Could this be the happiest place on Earth?

Disney’s crossover battle arena game will take you on a magic carpet ride, just mind you don’t fall off.

2-4 Players 35 minutes Age 13+

Designer: Sean Fletcher

Artist: Patrick Spaziante

Publisher: The Op

A Whole New World!

Disney Sorcerer’s Arena: Epic Alliances* is the media giant’s foray into the popular mixed IP battle genre which has seen a recent surge in popularity with the Unmatched and Funkoverse series of games. When I first heard about Sorcerer’s Arena I had my doubts, especially as it was based on the mobile game of the same name. However, this isn’t the first time a mobile game has received a physical board game implementation, Fallout Shelter is one such game and is, by most accounts, a quality title in its own right. With that in mind, I decided to give Sorcerer’s Arena a chance and to my surprise found myself not only enjoying it, but going so far as to look up further expansions which is a sure sign I’m invested in a game. So what does Sorcerer’s Arena do to set it apart from its rivals? Disney’s impressive roster of beloved characters for a start!

The Happiest Place on Earth

An unlikely pairing, but they make it work.

Like Dice Throne, Unmatched and Funkoverse. Disney Sorcerer’s Arena: Epic Alliances involves taking popular characters with a unique set of skills (I’m still waiting on the Liam Neeson expansion for Unmatched), forming a team and pitting them against your opponent’s hand picked rivals. The game itself takes place on a hex grid arena (more on that below) and involves anywhere from two to four heroes or villains per team. There’s no distinction between the two, so it’s perfectly acceptable to team Maleficent together with Ariel or Aladdin, we’re all one big happy Disney family after all. Each player shuffles their characters’ individual decks into one combined battle deck, places a coloured ring denoting their team around the base of their acrylic figures to track their hit points then positions them on one of the starting points on the board. Each character has a standard move 2 or attack 2 action or they may play a character-specific card to activate a special move, attack or power. Each character also has a unique ability on their character board which adds a bit more flavour. Players pit their fighters against one another until the game ends by either one team reaching 20 VP or when a team has no cards left in their deck when they are required to draw.

Reach for the Sky!

One wields unimaginable power and the other is Mickey Mouse.

On the surface there’s nothing particularly ground breaking about the combat system, but what Sorcerer’s Arena does do, it does well. Moving and attacking are standard actions so a character will always have something they can do, but the more tactical elements come from the character powers and cards. For example, one of Ariel’s abilities, allows her to draw more cards from her deck which is themed around her love of finding and collecting thingamabobs whereas Sorcerer’s Apprentice Mickey has the ability to summon brooms to bolster his attacks. Characters can even use discarded cards as resources to level up, at which point they flip over their character cards to reveal a new special ability. Each character feels thematic, well balanced and has something to offer a team, you’ve got the tanks, like Sulley, the supports, like Ariel, the heavy hitters like Gaston and so on. Finding the best combination to round out your team can be as enticing as the game itself. While this core set gives you eight characters to choose from, Disney/Pixar have literally hundreds of characters to draw from. There are already two character expansions either available now or on the way with more in the pipeline.

No One Hits Like Gaston…

The gameplay feels clean and concise, combat is approachable for younger players or for those who just want to play without too much heavy handed strategy and the cards state their function clearly with consistent symbology across all components. The ability for characters to level up by using discarded cards is a great secondary use of a spent resource, and making characters burn these cards from the rest of the game means they’re no longer available to be reshuffled into the deck adding an extra level of strategic depth.

You’re Mocking Me Aren’t You?

If I have one complaint it would be the board itself. In preparation for this review, I played the mobile app version of the game for comparison. There I was greeted with arenas consisting of fantastical locales like Ariel’s underwater kingdom, a tropical island from The Pirates of the Caribbean and many more wondrous, character themed locations. Imagine then my disappointment when I unfolded the board to find a rather bland two toned hex grid, no obstacles, no chokepoints, no terrain. It felt unimaginative and underwhelming considering the creative options the designers had available to them. I imagine they will release new arenas in the future, but as a first impression, this left me wanting. If you’re wanting to get people’s buy in to a collectable game every aspect of the production needs to shine.

Whozits and Whatzits Galore!

An impressive line up… and Mickey Mouse.

What is shiny are the gorgeous acrylic figures. Make no mistake, I love me some miniatures in my gaming but if more games began to include vibrant double-sided playing pieces such as these, I think I could definitely get on board! Each figure looks exactly as you would expect and models their appearance from their respective animation or from the mobile game. They basically amount to full figure character art depicting the front and back of each character sandwiched between two pieces of form-fitting crystal clear acrylic. I love the visual aspects of gaming, and having full colour characters on the board is a pleasant change from the grey unpainted plastic of most miniatures games. Of course I like to paint those at times, but it makes a nice change not to have to, especially if you’re playing this with your kids and they want to see their favourite character in living colour. The remaining components are functional, but nothing to write home about. The card stock for the decks is a tad thinner than I like and they lack a linen finish, but the art work on each card is character specific so using decks from different characters will provide some variety. So in terms of overall component quality, its a mixed bag, but the acrylic figures won me over.

Let it Go…

Hit points are tracked by the coloured rings on the bases.

The potential for Disney Sorcerer’s Arena: Epic Alliances is only limited by The Op’s licence agreement and the popularity of the game justifying any further content. My guess is, we’ve only seen the beginning. The two character expansions each contain three new characters to add to your rosters and the character choices give you some idea of just how endlessly expandable this game is. I can foresee a time when gamers will field a team consisting of the cast of Frozen, or a line up of the greatest Disney villains. I was well entertained and playing with the family will be a blast! Whatever your feelings on the Mouse may be, this title has great potential and I’m excited to see where they take things next. (Better boards please!)

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*Review copy kindly provided by Mighty Ape.

Disney Sorcerer's Arena: Epic Alliances Review