Best of the Worst (Disney's Villainous)

Aladdin, Ariel, Hercules.  At one time or another, we've imagined being a hero like these in a story, to emuate their strength, or their courage.  But how often have we imagined taking the role of the villains? How we love to hate them, with their flair for the dramatic, and their utter presence in every scene.  A hero is good, but a villain is grand!  To take their roles and prove we could succeed where they failed would be truly Villainous. 



BACKGROUND:  Villainous is a card game for 2-6 players, designed by Prospero Hall and published by Wonder Forge, where you take the role of a famous Disney villain to thwart both fate and canon and become the ruler of your realm.

GAMEPLAY:  During their turn, a player moves into any unlocked space on their board.  Some locations, like the Cave of Wonder, are locked until a card is played, but others, like Prince Eric's Palace in Ursula's Realm, must be moved to simulate transforming from land dweller to sea dweller.  Each Location in the Realm determines what actions you can take on your turn, with any others unavailable to use that turn.  Some actions grant you Power, which is used to play certain cards and abilties, discard cards, or even to play a card or move cards to an adjacent Location.  Turns end by drawing up to 4 cards.  If either the colored Villain deck or the white Fate deck runs out, shuffle the discard into a new deck.



FATE:  Whenever a person uses a Fate action, they reveal 2 cards from another players Fate deck.  The player doing the action chooses one and applies its effects, and the other is discarded.  If it is a Hero, it is placed in the targeted players Realm, usually covering certain Actions so that players may not use those being covered.  In 5-6 player games, the Fate token is given to a player so that they may not be targeted by the Fate action twice in a row.  Multiple Heroes may be in the same location, but multiple Heroes may not be Vanquished with a single Vanquish action.  Only one may be Vanquished with one action.



VANQUISH:  Vanquish is a action applying to Heroes and Allies.  Allies are generally used to Vanquish a Hero in their Realm.  Certain Items can be equipped to Allies to raise the power of the Allies.  The Power of both Heroes and Allies are located in the bottom left.  To Vanquish a hero, the Ally or Allies must be in the same location as the Hero, and Heroes are discarded from the Realm until their Strength matches or exceeds the Hero, then the Hero is discarded.

WINNING:  A player wins when certain conditions are met on their board.  Some must start their turn with their objectives, while others merely need to meet those objectives.

CONCLUSION:  This game has some really unique, interesting things going for it that make it both worthy of praise and a detriment.  The theme is both original and exciting, which is also how I would describe the game.  The fact that affecting a player and slowing them down only occurs indirectly is fascinating, and leads to some really interesting maneuvers, without sacrificing the theme of the game.  However, that also means that you once a player starts to get the pieces they need for victory, it can snowball, i.e., it can make it really hard to stop them from winning.  Some of the Villains win conditions seem a little unbalanced, like Prince John's, but after playing it a few times, it is possible for any player to win.  The biggest drawback is the turn length's, which takes longer for newer players as it's mechanically so different, and the card system.  Like every other card game, it is really easy to just have no cards that work for you, and because discarding is an action you have to land on to use, it makes a dead hand that much worse.  Still, if you want an interesting, quirky, and uniquely solid game, make a wish and become Villainous.