Let's Get Villainous
by Krista Webb
If you’ve ever felt the urge to be a Disney villain, then Jiminy Cricket, have I got the board game for you!
In Villainous, you get to play as your favorite Disney villain, competing against other villains to achieve your dastardly scheme and prove yourself the ultimate baddie. Try on Cruella’s fur coat and chase Dalmations around England or run around the countryside as Yzma and Kronk, looking for a talking llama. But be careful, those pesky heroes are lurking in the shadows to thwart your plans.
Villainous first appeared on the scene in 2018. Since then the game has come out with a handful of expansions, each with new villains and objectives to win.
One of the game’s major strengths is that everything is tailored to its specific character. Not only does the art style on their individual board and cards perfectly recreate the animation style of their film, but their objective in the game also mirrors the plot of their movie. It’s so much fun to see how each villain’s unique story is brought to life.
The best part of the expansions is that you don’t need the original game to play. Each expansion can be played as a standalone game. You can also take villains from any expansion and play them against each other.
One thing that is both fun and initially confusing about the game is that the villains don’t directly fight against any of the other villains in the game but against the heroes from your own movie. So if you play as Captain Hook, you’ll be squaring off against Peter Pan, the Lost Boys, and the Darling siblings, for instance.
Like other asymmetrical games, you have to learn different rules for each character. However, the game simplifies this as much as possible and gives you a handy little guide for your character, telling you which cards are helpful to achieve your wicked objective. There’s also a nifty little card that summarizes the different actions players can take and reminds you what your adversaries’ goals are and the best ways to stop them. This can be helpful early on when you may not know a lot about the characters you’re facing off against.
During your turns you’ll move through different locations from your movie and encounter different items or allies from your character’s story. You’ll use your actions, which could be buying an item or vanquishing a hero, to help you obtain your objective. Other players can interact with you by using the fate action to play a hero or other obstacle onto your board. Depending on the strength of the hero or what you’re trying to accomplish at the moment, this can really put a damper on your evil plans.
All villains aren’t created equal, but overall the game designers have done a good job making sure that the characters are balanced. If you have a more straightforward objective, often the heroes in your deck are harder to defeat, which prevents you from having too much of an advantage over other characters that have more complicated objectives but easier heroes. There is a fair bit of luck involved in this game and occasionally, you might find yourself having a bad streak of drawing cards. Thankfully, most decks have ways to search for cards or you can use the discard action to quickly go through your deck.
While Villainous is still a game that requires strategy, it’s also a game that can excite folks who usually shy away from anything more complicated than party games, since they get the chance to command a legion of hyenas as Scar or plot to capture the trident and crown as everyone’s favorite Disney drag queen, Ursula.
More recently, the game has come out with Marvel and Star Wars expansions, which I haven’t gotten a chance to try quite yet. (Villainous creators, if you’re reading this, feel free to hook me up. Or at the very least, give me some insight into how to win as Mother Goethel. Getting Rapunzel to “trust” her is NOT EASY.)
The biggest downside to all this glorious evilness? Money. Each expansion itself isn’t expensive, but if you’re like me and must have them all, then you’ll be shelling out a fair bit of money since the number of villains that Disney owns, thanks to all their properties, is practically endless. Fortunately for me, my husband now knows that there’s always a winning gift to get me each birthday or Christmas if he needs one.
As of today, the following expansions are out:
Disney
The Worst Takes It All: Captain Hook, Jafar, Maleficent, Prince John, Queen of Hearts, Ursula
Wicked to the Core: Dr. Facilier, Evil Queen, Hades
Evil Comes Prepared: Ratigan, Scar, Yzma
Perfectly Wretched: Cruella De Vil, Mother Gothel, Pete
Despicable Plots: Gaston, Horned King, Lady Tremaine
Bigger and Badder: Lotso, Madam Mim, Syndrome
Marvel
Infinite Power: Thanos, Hela, Ultron, Taskmaster, Killmonger
Mischief & Malice: Loki, Madame Masque, M.O.D.O.K.
We Are Venom: Venom
Star Wars
Power of the Dark Side: Asajj Ventress, Darth Vader, General Grievous, Kylo Ren, Moff Gideon
If it isn’t obvious by now, this is one of my favorite games of all time. Whether playing it one on one or with a larger group, I am guaranteed to have a great time. Villainous is a unique and whimsical game that doesn’t take itself too seriously and lets everyone be just a little bad for a while.