In Villainous: Wicked to the Core, each player takes control of one of three Disney characters, each a villain from a different Disney film, such as the Evil Queen from Snow White, Hades from Hercules, and Dr. Facilier from The Princess and the Frog. Each player has their own Villain Deck, Fate Deck, Player Board and 3D Character.

During a turn, the active player moves his character to a different location on his player board, performs one or more of the actions visible on that space (often by playing cards from his hand), and then replenishes his hand to four cards . Cards are allies, items, effects and conditions. You must use your cards to fulfill your unique win condition.

One of the actions allows you to choose another player, draw two cards from that player's lot, and then play one of these cards onto that player's board, taking two of the four action spaces on covers one of that player's locations. The fate deck contains heroes, items, and effects from that villain's movie, and these cards allow other players to mess with that particular villain.

Villainous: Wicked to the Core can be played on its own, and the characters can also compete against those in the 2018 Villainous base game.