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

Love this game, fun to play

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.

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.

I highly recommend this board game to both novice and regular board game players. It is easy to learn, despite how overwhelming it looks at the beginning. The games play out relatively quickly and once you learn the characters, it allows for some deeper strategy as well. Because the base game comes with 6 characters, even the base game allows for a tremendous amount of replayability, each with their own different objective, player deck, and fate deck which are played in an attempt to hinder the other players. We have been able to finish some 2 player matches in 45 minutes to an hour once we figured out how the game plays, and 3 player games have been a bit longer, just due to more fate cards being played as well as just another character having to take their turn. Due to this, I would find it a bit difficult to recommend the higher amount of players, unless you're prepared for it to take exponentially longer. Overall, it's a perfect 2-3 player game that truly encapsulates the Disney movies and finds fun and interesting ways to be the villain.

The game is very nice, a little complicated, so don't expect this to be a quick one to learn, but the replayability is very high, and so it is worth learning. Nice amount of luck and strategy to keep younger players engaged. Overall a nice game. The problem and the missing star is from the box :( There are a lot of sperate pieces to this game, and the box does a pretty lousy job of keeping everything separate. An increase in price to get a box that could fit everything in a way to allow for quick setup and a reduced chance of losing parts would be a very nice improvement. That said, I was also sad to see that the box I had was slightly damaged. This situation is not typical with Amazon, so I would not downgrade the rating based on my bad luck, but it did not help me fall in love with the packaging. I still recommend the game, especially if you have a family that likes board games; this one is great fun for family game night.

I LOVE this game! It is so much fun to play with friends. It can be hard to play when you don't know how to play. Kids 10 and up would love this. And if you are a Disney fan, you would love this.

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.

If you’re a fan of Disney’s animated works, you need this game. Up front, I will say that there IS a learning curve to this, and set-up is definitely more intensive than you’re average round of Monopoly or Uno. There are several components for each player’s area that need to be set up. That being said, the instructions do a good job of explaining the flow of the game, and there is even a link to a helpful YouTube video that does a fantastic visual set-up and demo of the game. The game itself is very fun once you get into the flow of it, and discovering new strategies for your villains depending on what others you’re facing is addictive. Replay value is incredibly high, as each villain in the box has a different objective they must meet to win, and different cards and strategies to help in their quest. The cards and game boards all feature illustrated renditions of actual stills from the animated movies these villains originated in, and are gorgeous to look at. The player pieces are also very cool, colorful and slightly more abstract representations of the villains. The game currently has three expansions, each of which adds three more villains with their own unique cards and strategies, as well as extra power tokens and any unique pieces each villain needs. Having 15 villains to choose from is fantastic and drastically increases replay value even more, so I would heartily recommend investing in the expansions as well as the main game. Here is the one main sticking point I have: storage. The main game and expansions come in very nice boxes, as game boxes go. And even though the expansion boxes are far smaller than the main game, having four boxes for one game is going to take up space wherever you store your games. If that doesn’t bother you, great, but if space is limited, as it is for me, it is worth checking Etsy for storage solutions; neither Ravensberger or Amazon currently provide a single storage solution to hold the main game and all three expansions. As long as you’ve got the space for it, and a little bit of patience to get accustomed to the rules, you’re going to find Villainous to be a rousing good time! It’s good to be bad sometimes.