A Villainous Board Game Review

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When it comes to Disney-themed tabletop games, I typically steer clear. They are almost always not very original, or they have poor gameplay mechanics. The decent ones are themed overlays of existing popular board games. I have a few of those, but only the games that I actually like to play (Clue, Game of Life).

I also tend to shy away from mainstream games that can be found in every toy store and department store. I can only tolerate so many editions and variants of Monopoly, Risk, Uno, etcetera. Those were fine when I was a child, but as an adult, I want something more original. Low and behold, I find the Villainous board game, and it meets all of my criteria!

Overview

In Disney Villainous, you take on the role of one of six villains: Maleficent, Captain Hook, Ursula, Prince John, Jafar, or the Queen of Hearts. Each villain gets his/her own player board and decks of both villain and fate cards. The villain deck contains the abilities, tools, henchmen, and allies that will help you achieve victory. The fate deck, controlled by your opponents, unleashes meddling heroes and do-gooders that will make things harder for you. The goal is to be the first villain to fulfill your victory conditions, and this is where it gets interesting.

While the game as a base rule set, each villain has different abilities, gameplay mechanics, and victory conditions (these are explained in separate villain guides). That makes gameplay a little more exciting in my opinion; by playing a different villain each time, the gameplay provides a fresh experience. Most villains have several conditions that must be met (some in a particular order), but Prince John is probably the simplest. Since he is primarily focused on money, his victory condition is to simply gather power (power tokens are the currency of the game). Captain Hook, on the other hand, must first unlock the Hangman’s Tree, reveal Peter Pan, move him to the Jolly Roger, and finally defeat him. But, just because something seems either easy or hard doesn’t necessarily mean that it is. The gameplay is very balanced.

Each faction (villains, heroes, allies, etc.) is contained within its own world or realm. So, characters from one film franchise will never interact with characters from another film franchise. Maleficent will never have to deal with Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, etcetera.

If the list of playable villains doesn’t appeal to you, there is a glint of hope. The Wonder Forge website has a voting form (discontinued) where you can vote on which Disney villain you would want to play. I suspect that this is for future expansions. It would be awesome to be able to increase the library of villains, keeping the gameplay fresh.

First Impressions

When I opened the package, I immediately thought that I had been sent a used or opened board game. But, I remembered from watching unboxing videos online that the game is not wrapped in plastic. Instead, it is sealed on the underside with four large clear stickers. I tried removing the stickers, but they would not come off cleanly. I decided that leaving them on and neatly slicing the seams with a knife was the best way to keep it looking nice.

This problem has been fixed. Stickers come off much easier.

The lack of a plastic wrapper is unfortunate; my box had some scuffing along the edges of the lid. It’s not enough to complain about or to initiate a return, but it’s a little disappointing.

The box itself has a rubbery texture to it, not unlike the rubbery coating that can be found on some electronic devices. The feeling is strange, but seems oh so right.

The quality of the components are top notch. All of the artwork is original and digitally hand-painted. I greatly appreciate it when games do this instead of using stills from the films; it keeps the art style consistent and the game looks fresh.

All of the printed materials have a nice satin finish, similar in style to the outside of the box (sans the rubbery texture). The cards sport custom line art for each villain, reminiscent of pinstriping that can be seen on custom vehicle paint jobs. At least, that’s what it reminds me of.

The cauldron, which holds the power tokens, is surprisingly of low quality when compared to the rest of the game components. It’s just a thin, vacuum-formed plastic bowl. You’d expect a game like this to have a firmer, more detailed cauldron. Still, I see potential in painting the bowl.

Since it looks a lot like something from Chernabog’s mountain top, I painted it dark with a blue fade and light highlights. The center has a glow emanating from it. I opted for a semi-gloss finish to make the colors pop and to allow the light to accentuate the subtle crevices on the mold. Despite the overall “black” look, there are other colors (greens, browns, and purples) that are harder to see.

The biggest surprises were the player tokens. They’re much larger than I had expected, and they have some heft to them. Under a good light source, each player token gleams like a precious gem. Wonder Forge could have sculpted literal figures of each villain. Instead, they designed original abstract sculptures. Besides looking absolutely cool, I can assume that these abstract figures help the players feel like they are the villains, not simply players controlling the villains. I certainly felt that way.

Experience

Try out our own set of solo play rules!

After playing this game with my nephews for a whole weekend (3 days, 4 games)—I want to play more.

In regards to character variety, the unique abilities and mechanics have one of two effects. It is either hard for a player to choose a villain, or a player develops a favorite villain. I played two games as Prince John, one as the Queen of Hearts, and one as Ursula. Each were radically different, and I enjoyed them all equally. My nephews, on the other hand, fought over who got to play Jafar, their favorite.

Each villain has their own victory conditions, and those can vary in difficulty. But, that is offset by custom gameplay mechanics, creating a balanced play and experience. When I played Prince John, his victory condition was the most straight-forward: start the turn with 20 power. But, his fate cards are such that the power that I was stockpiling was constantly being stolen (just like in the film!). My rival players bombarded me with fate cards and reveled in my disgust with them. Damn kids!

Now, let’s talk about game length. Never trust the game length printed on the game’s box. Never. This is something that I’ve learned in all of my years in playing tabletop games. Our very first game lasted until midnight (4-5 hours). Midnight—which is both ironic and appropriate for this game’s theme. But, I digress. We were all new to the game, so it took us a while to get up to speed. The second and third games went a lot faster and only lasted an hour or so. The very last game took longer, about 2 hours. I think there are several factors that take part in game length.

First, there’s the luck of the draw. Some villains require certain items, and on a couple of occasions, those items were located at the bottom of the deck. This can delay progress, so it is recommended that players not be afraid of going through their villain deck quickly. The discard pile gets re-shuffled into a new deck anyway.

Another factor may be the number of players. During any game, a player not only has to keep an eye on their own progress, but also the progress of the other players. If a rival player is getting too close to winning, they may want to play fate to derail their rival’s plans. In a 5-6 player game, I imagine that it would be even harder to juggle all of that information. That could lead to a player slipping under the radar to score a win.

Final Thoughts

The game is rated for ages 10 and up, which is just about right; the rules are easy to understand, and some light strategy is involved. Keep in mind that game length may vary; set aside at least and hour or two.

The gameplay is ingeniously themed to the films, so kids and adults who love these Disney films are going to flip. The theming is more than just visual.

Overall, Disney Villainous was very fun, and the gameplay was always fresh. My nephews requested the game over and over, making it the only game that we played all weekend. Very unusual.

The variety of themes, goals, and gameplay mechanics provided a good amount of replayability. I can’t wait to try out the other villains. And, I hope the Wonder Forge does come out with new villain expansion packs.

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