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

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 expansionsCONS- 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.

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.

Beautiful. A little complicated but with 2 or 3 rounds you are gtg. It's more fun with more than 4 players

This is a great game at a good price. (some expansions are pretty expensive though, so look for sales) Play a Disney villain and compete to succeed in your vile plan first. Every villain plays differently and feels like that person. The game comes with 6 starting villains, with more in every expansion. It's also compatible with the marvel and Star Wars versions, to allow many more villainous options. (Note, this normal starter is NOT the same as the one found in box stores. Those ARE cheaper, but only have 4 villains. The other 2 would still require this product, so DON'T get the cheaper 4 villain version.)

Simple game. Rules aren't the easiest to pick up, kind of have to take a running start at it. It's a very legible game, if you can read you'll understand it eventually. If you've played a board game before it'll come quickly. Definitely not for children under age 7. It's kind of cute, capitalizing on the nature of disney villains- a board game that turns their sins into the mechanics for solid gameplay, and it works. Haven't played enough, but seems well balanced. The game will definitely at some point after session after session of play be reduced to, by those who study the inner game or who such workings come naturally to, something like a cut and dry pattern (Sushi GO, checkers, or tic tac toe)--it's all about optimization and there are obvious correct choices. It's fun for me now as it's novel. It's more hectic with more players, and that's where it shines, when you can play to a formula. But 2 to 3 players will get old immediately. Only let the Disney branding fool you into buying this game if you are already a diehard Disney fan, this game will be fun for only so long unless you have a crew. And mind you, if the players have a strong grasp on the game you're looking at a match lasting over half an hour. My family and I, 3 players, on our first match, pick up the rules very quickly and stalled each other out for a game lasting just under an hour and a half. Yeah there is definitely some randomness to how long a game may take, since the cards themselves are random, but I liken this game to that of UNO--it could really just go on indefinitely (25-60 minutes) if players always make the right choices and favor doesn't shift divinely one direction (something I think infinitely more likely to happen in a 1v1 match).I had fun.