There are currently eight Disney Villainous expansions that add new villains to the board game. Ravensburger’s 2018 base game lets you get in touch with your dark side and take control of the bad guys from your favorite Disney films – a premise that was a hit with kids and adults alike. This guide explains what’s inside every Disney Villainous expansion, as well as how complex, fun, and beginner friendly they are.
Many would argue that Disney Villainous is one of the best board games around right now. However, if you’re in the market for alternatives, here are the family board games and Disney board games we’d recommend.
The currently released Disney Villainous expansions are:
What’s in a Disney Villainous expansion?
Each of the five currently available expansions adds three fully playable villains to the game, with their own win conditions, Villain decks, and Fate decks. Here’s a handy table breaking down which villains each expansion includes before we dive into detail:
| Expansion | New playable villains |
| Wicked to the Core |
|
| Evil Comes Prepared |
|
| Perfectly Wretched |
|
| Despicable Plots |
|
| Bigger and Badder |
|
| Introduction to Evil |
|
| Filled With Fright |
|
| Sugar and Spite |
|
Disney Villainous: Wicked to the Core
The first Disney Villainous expansion, Wicked to the Core, has Hades, Snow White’s Evil Queen, and Dr. Facilier from The Princess and the Frog. It has an eclectic mix of mechanics and difficulty levels. Hades is all about movement and must bring the Titans over to ransack Olympus, while Evil Queen acts alone as a one-woman killing machine, vanquishing heroes by brewing nasty potions.
Dr Facilier meanwhile, turns the game into a deckbuilding board game with his complex mechanics, which involve putting cards in a separate ‘Fortune’ deck. He’s tough to get a handle on, so while this was the first Disney Villainous Expansion ever released, and has some of the most fun heroes, it’s a little wonky in both balance and complexity and might not be the one to start with.
Disney Villainous: Evil Comes Prepared
Only at Villainous Expansion #2, Evil Comes Prepared, and they’re already breaking out Ratigan from The Great Mouse Detective, who features here alongside fan-favorite Scar, and Yzma from The Emperor’s New Groove. This is probably the best Disney Villainous expansion for beginner board gamers.
Yzma has to search for Kuzco in four different Fate decks, Scar’s just gotta beat up a load of heroes, and Ratigan has a fun gimmick in that his first objective can be thwarted, in which case he has to defeat the main hero as a backup plot. All unique takes on the game, but nothing too crazy.
Disney Villainous: Perfectly Wretched
Villainous Expansion 3 – Perfectly Wretched – features Cruella De Vil, Mother Gothel, and Pete from Steamboat Willie (the first Mickey Mouse cartoon). Each Disney Villainous: Perfectly Wretched character has its own unique playstyle, but none are overly complex, making this another good get for beginners to the series or younger boardgamers.
Pete’s game board and cards are all in black and white, adding a nice bit of style – plus his game plan is always different. You randomly choose four out of five goals each game, keeping your objectives hidden from the other players. Mother Gothel has a nice risk/reward game where your aim is to build up Rapunzel’s trust, and Cruella just wants to hoover up a ton of puppy tokens.
Disney Villainous: Despicable Plots
Villainous Expansion 4 – Despicable Plots – features Gaston, and then two oddballs, The Horned King from Black Cauldron and the Wicked Stepmother (actual name Lady Tremaine) from Cinderella. As well as having less star power than many of the other Villainous expansions, Despicable Plots has some fiddly mechanics that may prove frustrating. It’s by no means bad, and each villain has something interesting going on, if you can pull it off, but in our view – not the place to start.
Disney Villainous: Bigger and Badder
Despite the ‘bigger’ in Bigger and Badder, there are still only three characters in Villainous Expansion 5. This time we’re breaking into Pixar land with Syndrome from The Incredibles and Lotso from Toy Story 3, alongside the witchy Madame Mim from The Sword in the Stone.
A very colorful expansion, Mim is the surprise standout here, requiring you to defeat Merlin in a more complex version of Rock Paper Scissors that represents the film’s transformation battle (the only part of the movie most people remember).
Disney Villainous: Introduction to Evil
A revamped (streamlined?) version of the original box, but with some of the villains missing, Introduction to Evil is a Disney Villainous game intended for new players, not yet used to the devious world of plotting and planning. It offers a couple of very minor rules changes, and a lower price point, and it’s up to you if that makes up for taking two of the (more enjoyable, in our opinion) villains out of the base game.
Disney Villainous: Filled with Fright
Disney Villainous’ first single character expansion, Filled with Fright, lets you play as Oogie Boogie from Nightmare Before Christmas. Your mission is to defeat Jack and take his place on the throne as Pumpkin King.
This expansion released for Halloween in October 2023. Oogie is a gambling ghoul, and the expansion comes with dice that play into many of the villain’s cards.
It’s worth noting that, as the box comes with just one villain, this is the first Disney Villainous expansion that doesn’t work as a standalone game. Don’t buy it for someone who isn’t already a Villainous fan.
Disney Villainous: Sugar and Spite
In 2024, Disney Villainous switched to a new release strategy that resulted in cheaper expansions, although it meant they would only hold two villains rather than three. The first of these was Sugar and Spite, which featured Wreck It Ralph’s King Candy and Shere Khan from Jungle Book.
King Candy has a race track rather than realms to move across, which shakes up the tactics of a standard Villainous game. This adds a level of complexity that might put off newbies to the board game, but it keeps things delightfully fresh for veterans.
Shere Khan is a simpler, more traditional villain, but that doesn’t mean he’s at a disadvantage. He simply needs to defeat Mowgli and keep fire away from his board, a clear win condition that can be achieved surprisingly quickly – meaning the King Candy player must stay on their toes.
Do you need the base Disney Villainous Game?
Nope! Pretty much every Disney Villainous expansion can be played on its own, and they’re also all compatible with each other. You can take any Disney Villainous game in your collection and mix and muddle it up with any other expansion, and still have a grand old time.
That said, the base Disney Villainous game touts an impressive six heroes, compared to the three found in expansions. Purely in terms of bang for your buck, you may be well served by picking up the bigger, original box.
If you’re sold on Villainous by the gameplay as much as the theme, you might also enjoy our guide to the Marvel Villainous expansions.
Source: Wargamer
