Today I want to tell you about a couple of super fun games to play with the whole family!

Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert!

These games, created by the same person/company, are very similar in their mechanics, so I figured I could tackle them together in a single post.

Both of these games are cooperative. That means that you and the people you are playing with are playing as a team against the game itself. You are working towards a common goal. Either you all win together, or the game beats you and you all lose together.

Forbidden Island

You are an archeologist searching for treasure with your team but the island is sinking beneath your feet. Can you find the four lost items and escape the island in time, or will you perish beneath the rising floodwaters? Only time will tell!

The “board” is a set of tiles, each one representing a location. You pick a character (each character has a special talent) and move across the tiles, collecting cards to create melds in order to retrieve the treasure.

Each turn, more of the island sinks, so you also have to work to “shore up” locations that are flooded, otherwise parts of the board could be lost forever!

On your turn, you can perform any combination of four actions:

Move (vertically or horizontally)
Shore Up (restore flooded tiles by turning them over)
Give a treasure card to another player (if you are on the same tile)
Capture a treasure (by turning in 4 matching treasure cards IN one of that treasure’s 2 locations)

At the end of your turn, you draw 2 treasure cards, and turn over the appropriate number of flood cards (indicated by the water-level marker). Each flood card corresponds with one of the tiles on the board and causes you to “flood” (flip over to the grayed out side) that tile. If you draw a card for a tile that is already grayed out, you remove that tile and its card from the game. It is now a hole in your island!

You win by collecting all four treasures and making it back to Fool’s Landing where you must get off the island with an Airlift card.

You lose if the waters rise to the skull and crossbones symbol on the water level marker. Or if the island floods in such a way that both locations where you can retrieve one of the treasures are lost before you retrieve that particular treasure. Or if you lose Fool’s Landing and cannot get off the island.

Forbidden Desert

You and your companions have crashed your airship in the middle of a vast desert plagued by sweeping winds. Your airship has been scattered across the sands and you don’t know where they are. You must find the four pieces of the airship before the sands bury you or you run out of water!

As you can see, the set-up is similar, but different. In this game, you are not racing against a sinking island, but against a desert that is being covered in sand!

While this game is definitely a different flavor, game-play itself progresses almost identically. On your turn, you can do 4 actions:

Move
Clear sand (remove sand that has been piling up on top of the tiles)
Excavate (flip over a tile to find the parts of your airship)
Pick up a part (if you have found the part)

There are helpful cards along the way that can help you remove sand more quickly or protect you from the sun, but be careful! Your water is precious and must be conserved, because if even one person runs out of water, you all lose!

The thing that really sets this game apart from Forbidden Island is the storm. A the end of every turn, you flip over cards with arrows that tell you how to move the board around and shift the sands across the tiles. Every part is indicated beneath two different tiles that you must find. Together, those tiles point to one of the parts you are seeking!

Things I Love About These Games

I love that these games are both fun for the whole family. The boxes say 10 and up, but our six-year old can hold his own in both of these games and has even introduced it to a couple of his friends and taught them how to play. Because of the nature of the game being cooperative and the cards in your hand being common knowledge, younger players can join in and get the help they might need when they are learning. There is also very little in the way of needing to read. Other than being able to read what your character’s special ability is and the special Sandbag and Airlift cards, you can easily play with a younger player who can’t read yet and they will be able to follow along.

There is a lot of strategy to both of these games, but you don’t have to come up with the strategy on your own.

There are no dice to roll, so while there is an element of chance with what cards you turn over, it doesn’t feel quite so much like you’re at the mercy of a die-roll.

I enjoy the sort of fast-paced, heart-thumping race against the clock that is a part of both of these games. I also love how the board is different every time and that there are various ways to ramp up the difficulty if you want a little bit more of a challenge (or a LOT more of a challenge!) You can play a different character and learn how to use that character’s special ability.

The artwork for both of these games is quite beautiful. Forbidden Island has a bit of a fantasy feel, while Forbidden Desert is definitely more steampunk. These are just flavors, though, and don’t really change the way the game is played.

Things I Don’t Like

There isn’t much I don’t like about these games. They are a lot of fun. However, I’d say there is a point where they get a little repetitive. There really isn’t any STORY to these games… if you like a game that has a plot, this is not the game you’re looking for.

Which One is Better?

It really depends on what you’re looking for.

Forbidden Island is a bit simpler and quicker. If you’re looking for something kind of fast and fun and a little less intense, I’d recommend Forbidden Island. You can easily sit down and play through this game in 30 minutes (or even less, if everyone playing is well-acquainted with the game-play and rules).

Forbidden Desert is more involved and I’d say slightly more difficult. There’s a bit more going on in the game, a few more things to keep track of, and the way the board rearranges can really kill your strategy at the most unfortunate moments. If you have a bigger group, Forbidden Desert will accommodate more players (2-5), while Forbidden Island only works for 2-4 players. Forbidden Desert is always a longer game, as well (unless you all swiftly die of thirst…). It takes at least 45 minutes to play, and if you are playing with 4-5 players, it can easily take over an hour.

Ratings

Fun Factor

These games are both quite fun. The elements of race-against-the-clock and the nature of working together as a team are balanced well. Both games require some set-up, but it’s pretty quick and easy. I personally prefer a game with a little more story, and it can be easy for a single strategy-minded player to sort of take over the whole game and tell everyone what to do with their turns. (This is often a down-side of cooperative games… or an up-side if you just sort of want to go along for the ride without competing!)

3.5 Dragon Eggs

Production Quality

Production quality of both games is very nice. I especially like the way that Forbidden Desert comes with a little airship that all four parts you are looking for fit nicely into. (That is my 3-year old’s favorite feature as well… he doesn’t want to play the game with us, but he does want to sit at the table with us and play with the airship - this means we have to use coins to represent the parts we find… LOL)! Both games are sturdy (which is important for family games) and have held up well to the kiddos’ tender ministrations.

4 Dragon Eggs

replayability

You can easily play these games over and over again. Due to the nature of the board-made-out-of-tiles that is never quite the same from game to game, and your ability to play as different characters with different special abilities/strengths, you can enjoy these games for many rounds before reaching the end of their enjoyment. As I said, I sometimes feel that these games get a little repetitive, but I do love playing them with my kids.