In Villainous: Wicked to the Core, each player takes control of one of three Disney characters, each one a villain in a different Disney movie, specifically the Evil Queen from Snow White, Hades from Hercules, and Dr. Facilier from The Princess and the Frog. Each player has their own villain deck, fate deck, player board, and 3D character.
On a turn, the active player moves their character to a different location on their player board, takes one or more of the actions visible on that space (often by playing cards from their hand), then refills their hand to four cards. Cards are allies, items, effects, and conditions. You need to use your cards to fulfill your unique win condition.
One of the actions allows you to choose another player, draw two cards from that player's fate deck, then play one of them on that player's board, covering two of the four action spaces on one of that player's locations. The fate deck contains heroes, items, and effects from that villain's movie, and these cards allow other players to mess with that particular villain.
Villainous: Wicked to the Core is playable on its own, and its characters can also face off against those in the Villainous base game from 2018.
- expansion adds several more baddies to choose from, expanding replayability
- feels true to the core Villainous experience
- expansion-dependent; benefit hinges on base game ownership
- potential power creep if not balanced carefully
- asymmetric villainous play with unique objectives
- Disney villains universe with expanded roster
- story-driven, character-based strategic play
- Villainous: The Worst Takes All
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Asymmetric Player Powers — each villain has distinct abilities driving their own strategy
- Asymmetric powers — each villain has distinct abilities driving their own strategy
- fate deck / villain deck — deck-building-like elements drive interactions and disruption
- variable player boards — each villain uses a different board with unique actions
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I hate excluding people from my games it's the last thing I want to do
- I actually do appreciate and understand the tough decision that Gil Hova had to make
- it's a game that is definitely worth a second look if you missed it the first
- Hyperborea ... I scoop up Hyperborea when it first hit store shelves way back in 2014 and it remains on my shelves to this day
- you have conquered death and mastered all nine dimensions of space-time reality bends to your every whim and desire you yes you are the absolute best there has ever been a necromancer at the top of their game
- the dead back to life so they can throw a party with actual guests showing up