Marvel Villainous Announced

Man, with all the love both Villainous and Prospero Hall get around here, I'd have figured people would be freaking out over this. I'm really psyched. My 10 y/o is bananas for Marvel comics right now as well as embarrassed about how into Disney he used to be, so I'm glad I've waited as long as I have on pulling the Villainous trigger.

I love Villainous, despite not really being a Disney person. But I have yet to convince almost anyone among my various gaming groups that it's a worthwhile endeavor. I think it suffers from the Root problem, which is that people are paying so much attention to what they have to do that they're not really getting a feel for what other people are doing, which leads to it being derided as "multiplayer solitaire" and/or makes people feel like someone won without anyone else able to affect that victory, and so on. If you can get people to play multiple games, you get over that hump, but getting the same people to play one game (of anything) is an ongoing challenge.

On the Marvel end... eh. I stopped reading superhero comics almost 30 years ago because the majority of it felt played out to me. I've now been through two dozen Marvel films and feel very little compulsion to ever see another one (I haven't even seen Endgame.) Been there, done that. I'll gladly keep following the Disney game (I think the inclusion of Steamboat Willie and the art approach they've used for him is kinda brilliant), but I really don't have much interest in Thanos, et al.

I grew up enjoying superhero comics, especially Marvel, and for an extended period of time, the medium was maturing with me. But eventually the price of single issues became outrageous, and I cut back to nearly zero. I would love it if somebody finally did a great superhero board game or card game, but I have been disappointed every time so far. For what it's worth, there is some interesting and experimental stuff happening in Marvel comics these days. Check out this wild photo of a page from the latest issue of New Mutants:

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I am totally onboard with this. As opposed to Marvel United, which looks like complete shit. And this will be like $100+ less.

Hope that the other villains are Doctor Doom and Dormammu.

Jackwraith wrote: I love Villainous, despite not really being a Disney person. But I have yet to convince almost anyone among my various gaming groups that it's a worthwhile endeavor. I think it suffers from the Root problem, which is that people are paying so much attention to what they have to do that they're not really getting a feel for what other people are doing, which leads to it being derided as "multiplayer solitaire" and/or makes people feel like someone won without anyone else able to affect that victory, and so on. If you can get people to play multiple games, you get over that hump, but getting the same people to play one game (of anything) is an ongoing challenge.

I've only played Villainous one time, but felt no compulsion to play it more or go out and get it. My issue with it was precisely that it's kind of hard to accurately gauge who's close to winning unless you've played a bunch, and even then your only way of interacting is by the "take that" cards which is one of my least favorite ways of resolving player conflicts. The shared board and visible scoring track in Root at least give you a bit more to talk about and interact with when it comes to the other players, even if you're new.

Adding Marvel into the mix isn't going to suddenly change my mind either, most likely.

I played Villainous probably 3 or 4 times with my family, and no one ever liked it. In the last game of it that we played, I was ... I think Captain Hook? I just remember that I had to find a specific card that would "unlock" a region on my board. Once that I was done, I could then begin working on my victory goals. But I couldn't do anything until that region was unlocked. I spent the entire game watching my opponents work diligently toward their goals while I churned through my deck, trying to find the one card I needed. The game ended before I found it. I spent 45 minutes playing a game where I advanced 0% toward winning. That's not a fun time. That game got sold off after that, because screw that.

That being said, I think rebranding the game with Marvel villains is a very smart bit of marketing cross-pollination. I would fully expect a Star Wars version to come out next year.