At the same time you can also choose to mess with other players by having them get bothered by hero’s, items, and effect from their respective movie. This sets back other players and adds to the fun of the game. I highly recommend trying this game, very very fun. Below I will list the pros and cons with this set. PROS - comes with 6 characters, two of which are only in this set - Comes with all elements needed to play the game unlike the expansions CONS - an updated version of Captain Hook, Prince John, Ursula, and Maleficent have been made that comes in box with just those four updated versions. These changes make all of the listed characters much better overall and in almost all cases much easier to play. The benefit of this set is that it comes with Jafar and the Queen of Hearts that you can’t get anywhere else.