Disney Villainous: The Worst Takes It All – The Original Classic That Started It All

Jafar, Maleficent, Captain Hook, Ursula, Prince John, and the Queen of Hearts — six iconic villains, one award-winning system, and the game that launched an entire franchise.

Disney Villainous: The Worst Takes It All is the original 2018 base game that launched an entire franchise, designed by Prospero Hall and originally published by Wonder Forge (now Ravensburger). It hands players control of six of Disney's most iconic villains — Captain Hook, Maleficent, Jafar, Ursula, Queen of Hearts, and Prince John — each pursuing a completely different, movie-accurate path to victory while sabotaging their rivals' plans along the way.

The premise is genuinely inventive: rather than competing on a shared board, each villain plays out their own story on a personal Realm, moving through locations drawn straight from their film while opponents play Fate cards that introduce heroes and obstacles to complicate their schemes. No two villains share the same path to victory — Jafar searches for the Magic Lamp, Maleficent spreads Curses across her Realm, and Ursula hunts down the Trident and Crown.

Meeple Mountain's review described unboxing the game as "one of the best board gaming experiences I have ever had," noting how easily it drew in non-gamers around the table. Ravensburger's own product description calls it "the definitive Disney strategy game for families, Disney fans, and board game enthusiasts," and the title's six-player support remains one of its standout, distinguishing features within the wider Villainous lineup.

How to Play — Watch First

The Six Villains

How Does It Play?

Each turn, players move their villain to a location on their personal Realm board, performing one or more available actions there — typically playing cards from their hand, vanquishing a hero, gaining Power (the game's universal currency), or "fating" an opponent by drawing two cards from their Fate deck and playing one to complicate their plans. After resolving actions, players refill their hand back to four cards before the turn passes.

Meeple Mountain's in-depth review praised how the game achieves "gentle asymmetry" — distinct enough that every villain feels genuinely different to play, without reaching the steep complexity of fully asymmetric games like Root. The theming is the game's standout strength across nearly every review — Hitherto Coffee & Gaming Parlour noted that out of the villains released so far, "there hasn't been a single piece of artwork that I didn't think matched the art style of the movies precisely," with each location feeling like moving from scene to scene within the actual film.

The most consistent critique, echoed by Meeple Mountain's deeper analysis, concerns visibility of progress: with so many cards in play simultaneously, it can be genuinely difficult to track how close an opponent is to winning, particularly for villains like Prince John and Queen of Hearts whose win conditions are comparatively easy to spot once you know what to look for — creating, in some groups, a slight "snowball" advantage for sharp-eyed players. Despite this, the broad consensus across reviews remains overwhelmingly positive, with the game's accessibility and thematic execution consistently winning over even non-gamers at the table.

Explore the Villainous Universe

The Worst Takes It All is the foundation of an entire ecosystem of expansions and spinoffs, each reviewed in depth on Blue Dragon Board Games.

Rating Breakdown

Pros & Cons

Who Is This Game For?