Disney Villainous: Sugar and Spite Review

boardgamequest.com:

Villainous is probably the worst game I like. It has elements, such as “take that”, I normally don’t enjoy in games, yet I have fun playing them. I think it’s because of the asymmetric style and variety of characters, familiar though sinister. I’m always excited and impressed to see what approach the designers take to each character: how will they play compared to those that came before? How can they be different enough without changing the core of the game?

Today I’m looking at the latest set in the Disney Villainous line, Sugar and Spite, featuring Wreck-It Ralph’s King Candy and the Jungle Book’s Shere Khan. This set can serve as a two-player standalone, but the characters can compete against any of the other villains in the Disney Villainous repertoire. Listed playtime is 40 minutes.

If you’re unfamiliar with the rules of Villainous, I’ll first cover those briefly. Each player board depicts that villain’s “realm”, and each realm is made up of five locations. On your turn, move your villain pawn to a new location and take any or all of the actions depicted there. Once you’ve carried out all actions you care to take, draw back up to a hand of four cards and your turn ends. The first villain to accomplish their unique goal wins the game. If you want to know the full ins and outs, check out Tony’s review of Villainous here.

The characters in this expansion, like all of the Villains, have their own unique playstyle and ruleset. Shere Khan’s objective is to defeat Mowgli (who can be found in his fate deck) while there are no fire tokens in his realm. Fire tokens are unique to Shere Khan and are typically placed through fate cards; they cover specific actions in a location, preventing him from taking that action. He has ways to remove these fire tokens through the use of his cards.

King Candy is the first Villain to use a different board layout and method of movement. Rather than having locations, his player board depicts a race track. On his turn, King Candy can move