Disney Villainous Is Still Going Strong Eight Years Later

Published Aug 1, 2026, 12:30 PM EDT Chris is a Gaming Editor at ScreenRant. He has been a professional writer since 2009, and has written for top TV, comics, movie, and video game outlets like Engadget, Polygon, Destructoid, and more. He brings with him an expertise in every game genre, no matter how niche or mainstream. You may know him as the former Managing/Reviews Editor of Destructoid, where he published hundreds of game reviews across every genre, including MMOs, sports games, and Metroidvanias. Find Chris on Twitter @_SRChris. Disney Villainous got off to a pretty modest start back in 2018. With six villains in its core set, publisher Ravensburger took us on a ride through decades of Disney history, including Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Alice in Wonderland, Robin Hood, Aladdin, and Peter Pan. The idea is that in Villainous, you're literally playing as the villains, attempting to complete their evil scheme before everyone else at the table does. To accomplish your plan, you'll battle heroes from their respective films, and every villain has a different win condition to complete. All the while, the other players are trying to stop you on your evil quest. It's a fun core loop that adds in a dash of theme, and there are still products coming out for it nearly a decade later, amid separate Marvel and Star Wars lines. We were able to test out the new Success At Any Cost set, as well as the Darkness Brewing core box, to get a feel for where the game is at in 2026. Success At Any Cost Comes With Two Villains The highlight of our testing sessions, Success At Any Cost comes with two villains: Ernesto de la Cruz (from Coco), and Prince Hans (from Frozen). While Ernesto has been somewhat of a polarizing villain for some fans (because of how easily he can win), he's been a blast in my household. Ernesto's entire deal is that he needs to flip over a set of six cards, which are separate from the rest of his game area. Once he's flipped them and his nemesis Hector (one of the heroes of Coco) is not on the board, he wins. He'll do this by playing cards, which grant him the ability to flip over specific cards, including adjacent cards or single pieces. It's almost like a puzzle playing Ernesto, as you'll need to figure out the fastest way to flip everything while your opponents are trying to flip multiple photos down at once. You can also feel the push and pull of the heroes in Ernesto's own Fate deck trying to change the outcome of the game, and interestingly, Coco's main character, Miguel, can both help and hinder Ernesto in his quest. You can see the theme play out in real time which is always a plus. It's a perfect character to give to a younger child who is just learning the game, as the idea of flipping photos over and making a whole image is incredibly easy to grasp. While some villains have esoteric win conditions that might even stump some casual board game fans, Ernesto has become a staple of our Villainous games. Prince Hans, on the other hand, has a lot more work to do to win. He needs to add his unique frozen tokens to the board to completely freeze over Arendelle, which flips the board, presenting new locations with new art. Then, he needs to vanquish Anna and Elsa to win in a location that is completely frozen. It's way tougher than it sounds. Although Hans has cards to fetch out Anna and Elsa so that he can find them in the endgame phase of a session, you won't always come across them. We found that it's better to drop allies early on to thin your deck, then cycle through to get the fetch cards for the final phase. While Hans has a lot going on, he is a ton of fun to play. The Villainous team adds a lot of smaller references to really flesh out Hans as a character, to the point where several of my family members wanted to watch Frozen again. The team has stretched the limits of the game on more than one occasion, and flipping Hans' board to see Arandelle frozen is a fun feeling. Darkness Brewing Is A Great Starter Set, With One Proviso Disney Villainous: Darkness Brewing takes a different tack. This is more like a "Greatest Hits" box, containing Ursula, The Evil Queen, and Maleficent, all of whom were existing characters in previous products. Ursula and Maleficent are as old as you can get, as they debuted with the original core box of Villainous​​​​​​. This time, though, we're getting the Sanderson Sisters from Hocus Pocus in addition to the aforementioned three villains. The Sanderson Sisters are also arriving later this year in their own box (titled Come, We Fly). That way, Villainous veterans won't need to pick up the entire Darkness Brewing box with duplicates in tow. As far as the legacy characters go, they're spot-on additions to the box. These are classic villains that literally "brew" potions, so the theme meshes together wonderfully. Maleficent, Ursula, and The Evil Queen are all recognizable, so it'll be easy to win over Disney fans with the selection, even if this is the only box you own. The Sanderson Sisters, on the other hand, are a bit more complicated and maybe not ideal for a core set/beginner box. Their win condition forces players to slowly brew an elixir of life one ingredient at a time, then use it on a hero to gain eternal youth for all three sisters. Sounds simple right? Well, in reality, it's extremely tough. Since the game limits the Sanderson Sisters to one ingredient per turn, it may take multiple turns just to set up a single ingredient before anyone messes with you by Fating your board (which brings heroic elements into the mix). It can be extremely frustrating to finally set one ingredient up over multiple turns, then find out that you're set back to square one. Even one Fate action can be devastating for the Sanderson Sisters, making it more of a calculating veteran character than something for newcomers. All that said, Darkness Brewing is still a great pickup because of how many classic villains it preserves, and you have more than enough to start a multiplayer game as-is. Some of these older expansions aren't widely available in 2026, so the chance to even get The Evil Queen from her expansion is a nice touch. If you're a Disney fan and have always considered picking up Disney Villainous, you could opt for Success At Any Cost as a taster, then move on to Darkness Brewing later on. Or, find one of the many products released so far. Release Date October 27, 2017 Runtime 105 minutes Director Adrian Molina, Lee Unkrich Writers Lee Unkrich, Jason Katz, Matthew Aldrich ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​