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Villainous has become a franchise in its own right since the first Disney incarnation launched in 2018. Since then, Marvel and Star Wars iterations have followed, as well as a handful of expansions, the latest at the time of writing being 'Bigger and Badder'.
If you're not familiar with how Villainous plays, each villain has their own win condition which they work towards. This usually involves thwarting the heroes of their respective franchises, while doing everything within their power to hinder their equally evil opponents.
Bigger and Badder introduces another 3 dastardly Nair-do-wells. They come in the form of Lotso (Toy Story 3), Madam Mim (The Sword in the Stone) and Syndrome (The Incredibles.)
How do they shape up? Let's find out!
Evil Has Never Looked So Good
Before we get into the meat of how these new characters play, it's worth mentioning that for the price this is another beautifully made iteration from Ravensburger.
The cards and player boards are good quality with beautiful artwork. The tokens ARE cardboard, but of a good quality that will withstand normal play no problem, and the player pieces are nice and weighty.
Speaking of the player pieces, they have great designs too... for the most part. Lotso is a mashup of his head and a strawberry, Syndrome resembles one of his robots but with his trademark quiff and cape and Mim... well, Mim is a mop of tufted hair on what I think is supposed to be a dress.
But as Meatloaf once belted out, '2 out of 3 ain't bad’, and I'd take them over a cardboard standee or a more generic piece of plastic any day.
Now, on to how the new villains play.
Merlin's Beard
I'll start with the easiest of the three to get to grips with; Madam Mim.
Her win condition is both delightfully simple to understand, and yet devilishly difficult to achieve. All Mim has to do in order to win is to vanquish all of Merlin's 7 transformations. As soon as the final one is defeated, she immediately wins.
There are obviously a few things that prevent this from being a cake-walk for Mim though. For a start, most of Merlin's transformations can only be defeated by one or two specific cards in Mim's deck. If they happen to be buried at the bottom, or even worse, they have already been discarded, those playing as Mim are going to have a bad time.
Secondly, there is a card in Mim's fate deck that restores one of Merlin's transformations at random. As her fate deck is pitifully small in comparison to most, it means the whole game comes down to a race. Can you defeat at least 2 Transformations before that Fate card comes back around once more? If you can't, you've no chance of winning.
Mim is a good option for those new to the game. There isn't that much strategy or planning involved outside of figuring out which ally cards to keep or discard.
Caterpillar Room Chaos
In comparison to Mim, Lotso's goals are considerably more complicated.
In order to claim victory, the tyrant of Sunnyside Daycare must ensure that Woody, Jesse, Hamm and Rex are all in the Caterpillar Room, that they have no attack power and that Buzz is in there with them.
Buzz is part of Lotso's initial setup, and can either fight against or alongside the player, depending on if he has been 'returned to factory settings'. It doesn't matter which he is for Lotso's win condition though, as long as he is in the Caterpillar Room.
Savvy opponents may actively avoid playing hero cards when they choose to Fate him, as if the heroes don't come out, Lotso can't reduce them to 0 and ultimately win the game.
However, Lotso has a few cards in his arsenal (such as Big Baby) that will pull heroes out of the deck for him to make up for this.
Winning as Lotso isn't impossible, however there is one specific scenario that can make it VERY difficult. Rex's hero card can't have power removed from it as long as he is in a location with another hero.
Therefore, if Rex ends up in the Caterpillar Room with other heroes, he becomes invincible until the person playing as Lotso can move him somewhere else and get him on his own.
With other Villains this might not be too difficult as they have spots in their realm that allow them to move hero cards... but Lotso doesn't have them. There is literally ONE card in the whole of Lotso's villain deck that allows players to move a hero out of the Caterpillar Room rather than into it. If that card just happens to be at the bottom of the deck when you need to isolate Rex... good luck!
It's a shame as Lotso was the villain I was most looking forward to playing as. I got hit with that EXACT scenario the first time I used him and it has put me off going back to him since.
Not Every Superhero Has Powers
Finally we come to the poster boy of the expansion; Syndrome.
Syndrome's win condition mirrors the plot of The Incredibles pretty well. He has to work his way through two prototypes of the Omnidroid, using them to vanquish a hero in order to move onto the next iteration. Syndrome also has to pull and play a specific number of 'Major Modification' cards before he can bring the next version of the Omni in to play.
Once the Omnidroid v.10 is in play, his mission switches to vanquishing ALL heroes in the realm to claim victory.
Syndrome sounds complicated to play as when initially reading through his character card, but once in play it isn't all that hard to get to grips with.
There are some cards in his fate deck that cause major setbacks when they come up, and once in the final stage it's very easy for opponents to keep spamming heroes into his realm, but by this point victory is inevitable unless another villain is able to get to their win condition quickly.
The Most Vindictive Villainous Yet
Having played a handful of the other villains in the Disney collection, and some of the Star Wars and Marvel entries, the first thing I noticed about this expansion is just how ruthless it seems in comparison.
Obviously, the nature of the fate decks in Villainous are to directly attack your opponents and slow them down. But some of the punishments doled out in 'Bigger and Badder' feel particularly cruel and can set players back significantly. In fact, some can even chop players off at the knees and all but kill their chances of victory without a huge stroke of luck coming their way.
That's fine too. I love games that have a strong 'take that' style of gameplay, but it's something to be wary of if you have played other Villainous games and expect more of the same.
Bigger And Badder
Legendary wrestler Scott Hall once said 'Hard work pays off, dreams come true. Bad times don't last, but bad guys do.' and although he wasn't talking about Villainous, I think it describes it as such an enduring franchise.
As for Bigger and Badder, I can't say as it's the best Villainous expansion there has been... but once again Ravensburger have come up with 3 more unique ways to play an already fun game.
This might not be the best set for newcomers to Villainous to start on, as Mim isn't the most exciting to play as, and both Lotso and Syndrome require a bit of strategic thinking.
For the price though I'd say it's a strong addition to an existing Villainous collection, and perfect for fans of these three movies.
That concludes our thoughts on Disney Villainous: Bigger and Badder. Do you agree? Let us know your thoughts and tag us on social media @zatugames. To buy Disney Villainous: Bigger and Badder today click here!
