Board game creator and publisher Ravensburger have recently helped Disney celebrate their 100th anniversary with a Disney100 edition of their popular series Villainous. They took this opportunity to also release a broken down and easier-to-digest edition of their game series, given how detailed the rules can be for this game series. So, now we have Disney Villainous: Introduction to Evil, featuring classic Disney villains and a simplified style of the general gameplay.

What’s In The Box

Opening the box, you will find everything you need to play the game. You will want to keep a number of these items in their packaging when you re-pack the game after it has been played, so be sure not to toss out everything until after you re-pack the first time. As for what is actually inside, you will find an instruction manual, 4 character figures, 4 player domain cards, 4 decks of cards (1 for each Villain option), 1 power tray holder, a bunch of power tokens, and aid cards (a booklet for each Villain and an action card describer).

Gameplay

After reading through the instruction manual to have a decent understanding of each aspect, turn back to the setup and get each player set up. Start by picking a Villain to be then gather their domain, deck cards, fate cards, their booklet, an action explanation card, and their figurine. Once each player has their items, get out the plastic power base and put all of the power tokens in it. Make sure the power base is able to be reached by all players as this will be used between everyone. The next thing to do is to make sure your standard deck and fate deck are separated, shuffled, and set down with the fate cards reachable by other players. Then, before the first player takes their turn, each player should take a moment to read through their Villain booklet to better understand their character and find special information to help them better play as their chosen Villain.

Now that the setup is ready to go, someone gets to go first. Each of the Villainous games is slightly different in a few aspects, but for this one in particular the first player gets no starting power tokens, the second player gets one starting power token, and the remaining players each get two starting power tokens.

To take a turn, you simply take your figurine and place it on any of the four different areas within the domain. The location you choose to go to will have four actions that can be taken and you can choose which actions you take and in which order they are taken. Once you end your turn, draw cards from your standard deck to make sure you have four cards in hand. If you still have four cards in hand at the end of your turn, you do NOT draw any cards. No player should ever have more than four cards in hand.

The actions that can be taken have a wide range. If you want to try and mess up your opponents, then you will need to land on a space with a Fate action. This means you look at the top two cards of the chosen opponent’s Fate deck, pick one to play immediately, and discard the other. Fate cards can be a variety of things, but most namely you will find Heroes. Heroes have effects on them that can mess up your opponent’s ultimate goal. However, knowing what your opponent’s goal is should be considered when choosing the Fate action as there is a chance you may hand them something they actually need. “Which side is Fate on” is the essential essence of this action.

The other actions are pretty straightforward - collect power tokens (amount equal to number displayed), play a card, discard any number of cards in your hand, move an ally or item, move a hero, and vanquish. Playing cards from your hand is where you’ll be able to put effects into play, put an Ally on the board, give an existing Ally an item, and more. You need an Ally on the board in order to vanquish a Hero. While it takes power tokens to play cards (the amount of which is noted in the top left of the card), it doesn’t take any power tokens to vanquish a Hero. Instead, you will need to make sure your Ally has a power level (located at the bottom left of the card) that is equal to or higher than the Hero. If you successfully vanquish a Hero, both the Hero and the Ally are discarded - unless an effect or item says otherwise.

In order to win the game, you will need to accomplish the Villain’s goal. So, the overall concept of the game comes down to doing everything you can to obtain your goal while also taking actions to hinder the progress of the other players to ensure they don’t obtain their goal before you obtain yours. Because each Villain has their own goal, no two Villain’s will be played the same way and the strategy for each character will differ from the others.

Artwork

The skill within the artwork featured in this game is pretty remarkable. There is definitely a style that they are trying to hold to, but at the same time, the influence of Disney’s classic art style is still present in every card, domain, and the rest of the game. It is very clear what each card is trying to represent and none of the imagery seemed to be crowded, which is a nice touch.

Replayability

Thanks to each Villain having their own goals and the strategy to play each character would ultimately differ, even if only slightly, with each player, this game is loaded with replayability. Even if you play the same Villain more than once, you may find different ways to play them on a second go. Not to mention that strategy changes when you are looking at a game with two players in comparison to a game with four players.

What It Could Have Done Better

My only real issue with this game is that you really need some space to play it. I have a table for playing board games on and this is the first game that we barely were able to fit on the table. Honestly, if I had a third player, I don’t think there would be enough space for this game. With a long setup and a very spaced-out design, this could be a hindrance to some users’ game tables.

Also, they should probably include a bit more power tokens. Just playing with two players, we noticed that the power bank got pretty low. If there were four players playing at the same time, I doubt there would have been enough power tokens for the whole game.

Verdict

Disney Villainous: Introduction to Evil is definitely the best way to start your play sessions in the Villainous board game series! I was working on my overall review of this series before this title came out and was honestly having some issues understanding the game, even after a couple of test play attempts. Now, after using this title to kick off my understanding of how the game is played, I have been able to play multiple rounds of Villainous with my wife - and not just in this Disney100 Edition title. Playing this edition of the game clarified the gameplay style in a more concise way and lets us enjoy the entire series. So, to that, I must recommend that if you plan to pick up a Villainous title then this is firmly where you want to start.

Disney Villainous: Introduction to Evil (Disney100 Edition) is suitable for 1-4 players ages 10 and up, with an MSRP of $34.99. It is available now exclusively through Target.