Disney Villainous: Darkness Brewing
Publisher: Ravensburger
Designers: Mike Mulvihill and Shanon Lyon (based on the Villainous Game System designed by Prospero Hall)
Illustrators: Jason Kang, Eduardo Francisco, Lucas Torquato, Valerio Buofantino, and Yuri Cameirana
Number of Players: 2 to 4
Age Rating: 10 and up
Playing Time: 20 min. per player
MSRP: $22.99
Release Date: July 2026
ICv2 Rating: 4.5 Stars out of 5
For some, there is a seductive appeal to playing the “bad guy”. Whether the a-list actor who thinks it’s fun to play the villain role or the game player who chooses the morally questionable side to play, there is an allure to doing the “wrong thing” from the safety of an environment without any real consequences. This is the central concept of the Disney Villainous series. The question is, does the game make it good to be bad?
Summary: Ravensburger launched the Disney Villainous line back in 2018, allowing players to assume the mantle of classic Disney bad guys and try to complete nefarious and dastardly plots. Expansions and stand-alone sets would follow, with Darkness Brewing being the most recent. This entry features four classic Disney baddies: Ursula, the Evil Queen, and Maleficent all make encore appearances alongside the new addition of the Sanderson Sisters from the movie Hocus Pocus.
Each player has a unique deck of cards and player board that represents their villain’s goals and powers, as well as their own deck of do-gooders and obstacles called a Fate Deck. Each turn, they move their villain across their board, their destination determining which actions they may perform that turn. Core actions involve gathering Power Tokens, spending those tokens to play cards from their hand to advance their plot, or triggering plays from an opponent’s Fate Deck. Layered on top of those, each villain has special actions, often linked to card play, that pursue their personal objective. The first player who fulfills all of the requirements for their objective wins the game.
Originality: Much of the material in Darkness Brewing is a refresh of previously seen elements in the Disney Villainous ecosystem, but it is worth pointing out the way that new and old characters function together seamlessly within the game system, without causing unnecessary complications or bloat to the ruleset. Darkness Brewing thus acts as a convenient jumping-on point for those new to the system, while hitting the high points of some of the Disney universe’s most popular villains.
Presentation: I suppose it is appropriate that the box is very, very dark. While I certainly appreciate the sinister use of shadow and the eerie green glow afforded by spot-varnish for the title on the otherwise matte-finished box, it is hard to read from a distance and doesn’t exactly leap off the shelf visually. That being said, the back of the box does an excellent job of summarizing the gameplay and presenting the components, and the artwork throughout is all top-notch. Particularly appealing are the sculpted villain movers, crafted from heavy translucent plastic in menacing shades of purple and green that are evocative of the characters in a delightful way without attempting to recreate them.
Quality: All of the components are good quality, as one would expect from a company with Ravensburger’s reputation. The player boards are more like “tiles” than “boards”, but perfectly adequate to the task. The cards are flexible and pleasant to hold and should stand up well to use. The tokens are a little bit thin for my taste, and I would have liked the player aids better if they were of sturdier stock, but both function nicely. As mentioned earlier, I think the movers are fabulous, a highpoint in playing the game. The box organizer could have been more useful, but it performs well enough.
Marketability: Disney-themed games seem to be a fairly constant fixture in the market these days, with a built-in fan base and potential to reach beyond the traditional game market. The fact that much of the material in Darkness Brewing has been seen before is a strike against it, and I think it’s unlikely that fans of the series thus far would be eager to pick up a whole starter set for a single new character. But for those of us who have missed the boat so far, it offers a great way to discover the game.
Overall: I am not generally one of those who feels the lure of playing the bad guy, so I had never really given the Disney Villainous series much thought. Which is unfortunate, as I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed playing the game. The system is easy to learn and operates very smoothly, with turns going quickly but with opportunities to make meaningful decisions. The Fate Decks are an interesting way to meddle with the plans of your opponents without forcing you to sacrifice too much of your own efforts just to slow down a leader. And the variety of characters with their own unique mechanics and objectives keeps the game interesting and offers rich replayability.
On the other hand, there is a “multi-player solitaire” feel to the game that is hard to overlook. Other than the Fate Decks, your attention is almost exclusively focused on what you are doing on your own player board, and it is very easy to ignore the other players, particularly as you are learning the ins and outs of the various characters. Until you have experienced a few plays, it’s hard even to figure out who the leader is so you know whose Fate Deck you should be triggering.
But the fact is that the game is fun, and it is an excellent gateway for less experienced players to discover some of the core elements of the board game hobby without too much complexity or nastiness between players. And that’s why I’m giving this game 4.5 out of 5.
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Source: ICv2
