Disney Villainous: Playing the Other Side of the Classics
Plot away as an infamous villain on a quest to triumph over well-known heroes and characters with Disney Villainous.
I love plenty of Disney classics, growing up with all sorts of memories behind movies spanning the 80s and 90s! For some reason, we’ve managed to collect almost all of Disney Villainous, and it never comes to the table. With another newly discovered unofficial solo variant, I set to work exploring more about these cartoon antagonists!
Game Overview
Game Name: Disney Villainous
Publication Year: 2019
Designer: Prospero Hall
Artist: Uncredited
Publisher: Ravensburger
Solo Mode: Unofficial Solo Variant
Each villain features a unique objective to work towards. Cards provide ways to move forward, particularly against the heroic pests! With this solo variant, the goal is to win before using all of the fate cards. Each provides a fun little puzzle to revisit a favorite movie from the past!
First Play
October 6, 2020
Complexity
2
Latest Play
September 7, 2023
Expansions
5
Setup Time
Almost None
Lifetime Plays
12
Play Time
15 Minutes
High Score
N/A
Game Area
26" x 18"
Low Score
N/A
Captain Hook’s Goal
Courtesy of my penchant for playing alphabetically, I’ve probably played Captain Hook the most of all! So I was prepared to reach his objective pretty quickly.
However, Peter Pan was about as annoying as possible. This solo variant treats some cards a little differently, which meant that all the pixie dust went to him.
Even with a ton of pirates, including Smee, there wasn’t enough strength to take out this flying fool. Ha ha!
I enjoyed adding items to different locations, though, and saw a pretty fun puzzle here with moving heroes around.
The Jolliest Jolly Roger
A-ha! By controlling the fate deck a little more, I managed to save Peter Pan until near the end and get the right pirates in place for a final vanquish action against him.
This was relatively fun, although I immediately wondered why I would ever want to play as Captain Hook again.
I think that’s where this game shines: Each villain is a small puzzle to be solved, and that’s why new characters come out all the time. No sense playing one too much!
So I quickly reset with a short-term goal of playing through all of the base game villains… And winning!
Jafar’s Triumph
I thought that Jafar played similarly to Captain Hook, just with a few twists on his actions. He was tricky, though, and it was during the last round that I got Genie in place!
My biggest issue was in the card order, though. So much came down to the luck of the draw, which wasn’t fun.
Had the magic lamp been at the bottom of my deck, it would have been an automatic loss with the speed at which the fate deck empties. In all, it’s about 15 turns.
Still, it was nice to see some familiar faces and have a neat ending where Iago delivered the magic lamp!
Curse You, Maleficent!
Moving onto Maleficent was much different, as her objective was to curse all of the locations. This took a lot of planning, particularly in regards to the curse types.
I made the mistake of trying to put out curses that were erased when heroes came out, so that was all wrong!
Instead, I focused on locking her out of some locations with green fire, saving the last one to place at the very end.
This was an interesting sort of objective, and probably one of the more engaging puzzles. Still, I was done in a short span of time. Clean up all of those cursed lands, please!
a Multiplayer Game That Could Offer Solo
Over the years, I’ve played a couple of multiplayer games of this one with around 3-4 players. It took hours, and turned into a slog of simply attacking whichever player was furthest ahead. We all had to learn every villain’s tableau, too, which took up a lot of time. The idea is fantastic, but this has been relegated to a 2-player experience ever since.
I bring it out when Ganesh is interested, and I’ll simply pick a villain from one of my favorite Disney movies. Often, that means I don’t experiment with any new ones… I want to win! Those sessions are more about reciting lines and having some laughs. However, it would have been great to see an official solo option for this entire series.
This unofficial solo variant I’m using requires lots of alternate definitions to make the cards make sense, and even then, it doesn’t include all of the expansions. I’m still happy I had a chance to enjoy exploring all of the villains, but I highly doubt this will make it to my table. I guess I’ll just have to settle on watching Disney movies here and there. Ha!
Fun with Prince John
I’m almost positive I played as Prince John before in a multiplayer game, and he was as fun as I remembered!
He needed to store a ton of power, and that wasn’t easy when a lot of heroes and fate cards stole it from him. My turns had to be very carefully crafted to save his fortune.
Only at the very end did I realize that despite a loss to Friar Tuck, exactly 20 power was saved up for the victory!
The different mechanics in each villain’s deck are pretty awesome. Even though Prince John might be one of my favorites, I’m still content to retire him after this win.
Taking the Shot
Perhaps the most intriguing deck was that belonging to the Queen of Hearts. How unusual! Heroes could be shrunk or enlarged to cover fewer or more spaces… Very neat.
Turning the card guards into wickets took a little planning, yet a few cards in her deck were most useful.
I spent a little extra time attaching spears and cycling through the deck to weed out the expensive cards.
The queen wins if she takes a shot with a full assortment of wickets… I drew 5 cards, which all totaled just 3 power against the 12 I built up. Another victory for a villain!
Session Overview
Play Number: 5-12
Solo Mode: Unofficial Solo Variant
Outcome: 6 Wins & 2 Losses
Ursula rounded out this final set of base game villains. She was quite frustrating! Her deck felt like it was even more dependent on cards coming out at the right times. In the end, I was glad to pack this one up. It features amazing artwork that brings these Disney classics to life, yet the gameplay isn’t something that will call me back again. The villain puzzles weren’t too difficult to solve, and I had a nice enough time. Now I can go back to playing the hero!
%
10 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
8
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
8
Originality
Design & Theme
7
Quality
Components & Rules
9
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
3
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- The artwork is fantastic and brings back memories of the important locations and characters from each movie.
- Each villain plays differently with various objectives and unique decks, offering up a handful of neat little puzzles.
- This solo variant uses the fate deck as a timer and ensures that gameplay moves very quickly from start to end.
- Gameplay is pretty straightforward with mostly intuitive rules and most of the information directly on the cards.
- Villain guides provide clever ways to explain the main elements of each villain and help provide basic strategy tips.
- Everything remains pretty compact, both in terms of the required play space and the time needed to play.
– Cons (Negatives)
- A villain usually takes a couple of tries to win as, and then there isn’t much of an incentive to play as the same one.
- Luck is very prevalent, with some villains relying on cards to be near the top of their decks in order to win quickly.
- Despite the amazing artwork and overall theme, gameplay doesn’t feel that thematic aside from a bit of nostalgia.
- Although the villains are very different, the location actions end up feeling pretty monotonous in general.
Victory Conditions
Complete the Objective
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game as Captain Hook.
Win at least 1 game as Jafar.
Win at least 1 game as Maleficent.
Win at least 1 game as Prince John.
Win at least 1 game as the Queen of Hearts.
Win at least 1 game as Ursula.
Continue the Conversation
What do you think of Disney Villainous? Have you tried it solo, or is there a particular villain you enjoy the most? It was nice to see this bit of nostalgia come out, although I’m pretty sure this one is going to be saved as a 2-player experience. At least I had the opportunity to solve these puzzles, though, and go back in time to some Disney classics!
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