Ravensburger Enters Phase 5 With New Marvel Villainous Expansion
Updated: May 2, 2023
Here’s everything you need to know about the new game.
Marvel has finally entered Phase 5 with the release of Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania — and they’re not the only ones. Ravensburger, the award-winning game company, is adding a new expandalone game to its Marvel Villainous collection, which includes a few familiar faces from the most recent Marvel shows and movies.
Marvel Villainous: Twisted Ambitions allows you to play as Doctor Octopus (Spider-Man), Kang the Conqueror (Ant-Man), and Titania (She-Hulk).
In the strategy game, each player will compete to complete unique objectives for their chosen character.
Doctor Octopus must complete five schemes, which are cards played from his hand with specific tasks that include things like defeating Spider-Man, having a specific number of Items or Allies, or paying a specific amount of Power. Titania must reach Strength 8 on her Strength Tracker to become Empowered, which occurs by vanquishing Heroes, then defeat She-Hulk. Kang the Conqueror must conquer four locations outside of his Domain — he does this by placing Variants of himself in other Villains’ Domains and defeating them.
Marvel Villainous: Twisted Ambitions joins the robust Marvel Villainous line-up, which already includes Thanos, Hela, Ultron, Killmonger, Taskmaster, Loki, M.O.D.O.K., Madame Masque, and Venom. As with all Villainous games, Marvel Villainous: Twisted Ambitions can be played alone or with any other Marvel Villainous game.
Marvel Villainous: Twisted Ambitions is currently available at Target priced at $29.99. If you purchase from Target, you’ll receive the Target exclusive Doctor Octopus chrome mover. Marvel Villainous: Infinite Power, Marvel Villainous: Mischief & Malice, and Marvel Villainous: We are Venom can all be purchased at Target or Amazon.
Marvel Villainous: Twisted Ambitions Review
After playing so many Villainous games, it’s hard to not compare the new characters with past ones. Kang’s Variants reminded me of Loki’s objectives, Doctor Octopus’ Tentacles Item is like Maleficent’s Raven Item, and Titania’s “defeat She-Hulk to win” objective is similar to so many other villains.
However, as always, Ravensburger knocks it out of the park with its diverse gameplay. Despite the fact that I was feeling deja vu for a few turns, Marvel Villainous: Twisted Ambitions is its own unique game with new (and fun) cards and actions.
During my first game, I played as Kang the Conqueror and my opponent played as Doctor Octopus. At first, I thought Kang had a strong upper hand and a much easier objective than Doc Ock, but you truly never know what a Fate card is going to throw at you.
I was relieved to know that no character was more powerful than the other one, which we have seen happen in the past (think Loki or Thanos). Our game was evenly matched and even though I had two locations conquered in the first 15 minutes of gameplay, I lost to Doc Ock.
It goes without saying, but the cards, game board, and character mover designs are stellar (as always). And, Marvel Villainous: Twisted Ambitions has slotted itself into my favorite Villainous game rotation for sure.
What's next for Ravensburger? Previous rumors have speculated that the character on the back of the instructions alludes to the character in the next box. Loki was on Marvel Villainous: Infinite Power’s instructions and Doc Ock was on Marvel Villainous: Mischief & Malice’s instructions. Marvel Villainous: Twisted Ambitions’ instructions feature Venom, which is slightly strange because Ravensburger released a single character expansion with Venom late last year.
Maybe this means we’ll get a three-character box with Venom? Or, maybe the photo is supposed to be Carnage. Or, maybe this is the final Marvel Villainous game in the series. We hope not because there are still some iconic villains that’d we love to see — give us Ronan and Red Skull!