Axis of Villains game

The fun part of visiting friends is playing the games they own, I love visiting Tara and trying some of their games. Especially when we tried Axis of Villains, and if you’ve got a superhero fan, then you should pick up Axis of Villains. Find out why as I tell you all about playing the Axis of Villains game.

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Axis of Villains game concept

You play members of the Justice League up on the Watchtower. The villains have all teamed up and are coming up to take over the Watchtower (the Justice League base). It’s a cooperative game, and those are always a big hit in my house. I opted not to buy our own copy of Axis of Villains because it plays very similar to Castle Panic.

How to play Axis of Villains game

You start off picking a character. I, of course, chose Batman, the best superhero around. Each hero has a different special ability, like other cooperative games, it reminds me of Forbidden Desert, in that aspect.

You get a hand of 5 cards (I believe, I’m trying to remember this from playing a year or two ago).

Just like Castle Panic, on your turn, you play however many cards you have in your hand to defeat villains.

At the end of your turn, you draw some “Bad Guy cards,” I’m pretty sure that’s not their official name, but that’s what we ended up calling them. It’s pretty much always bad stuff. The shown example puts all of the bad guys you’ve already defeated back into the game. AHHHHH!

After you’ve drawn the new bad guys, the ones still on the board advance one space. If they reach the watchtower, it’s game over. You’ve lost.

Does Axis of Villains sound like Castle Panic?

I’m sure this sounds really familiar, if you read my Castle Panic post, that’s because it’s the same game, to a point.

Here’s how it’s different.

You have a character, and your character is moving around in the space outside of the Watchtower defeating the villains. Also, every card can be used multiple ways. With Castle Panic, if the monster is not in a specific color square, or ring of the castle, the card is useless to you. They solved this problem in Axis of Villains by giving each card an ability for each color arc. That’s a huge help.

If we didn’t already own Castle Panic and several expansions, I’d probably buy this game, but the gameplay is too similar for me to want both games.

Final Call on Axis of Villains cooperative game

Axis of Villains is a good solid cooperative game. It’s got some fun mechanics, and I like the ability to play specific superheroes. Each heroes’ ability makes sense for who they are, and adds to the gameplay, making each one useful to choose, but no one being overwhelming.

Unless you’re a super fan of this type of cooperative game, pick the theme you like better and go with it.