Disney Villainous by Ravensburger has been a central part of my board gaming experience, as my brother introduced it to me and my wife and it changed the way we spent our time in the pandemic and ever since. We’ve gotten groups of 6 together to play big, hours long games and continue to get its newest expansions and try out new gameplay and character mechanics, and after Ravensburger made Marvel Villainous, I’ve been hoping for a Star Wars one ever since. Well, the wait is over, as Star Wars Villainous: Power of the Dark Side will be out this August! Head below for more details and a look at the cool villain mover pieces!
If you’ve never played a Villainous game before, I highly suggest you do so, as they are complex but rewarding, and getting to learn what everyone is up to and how to stop them, while trying to win, is immensely satisfying. The general gist of Villainous, from Disney to even this new Star Wars one, is you play as the franchise’s villains, completely different goals that tie into the characters’ stories. Each player has their own game board and card decks, one you use to play to achieve your goal and another for other villains to pick from to throw a wrench in your plans. Disney Villainous has 5 expansions, so there are over 20 villains to choose from, while Marvel Villainous still has only its original 6, while Star Wars Villainous will start with 5 playable villains. Alongside my wife and our friends, and my brother and his wife, we’ve sunk tons of time into Disney Villainous and its many expansions, though a few attempts with Marvel Villainous haven’t been as favorable of an experience, as the Fate Deck (cards villains can use to mess with one another) are shared instead of villain specific, and overall gameplay isn’t as enjoyable as the Disney ones have been; I had to try it despite my brother’s warnings, and I should’ve trusted him considering he has over 50 board games at home and has played many more, but that’s what younger brothers do.
Out in August, Star Wars Villainous will change the formula once again with new gameplay mechanics not found in the other two versions, but overall it looks to retain the villain-specific decks like Disney’s version. The coins you collect to play cards are called Ambition and the franchise-first Vehicles are how villains mess with one another and further their own goals. As you can see in the images below, Vader can use his TIE to gain extra actions per turn and gain more Ambition, though the Falcon being sent in by another villain means the Heroes Vader must defeat can be reused instead of looking for more in Vader’s Fate deck.
While the announcement doesn’t reveal everyone’s specific goals, we at least know the 5 villains you can play as: Kylo Ren, Darth Vader, General Grievous, Asajj Ventress, and Moff Gideon. This is a pretty great, varied list, covering sequel, prequel, original, and the TV-verse in one fell swoop. What little we know of what they are trying to accomplish are tied to their character’s story, of course:
“Darth Vader is … trying to woo Luke Skywalker to the dark side of the Force. Grievous is collecting lightsabers, while Asajj Ventress has to complete three of five randomly drawn missions. Moff Gideon is there as well, trying to capture Grogu and perform vile experiments on him.”
Ventress’ need to complete 3 of 5 randomly drawn missions is similar to Pete’s gameplay in Disney Villainous: Perfectly Wretched expansion, so I expect the others’ goals might be familiar to other Disney villains gameplay, which is just another reason to go try out the Disney version now ahead of this release!
As for the movers, check these out!! They look fantastic, though yours might not look exactly like what you see here. Another first for the franchise, the movers will have subtle differences due to a new manufacturing process, which as Ravensburger project manager Jenny Webb says, “use{s} a specific colored powder that’s infused into the base color, and then swirled around. Then they kind of bloom a little bit so we get this very cool kind of galactic feel,” that when held up to light will produce a “kind of universe effect.” Look, I was already sold when you said Star Wars Villainous, but this is a kyber crystal on top of the lightsaber building process!
The only disappointing factor I noticed is that with only 5 villains, they claim it’s best for 2-4 players, and for some reason not 2-5, which is shy of the 2-6 Disney and Marvel Villainous can accommodate, meaning our big 6 person gaming sessions aren’t possible this time around. Is it a balancing issue? Why not all 5 at once? You can imagine we’ll play with house rules, to make sure we get all 5 at once, but I’m curious if that number will hold once expansions start. And you can bet there’ll be expansions! Darth Maul, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Count Dooku, Emperor Palpatine, General Hux, Grand Moff Tarkin, Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett, Cad Bane, to name a few are still out there, waiting for their chance to join the fun.
Star Wars Villainous is out August at retail for $39.99, and while I’ve never reviewed a board game before, there might just be one on the Manor after this releases…that is if we can stop playing it, of course.
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.