Forbidden Island Review | Why Families Buy It

Forbidden Island is worth buying as a first cooperative game for families. It supports 2 to 4 players, the box says ages 10 and up, and a game takes about 30 minutes. It is the easiest door into co-op, and it is too light once you know the genre.

Forbidden Island is a cooperative adventure where 2 to 4 adventurers race a sinking island to collect four treasures and escape by helicopter. Matt Leacock designed it and Gamewright published it in 2010. It is the gateway cooperative game for most families, and it still works for adults who have played a hundred heavier games.

I am Spector, a dad to Alex, 7, and Emma, 10. Emma played this at her first family game night and still asks for it when she wants a game where nobody is losing on purpose. That is the whole pitch, and it is a real one.

At a Glance

Best for: Families, couples, and beginners learning their first cooperative game Complexity: Light, weight 1.7 of 5 Interaction: High, the whole table talks every turn Playtime: 20 to 30 mins Age: 10+

Review score: ★★★★★

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Which Cooperative Board Game Should You Buy

Buy this if	Game	Players	Time	Age
Your family has never played a co-op game and you want the shortest possible teach	Forbidden Island	2 to 4	30 min	10+
You have five players, or your group wants real decisions	Forbidden Desert	2 to 5	About 45 min	10+
You want a drier sequel with a harsher timer	Forbidden Jungle	2 to 5	About 45 min	10+
You want a light game with a much bigger decision space	Pandemic	2 to 4	45 to 60 min	8+
It is just the two of you and you want no board to lose	Sky Team	2	About 20 min	12+

If you are still torn between the Forbidden games specifically, our Forbidden Island vs Desert vs Sky comparison is the honest breakdown. Forbidden Desert is the better game. Forbidden Island is the easier door into it.

✓ Five minute teach, 30 minute sessions, four difficulty levels, a real sense of shared tension, a small price, and it works for 2 to 4 players ✗ Four turns in you may know the ending, luck decides more games than skill, and the box runs out of tension fast once you know it ⚠ Skip this if: You already play Pandemic or Spirit Island, you want heavy strategy, or you lose badly when a cooperative game ends in defeat

What Is Actually in the Forbidden Island Box

The Forbidden Island box holds 24 double sided island tiles, a 28 card treasure deck, a separate 24 card flood deck, 6 adventurer cards, 6 wooden pawns, 4 treasure figurines, a water meter, and a water level marker.

The card count is the thing people misremember, so here is the whole thing. There are 58 cards in the game, and they are split across three decks:

Treasure deck, 28 cards. 5 each of the 4 treasures, which is 20, plus 3 Waters Rise, 3 Helicopter Lift, and 2 Sandbags.
Flood deck, 24 cards. These only ever hurt you.
Adventurer deck, 6 cards. One per adventurer.

The island is built from the 24 tiles as a 4 by 4 square with 2 extra tiles on each side. You flip 6 of them to the flooded side during setup, one for each of the top 6 flood cards drawn. That is why round one feels faster than you expect.

Each treasure has a figurine and two possible island tiles, so there are 8 capturable tiles:

Figurine	Cards needed	The two tiles
The Earth Stone	4 Earth cards	Temple of the Moon or Temple of the Sun
The Statue of the Wind	4 Wind cards	Whispering Garden or Howling Garden
The Crystal of Fire	4 Fire cards	Cave of Embers or Cave of Shadows
The Ocean’s Chalice	4 Water cards	Coral Palace or Tidal Palace

One detail that calms a lot of first time parents: there are only 5 of each treasure card in the deck. A full set of 4 leaves exactly one spare. You can run short, but you can never be stranded for a set.

How to Play Forbidden Island

Each turn has three parts, in this order. Take your time with this, the whole game hangs off step three.

Take up to 3 actions. It can be 0, 1, or 2. The four actions are moving, shoring up a tile, giving a treasure card to a player on your tile, or capturing a treasure by discarding 4 matching cards.
Draw 2 treasure cards. Hands are face up, so everyone can help you plan. You may hold 5 cards and must discard down immediately if you ever hold 6.
Draw flood cards equal to the number on the water meter. Each card either flips its tile to the flooded side, or removes that tile from the game entirely if it was already flooded.

That third step is the game. The meter starts wherever your difficulty setting puts it, and every Waters Rise card you draw pushes the marker up one tick, which means more flood cards for every player from that point on.

Two rules people rarely hear until they need them. It is legal to start the game standing on a flooded tile, and you may capture a treasure while standing on a flooded tile.

The 3 Helicopter Lift and 2 Sandbag cards are special action cards. They cost no action, you can play them on any turn including somebody else’s, and if you are ever forced to discard one you are allowed to use its power first.

The Four Ways to Lose in Forbidden Island

There are exactly four ways to lose Forbidden Island: both tiles for a treasure sink before you collect that treasure, Fools’ Landing sinks, a player is stranded on a tile that sinks with nowhere to swim, or the water level reaches the skull and crossbones.

The last one surprises most first time players, because the water meter looks decorative. It is not.

The stranded player loss is the one that stings. When a tile sinks, a pawn on it has to swim to an adjacent tile that is still part of the island, flooded or not. If it cannot, that pawn is gone and the game is over. The Diver swims to the nearest tile instead, the Explorer swims diagonally, and the Pilot flies anywhere at all. That is why the Diver is a strong pick at 2 players.

Note the first loss condition precisely. You lose if both tiles for a treasure sink before you collect it. If only one goes, you are still fine. Teams that treat a single flooded treasure tile as a crisis waste actions they needed elsewhere.

How to Win Forbidden Island

Collect all four treasures, move every pawn onto Fools’ Landing, then have one player discard a Helicopter Lift card. You need that card to win, and teams regularly finish with no Helicopter Lift in hand, which feels unfair the first time and obvious afterwards.

You are allowed to win while standing on a flooded Fools’ Landing. That is the one mercy in the game.

The Six Adventurers and Why They Matter

Explorer moves and shores up diagonally, the best solo operator.
Pilot can move to any tile once per turn for 1 action, the best escape runner.
Navigator can move another player up to 2 adjacent tiles per action, the best support piece.
Diver moves through flooded and missing tiles and swims to the nearest tile when stranded, the best rescue piece and a strong 2 player pick.
Engineer shores up 2 tiles for 1 action, the best defender.
Messenger gives treasure cards without needing to stand on the same tile, the best distributor.

Your mix of adventurers changes the game more than the difficulty setting does. My teaching guide for Forbidden Island has the short version for a first game with kids.

Difficulty Levels and Why You Keep Losing

The water meter has four starting settings: Novice, Normal, Elite, and Legendary. The setting chooses where the marker starts, and the number on the meter is how many flood cards every player draws each turn. The rulebook recommends Novice for a first cooperative game, and that is where most families should start.

Here is the part that confuses everybody, including online. The rulebook does not print a number for any setting, and there are only 3 Waters Rise cards in the whole treasure deck. So how does anyone ever reach the skull?

Through deck cycling. With 4 players holding up to 5 cards each, only 8 cards are left sitting in the deck. The Waters Rise cards come round fast, and every time the treasure discard pile is reshuffled into a new deck they come round again. Each pass adds another tick, and that is how the skull actually gets reached. It is not two cards and the game is over. It is a slow squeeze that most groups only feel at Elite and Legendary.

Once Novice feels easy, our Forbidden Island advanced challenges cover the sharper ways to play.

Forbidden Island Strategy Priorities That Win Games

In rough order of importance, and this ordering is the same advice the official community tips give:

Shore up tiles that are about to sink, not tiles that just flooded. A flooded tile is one step from gone.
Capture a treasure the moment you hold four matching cards. Every card you return to the discard pile is a card that comes back round, which means more turns at the current flood rate.
Decide who collects, not who has the most cards. The player closest to a capturable tile should be the one building the set, and everyone else feeds them.
Give cards away freely when the Pilot or Messenger can reach the collector.
Use Sandbags before the flood card is revealed. Once the matching card is face up, a Sandbag does nothing.
Hold Helicopter Lift cards for the escape, and count them as part of your win plan from turn one.
Treat a Waters Rise card as useful. It returns the flood discard pile to the top of the deck, which hands you a stretch of tiles you have already seen.

Forbidden Island vs the Other Cooperative Games

Game	Players	Time	Age	Best for	Main difference
Forbidden Island	2 to 4	About 30 mins	10+	A first cooperative game	Lightest rules, fastest teach, luckiest ending
Forbidden Desert	2 to 5	About 45 mins	10+	The best game in the series	Personal water level, shifting board, more rules
Forbidden Sky	2 to 5	About 60 mins	10+	A puzzlier escape with more planning	Lightbulb placement and a shared circuit instead of treasure collecting
Forbidden Jungle	2 to 5	About 45 mins	10+	A tighter, harsher sequel	Shrinking locations and a more punishing timer
Pandemic	2 to 4	45 to 60 mins	8+	Heavier cooperative strategy	Real planning, deck building, tougher at 2 players
Sky Team	2	20 to 30 mins	12+	Two player couples and quick sessions	Dice placement only, no board to lose
Flash Point: Fire Rescue	2 to 6	30 to 45 mins	10+	Groups who want a shared crisis	Everyone works their own fire, no island to sink

Player counts, times, and age guidance are the current edition values. Check the box for your copy, because regional printings differ.

If you have played this one to death and want a different kind of shared crisis, our Grizzled vs Forbidden Island comparison is a good next read.

Who Should Buy Forbidden Island

Families who have never played a cooperative game.
Mixed age groups, including kids under 10 playing with an adult.
Anyone who wants a game where nobody is deliberately ruining the evening.
Parents looking for a 30 minute game that fits after dinner.
Groups who want a cheap, reliable filler that is still a real game.

Who Should Skip Forbidden Island

Players who already enjoy Pandemic or Spirit Island and want more depth.
Anyone who finds a cooperative loss frustrating rather than funny.
Groups of 5 or 6. Forbidden Island tops out at 4, but Forbidden Desert, Forbidden Sky, and Forbidden Jungle all seat 5, so one of those is your real answer.
Players who want long sessions. It is over in about half an hour.
Solos. Two players is the minimum, and three is better.

What Forbidden Island Teaches Players

The interesting part of this game is social rather than mechanical. Because cards are public and actions are limited, the table has to narrate plans out loud, and one confident child can quietly run the whole team unless you make space for everyone.

Our Forbidden Island teamwork lessons break that part down.

Our Family's Take

We have played this dozens of times, and the game I remember best is not a win. We were one tile from the helicopter, Fools’ Landing went under, and my wife laughed hardest. We have also started timing our best escape, which turns a losing co-op game into a score chase.

Frequently Asked Questions About Forbidden Island

How many players does Forbidden Island need?

Forbidden Island supports 2 to 4 players. Two players works but is thin, and 3 or 4 players is where the special abilities and the shared planning feel worth having.

What age is Forbidden Island for?

The box says ages 10 and up. Many families play it with children aged 7 and 8 alongside an adult, because the rules are simple, but younger kids often struggle with managing their public card hand.

How long does a game of Forbidden Island last?

A game of Forbidden Island takes about 30 minutes. Higher difficulty settings can stretch toward 45 minutes because the team has to dig its way out of a rising water level.

How do you win Forbidden Island?

Collect all four treasures, move every pawn to Fools’ Landing, and have one player discard a Helicopter Lift card. You may win while standing on a flooded Fools’ Landing tile.

How do you lose Forbidden Island?

There are four ways to lose: both tiles for a treasure such as the Earth Stone, the Statue of the Wind, the Crystal of Fire, or the Ocean’s Chalice sink before you collect that treasure, Fools’ Landing sinks, a player is stranded on a tile that sinks, or the water level reaches the skull and crossbones.

Is Forbidden Island good for beginners?

Yes. Forbidden Island is one of the best first cooperative games. It teaches in about five minutes, has one page of real decisions, and the Novice difficulty setting is designed for a first attempt.

Is Forbidden Island better than Forbidden Desert?

Forbidden Desert is the better game, with more depth and support for 5 players. Forbidden Island is the easier introduction. If your group already enjoys cooperative games, buy Desert.

Why do we keep losing Forbidden Island?

Most losses come from holding four of the same treasure card instead of capturing it, and from letting Fools’ Landing flood. Shoring up tiles before they sink and saving a Helicopter Lift card for the escape fixes most of it.

Can you play Forbidden Island with 2 players?

Yes, 2 players is the supported minimum. It is more manageable than 4 because there is less coordination, and the Explorer, Pilot, or Diver become stronger picks because there is no third and fourth player to cover that role.

Does Forbidden Island have expansions?

Yes, there is one official expansion. Forbidden Island: The Forbidden Expansion, also sold as La Isla Prohibida: La Expansión Prohibida, came out in 2014 and adds a fifth treasure the whole table has to move together. It was a Spanish market release, so it is much harder to find than the base game. Most families get more replay from the four difficulty settings and different adventurer mixes instead.