BOSS CHARACTERS
The difference between a villain and a hero character on the character select screen might be subtle to newer players, but to any veterans of Disney Rumble, its very clear.
In the top-right corner of every villain’s select portrait lies a small skull. When the skull is pressed, their portrait takes on a more malicious stance as their evil laugh bellows. This event triggers a villain’s boss mode! When a villain has their boss mode activated, the game automatically switches the mode to teams and pits everybody else against them. You may use boss mode villains in any way you wish, but they are meant to be played 3v1 – the only time you have any hope of defeating them.
Once the game begins with a boss mode villain pitted against a team, the stage selection phase is skipped and the players are taken to the villain’s homestage. In many cases, the villain will have special interactions with the stage – Captain Hook will be able to use the cannons on his ship to attack, for example. Villains who don’t have a homestage, like Cruella, will simply be taken to Bald Mountain.
This doesn’t mean you can’t throw out Boss Villains in more casual matches, of course. You can simply turn off the teams in order to throw them into a casual free-for-all or 1v1 or whatever you please. A fun strategy here is to pit Boss Villains against each other. At any time when a Boss Villain is activated and not in a 3v1 situation, you can select stages normally.
Boss Mode can only be triggered in multiplayer modes, unable to be used in minigames and similar forms of gameplay.
Disney Rumble 
Oh, so that’s what the Villain’s Christmas thing means? Cool!
So, the boss character may have more than one interaction with the homestage? Like can Hook use his cannonballs AND be able to summon his crew or whatever? I would assume there are quite a few ways the villain can interact with their stage to really wreck havoc.
By: Anonymous on December 21, 2014
at 2:20 am
Villain’s Christmas is an ongoing thing, though this is the central focus of the update. Expect a few more posts during the next couple of days!
Every character who has a homestage will be able to access interactions with it (some like Cruella, as mentioned, won’t have any interactions at all) so long as it’s organic to the stage and the character. While I haven’t worked out exactly how Hook’s Ship would be laid out, both of those things would make sense for him to use on that stage, so it’s likely they’d both end up in his boss mode writeup. Each character is mostly focused around set buffs rather than stage interactions, however.
By: Davidreamcatcha on December 21, 2014
at 3:12 am
Was Darth Vader the last of those Christmas posts?
By: Anonymous on January 5, 2015
at 8:45 pm
I was trying to get Ratigan out on Christmas Eve, but then I looked at his set and realized it kind of needed to be retooled. (In it’s current form, it’s somewhat similar to Oogie but with a different gimmick). Gonna try and come up with some interesting hooks there before I release it – quality over quantity
By: Davidreamcatcha on January 5, 2015
at 8:48 pm
Fair enough. I also agree with quality over quantity.
By: Anonymous on January 5, 2015
at 9:09 pm
While I personally don’t see the appeal of this mode, I’m glad that the villains get some love in this game, unlike in Smash Bros.
By: Anonymous on December 22, 2014
at 1:30 am