Forbidden Island Board Game Review

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By: Gamewright     Players: 2-4     Ages: 10+     Time: 30 min     Designer: Matt Leacock

Forbidden Island is a 30-minute cooperative game for 2–4 players aged 10 and up in which the whole table wins or loses together, racing to grab four treasures off an island that is sinking a tile at a time. It is the game we hand people who have never played a modern board game, because the rules fit on one page and the tension does not need explaining. Fifteen years after release it is still the cheapest, shortest, most reliable way to find out whether your family likes cooperative games at all — and if the answer is yes, Gamewright built three more on the same chassis.

Legend has it that an ancient empire known as the Archeans used four sacred treasures to control fire, wind, water, and earth. These treasures were kept hidden on a Forbidden Island to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.

In the centuries since the mysterious collapse of the Archean empire, the Island remained undiscovered…until now! Will you and your team of fearless adventurers discover Forbidden Island and capture four sacred treasures before it sinks beneath your feet?

Will you and your team claim the treasure and escape the perilous paradise in time, or sink to the bottom of the ocean with it?

About Forbidden Island: A Perilous Paradise?

Forbidden Island Board Game is a cooperative game that was developed by Matt Leacock, a renowned cooperative game master, and published by Gamewright in 2010. It was received well, winning several awards upon release and being nominated for the Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) in 2011. It has since spawned several sequels which mostly retained the mechanics of the original, but swapped settings to a desert, a storm-battered sky platform, and an alien jungle.

The game sees players take on different roles and work their way around a mysterious island looking for hidden treasures, all while the island sinks around them. Players will move across game tiles, search for treasure, and shore up game tiles to prevent them from flooding, all in order to try and escape with the four treasures needed in order to win the game. Players will need to work together and cooperate with each other in order to succeed in escaping the island before it sinks!

Set-Up Forbidden Island Board Game

 

 

The game comes with 24 double-sided Island tiles which need to be shuffled and placed in a grid as dictated by the rulebook. This will form the Island everyone will play on for the game. The game comes with three decks of cards: Flood cards, Treasure cards, and Adventurer cards. Once the Flood deck is shuffled, the top six cards are drawn and placed face up. These indicate the tiles that have already been flooded, and players must flip the corresponding tile over to its opposite side. Everyone is randomly dealt an adventurer card, which will be the role that the player takes on for the game. Each adventurer will have specific abilities they can use throughout the game and will start on a specific island tile. Everyone is also given two treasure cards to start the game with, which are kept face-up for all to see. Lastly, the water level is set to indicate how high the water level is and represents the level of difficulty everyone wants the game to be.

 

How To Play Forbidden Island Board Game

On a player’s turn, they are allowed to take up to three actions. They may take less, including no actions if they wish, but three is the maximum. They can select from the following options:

• Move

• Shore Up

• Give a Treasure Card

• Capture a Treasure

Players can use one action to move to an adjacent tile and may move up, down, left, or right, but not diagonally. Players can move to a flooded tile but not onto or over a space where a tile is missing. Some roles allow players to excuse these rules; for example, the explorer can move diagonally, and the diver can move through missing or flooded tiles.

Players may choose to shore up an adjacent tile, or the island tile their pawn is currently on, and flip it so it is no longer flooded. Like movement, players can only do this if the tile is up, down, left, or right from their current position, but some roles allow this rule to be bent.

Players can give a Treasure card or cards to another player if both pawns are on the same island tile, and it costs one action per card that is gifted.

Capturing a Treasure requires a player to have four matching Treasure cards and to have their pawn on the corresponding tile for that particular treasure. Once on the correct tile, a player can discard the four treasure cards and receive the figurine of that treasure as a prize. This do-or-die mission requires pulse-pounding maneuvers to ensure success.

After a player takes their turn, they can draw two Treasure cards from the deck. There are a few different kinds of cards within this deck, but as per above, players will want to try and locate the Treasure cards in order to ultimately collect the corresponding figure and draw closer to winning the game. Within the deck are also a few Action cards that will help the players if they’re in a sticky situation. These can be played at any time and don’t require an action to use them. There are also Waters Rise cards hidden within the Treasure deck and as the name implies, they are not good! Drawing one of these will cause the water level on the meter to go up a level, meaning more flood cards are drawn per turn (more on that in a moment) and any previously discarded Flood cards are shuffled back into the deck.

After Treasure cards are drawn, players must now draw from the Flood deck. The number of cards drawn each turn is equal to the current water meter level. For each card drawn, the matching Island tile must be flipped over to its flooded side. If the tile is already flooded, it instead sinks and is removed from the game! After this, the play continues to the next player.

For reference, the tin holds 58 playing cards, 24 island tiles, 6 pawns, 4 treasure figurines, and the water meter with its marker — Gamewright stock number 317. That is the entire game; there are no expansions for any title in the Forbidden series.

Teamwork is paramount in order to be successful in Forbidden Island as everyone wins or loses together. Winning relies on not only getting all four Treasures and everyone making their way to Fools’ Landing, but someone must also use a Helicopter Lift card to safely transport everyone off the island. However, there are many ways players can lose the game: if Fools’ Landing sinks, for example, there is no way to escape the game. Players will need to work and plan together in order to avoid losing the game. Predicting what cards might be drawn from the decks, knowing when to shore up or move on from certain tiles, and not being afraid to trade cards with others are all important factors to consider. Not only that but understanding how and when to use each player’s special abilities is crucial in making the moves that will impact the flow of the rest of the game.

The Forbidden Series: Choosing the Right Game for You

The Forbidden series offers four distinct adventures, each escalating in complexity and introducing new challenges.

The nice thing is that if your family loves this game system you can grow with it, by buying the other games in the series to keep the game fresh and challenging. It’s not necessary to play them all, of course, and you can always move on to other games and systems if you prefer, but having the familiarity of the original system from Forbidden Island but with more complicated mechanics allows you to introduce new ideas and dive into some really interesting challenges – challenges that might be much more intimidating outside of the familiar system. I think you’ll be surprised at the complexity your family will be able to take on.

I really like games that kids and families can grow with, and though the escalating mechanisms aren’t all in the same box (like with Harry Potter the Deck Building Game, which we value for a similar reason) having that option is very valuable.

Here are the different games in the series and what level they are aimed at.

Forbidden Island — 2–4 players · 10+ · 30 min

This is the original game in the series and serves as a great entry point for new players, inviting them to join a team of fearless adventurers. The mechanics are relatively straightforward, focusing on teamwork and strategy to collect treasures and escape from the sinking island. It’s perfect for families and younger players looking to enjoy a cooperative experience without being overwhelmed by overly complicated rules. It is also the only game in the series that caps at four players — the three sequels all seat five.

Forbidden Desert — 2–5 players · 10+ · 45 min

In the second game, players find themselves in a desert, searching for parts of a legendary flying machine while battling sandstorms and dehydration. This installment is slightly more challenging than Forbidden Island due to added mechanics like collecting water, navigating shifting sands, and assembling the flying machine. It caters to those who are ready for a bit more complexity and enjoy additional layers of strategy. It runs about fifteen minutes longer than Island and, like Island, sits in Gamewright’s back catalog rather than its current line — still stocked widely, but no longer a game the publisher is actively pushing.

Forbidden Sky — 2–5 players · 10+ · 60 min — out of print

This version takes to the skies, where players must connect electrical circuits to launch a rocket before a powerful storm strikes. Forbidden Sky involves a new level of spatial reasoning and adds a real electrical circuit you assemble on the table — Gamewright broke a long-standing house rule against publishing games with batteries to make it. It’s suited for players who have mastered the earlier games and are looking for a brainier challenge that involves engineering and problem-solving skills.

Availability, as of 2026: Gamewright lists Forbidden Sky as out of print — its own product page now reads “This product is no longer available” and carries no buy link at all. Copies still surface on the secondary market, but expect secondary-market pricing rather than the shelf price the others carry, and we are not linking a purchase for it. If you want the step up from Forbidden Island, buy Forbidden Desert instead — it is the sequel that is actually in stock.

Forbidden Jungle — 2–5 players · 10+ · 45 min — new

The newest game in the series is the one most write-ups get wrong, this site’s previous version included. It is not a jungle-expedition game. Your rocket runs low on fuel and sets you down at an abandoned spaceport on a remote moon; the station is overgrown and infested with spider-like aliens that object to the intrusion, and whole sections of it drop into sinkholes while you work. The goal is not to disable an ancient portal — it is to power one back up and get off the moon before the station goes down. Mechanically it is the familiar chassis (modular tiles, a rising threat meter, a board degrading under you) with a breeding alien population layered on top, which is a genuinely different kind of pressure from sand or rising water.

It is also the only one of the four Gamewright currently flags as new, and at the time of writing its product page offers “buy local” only — no online buy link. That makes it the hardest of the four to get hold of today, not the natural next purchase.

When selecting the right game for your group, consider the players’ experience levels and preferences. Forbidden Island is great for beginners, Forbidden Desert adds moderate complexity, Forbidden Sky demands more advanced problem-solving, and Forbidden Jungle offers the most intricate and strategic gameplay.

The honest 2026 version of that advice is shorter: the series is four games and only two of them are easy to buy. Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert are both back-catalog titles that are stocked everywhere. Forbidden Sky is out of print at the publisher. Forbidden Jungle is new enough that Gamewright is still pointing buyers at local game stores. So the growth path most families will actually walk is Island → Desert — a perfectly good two-game arc. You are not missing a rung.

Summary                                                                                                     

• Cooperative gameplay

• Strategy is key

• Great social game

• Excellent thematic artwork

• High replayability factor with infinite possibilities

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Final Verdict

Forbidden Island is one of those great games that isn’t too heavy on rules and offers an incredible experience for the players. The game relies on working together to strategize and problem-solve, creating an enjoyable social environment. This fun game is tricky and enjoyable for players of almost any age, with multiple levels of difficulty, different characters to choose from, and high replay value. Co-operative gameplay where everyone wins or loses together raises the stakes and makes everyone that much more committed and invested in what everyone is doing, not just what they should be doing on their turn. Luck adds the need to be adaptable in the group’s approach, as they never know which tile might be flooded next which may result in them changing their tactics. Combined with the replayability of every Island being unique and different, and the tile artwork drawing you in with how captivating it is, Forbidden Island is a great game that everyone should try for a triumphant escape.

We recommend Forbidden Island on our list of best games for 10 year olds. Like many cooperative games, it can be played younger with an adult, but at 10 they’ll be able to play comfortably on their own. Check out that list if you are looking for other games in that range.

If You Liked This:

 If you managed to escape from Forbidden Island before it sank and want to try something new, below are some similarly themed games we’re sure you’ll enjoy. We rank the wider field on our guide to games like Forbidden Island and our roundup of the best cooperative board games :

 

 

Forbidden Desert: The first sequel to Forbidden Island, it maintains the majority of the game mechanics but drops players in the middle of the desert. Work together to survive the heat and find the flying machine before you are buried underneath the sand.

 Flash Point: Work together as brave firefighters to save victims from a raging building fire. Extinguish fires, move people out of the building, and perform special actions to save as many victims as possible.

Pandemic: You and your team of experts must prevent the world from succumbing to a viral pandemic. Race across the globe to treat diseases and research cures before they spread and get out of hand.

 Horrified:  What could be worse than a town being plagued by a monster? How about one being overrun by seven? Work together to chase off and defeat iconic monsters, utilizing unique and different strategies with each one.

 Mysterium: Become a psychic detective and divine spectral visions to solve the murder of a restless ghost. Players receive clues from the spirit each turn and must unravel the mystery surrounding its death before time runs out!

Forbidden Island FAQ

Still building the shelf? Forbidden Island is one of the games we keep coming back to. Grab our free Top 10 Must-Have Games guide — ten games we think earn their space, with who each one is actually for.