Everyone loves heroes. However, heroes would be pretty dull, or not even heroes at all, if it were not for the villains. Some of the greatest villains of all time are the Disney Villains. Six years ago a new game was released that let players take on the roles of these villains. In Disney Villainous, players could play as one of six fiendish and diabolical villains as they competed to be the most…villainous. Since that time, expansions have been released to add an additional 16 villains to the mix. Now two more villains make their villainous debut, King Candy from Wreck-It Ralph and Shere Khan from The Jungle Book, in Disney Villainous: Sugar and Spite.
What Is Disney Villainous: Sugar and Spite?
Disney Villainous: Sugar and Spite is a stand alone expansion for the card-based Disney Villainous strategy game. It is designed for 2 players, ages 10 and up, and takes about 40 minutes to play. With other Disney Villainous games, up to six players can take part in a game. In the game, players take on the role of one of two Disney villains and work to achieve their unique objectives before the other villains. The game includes a hand management mechanic with some “take that” elements as well. It’s currently available from Target, your friendly local game store, as well as Amazon with a suggested retail price of $19.99 for a copy of the game. Disney Villainous: Sugar and Spite was designed by Mike Mulvihill and published by Ravensburger, with illustrations by Johnny Morrow and Yuri Cameirana.
Disney Villainous: Sugar and Spite Components
Here is what you get inside the box:
- 2 Villain movers
- 2 Villain decks (30 cards each)
- 2 Fate decks (15 cards each)
- 2 Realm boards
- 2 Villain guides
- 2 Reference cards
- 1 Racer token
- 4 Fire tokens
- 15 Strength tokens
- 25 Power tokens
The villains are represented by their own sculpted movers which are used to show the location where a villain is on their realm. Disney Villainous: Sugar and Spite includes two unique movers.
Each villain has their own realm made up of locations from their story. Shere Khan has for locations, each with four symbols for actions which can be taken by the villain when at that location. King Candy has a unique realm consisting of a figure-8 race track. It is also divided into four sections. The realm boards also list the objective for the villain to help remind you what you must do to win the game.
The villain cards are what you use to take control of your realm and work towards your objective. There are four basic types of villain cards in Disney Villainous: Sugar and Spite. Allies are characters who help you and can attack heroes that other villains may play on your realm. The number in the bottom left corner is their strength. Items are also placed in your realm and provide lasting effects. Effect and Condition cards are played immediately and then discarded. The number in the upper left corner of a villain card is the cost you must pay in power in order to use that card.
Fate cards are unique to each villain and are played against you by other villains. Effect and item cards function similarly to those types of villain cards. Hero cards are similar to ally cards in that they represent characters. However, unlike allies, heroes are trying to prevent you from achieving your objective. They also have a strength number in the lower left corner.
There is a villain guide included for each villain that explain in greater detail how that villain can win the game. It also offers tips to help you win and descriptions of how some of the cards in the villain deck work or interact with other cards. It is a good idea to read through the villain guide before you start playing. There is also a QR code on the back with a link to a quick video on how to play that specific villain.
The reference cards are useful reminders to use during play. One side lists all the action symbols from the realm boards and explains each action. The opposite side lists the objectives for each of the four villains to remind you what your opponents must do to win.
Power tokens are used to represent power, which is the currency in the game. There are also fire tokens used by Shere Khan, a racer token used by King Candy, and strength tokens which can be placed on allies or heroes to represent a modification to the strength listed on their cards due to effects during the game.
How to Play Disney Villainous: Sugar and Spite
Ravensburger has created a video to quickly describe the rules for the Disney Villainous series. It can be found here.
The Goal
The goal of the game is to be the first to fulfill your villain’s objectives.
Setup
At the start, each player chooses a villain and takes that villain’s realm board, mover, villain deck, fate deck, villain guide, and a reference card. Open up the villain board and position it in front of you. Place the mover on the portrait of your villain on the left side. Shuffle our villain deck and place it face down to the left of your realm board. Draw four cards from your villain deck to form your starting hand and place them face down in front of you. Now shuffle the cards in your fate deck and place it face down above your villain deck. Place all of the power tokens in the cauldron and then put the cauldron in the center of the table so all players can reach it. Each player takes 2 power tokens for the start. Choose which player will go first, and then each player reads aloud their villain’s objective to the other players. You are now ready to play the game. Once they have done this, it is now the next players turn.
Gameplay
Disney Villainous: Sugar and Spite is played in turns. During each player’s turn, they go through three main steps. First the move their villain move to a different location in their realm. They cannot stay in the same location. Next they perform as many actions as they wish that are available at that location. Finally, if the player has fewer than four cards in their hand, they draw cards from their villain deck until they have four in their hand.
Each location on the villain’s realms has four action symbols. There are seven different types of actions. The Gain Power action lets the player take a number of power tokens from the cauldron equal to the number in the symbol. The Play a Card action allows a player to play one card from their hand. They can play one card for each symbol of this type they have in their current location. First a player must pay the power cost in the upper left corner of the card by returning that many power tokens to the cauldron. Ally and item cards are played to the bottom of the realm at any of the four locations. Effects and condition cards are played and then discarded immediately. The Fate action lets you choose another villain to target. Draw two cards from their fate deck. Choose one to play and then discard the other. If you play a hero card, place it on the top of one of the locations so that it covers and blocks the top two action symbols. While blocked, the villain cannot take an action at that location. Move an Item or Ally lets you take an item or ally already in your realm and move it to another location. Move a Hero lets you move a hero from one location to another in your realm. The Vanquish action lets you defeat a hero at a location where you have one more more allies. The ally must strength equal or greater than the hero in order to remove them from your realm. You can also must multiple allies at the same location as the hero and combine their strength to defeat the hero. Any allies whose strength was used to defeat a hero are discarded. Finally, the Discard cards action lets you discard any number of cards from your hand. This is a good way to get rid of cards you don’t need so you can draw new ones at the end of your turn.
Game End
The game ends as soon as one villain achieves their objective. That player is the winner.
Why You Should Play Disney Villainous: Sugar and Spite
The Disney Villainous series is one of my favorite games. I also enjoy Star Wars Villainous and Marvel Villainous, separate Villainous lines which are not compatible with each other or Disney Villainous. First off, the Disney Villainous games look incredible and have a classy table presence. The art on each card is original, but based on the movies from which the respective villains came. I like how each villain has different objectives and as a result plays a bit differently. The villains in Disney Villainous: Sugar and Spite are no exception. Shere Khan is plays similarly to some of the other villains. To win as this dangerous Bengal tiger, you must defeat Mowgli while there are no fire tokens in your realm. These fire tokens are played on you by your opponent using fate cards. Each token covers an action and prevents you from using it.
King Candy is one of the more unique villains in the way you play. However, it is designed to fit the theme of the movie and his realm features a racetrack representing the video game Sugar Rush. Instead of moving King Candy’s mover from one location to another, you move it around the track. The player can choose to move one to four spaces. Then they can perform the actions on the space where the mover is located as well as the two adjacent spaces. Once Vanellope Von Schweetz, a hero card from the fate deck, is in play, the racer token is placed at the start/finish space along with King Candy’s mover and the race is on. In order to win, you need to beat Vanellope to the finish line while a glitch card is on her.
Disney Villainous also has a great way for players to interact with one another. In keeping with the themes from the movies, Shere Kahn will never send monkeys into Sugar Rush and King Candy won’t be racing through the Jungle. Instead, the use of fate cards is a creative way for players to hinder each other’s progress. When you take a fate action, you play cards from your opponent’s fate deck against them.
While Disney Villainous: Sugar and Spite comes with only two villains, they are compatible with all of the other Disney Villainous games and expansions. These two bring the total number of villains in the series up to 24! By adding more villains, you can also bring the number of players up to six for a single game.
I really enjoyed playing as both King Candy and Shere Khan. They are great additions to the line-up of villains. If you have never played Disney Villainous, then Sugar and Spite is a great place to start. It is considered an expand-alone game since you can play it with two players by itself or use it to expand the series. If you already have some of the series of games, then I highly recommend adding Disney Villainous: Sugar and Spite to your collection.
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Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this game for review purposes.
