''Forbidden Island'' is a
cooperative board game
Cooperative board games are board games in which players work together to achieve a common goal rather than competing against each other. Either the players win the game by reaching a pre-determined objective, or all players lose the game, often b ...
developed by
Matt Leacock
Matt Leacock is an American board game designer, most known for cooperative games such as Pandemic, Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert.
Early life
Leacock grew up in Long Lake, Minnesota. He studied visual com ...
and published by Gamewright Games in 2010. Two to four players take the roles of different adventurers, moving around a mysterious
island
An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...
, looking for hidden treasures as the island sinks around them. All players win if they find all the hidden treasures and they all make it back to the helicopter and fly away, and they all lose if they cannot.
Gameplay
![L'illa_prohibida](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/L%27illa_prohibida.JPG)
Players take on the role of adventurers, with randomly selected abilities, trying to retrieve treasures from a rapidly sinking island. They must retrieve four treasures: (The Earth Stone, the Crystal of Fire, the Statue of the Wind, and the Ocean Chalice) and return to the helicopter landing pad ("Fools Landing") before the waters rise covering the entire island. The board consists of a random distribution of 4x4 tiles, with an additional two tiles beyond each side of the square.
A deck of cards (the "
flood
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...
deck") corresponding to the locations of the board drives the game: at the beginning of the game, the locations of the top six cards of that deck are flipped and considered "flooded". After every player's turn, new cards from that deck are drawn and the corresponding tiles are flooded or, if they are already flooded, "sink" by disappearing from the board, thus shrinking the island. Additional cards of this deck ("Waters Rise") increase the "flood meter" on the board
On their turn, a player may take up to three actions among moving to an adjacent tile, shoring up an adjacent flooded tile, giving a treasure to another player, collecting a treasure, or the role-specific action of that player. The player then draws two cards from the "treasure deck"; these cards allow the eventual collecting of the corresponding treasure.
The players win if they manage to find all the treasures and escape from the island. They lose if the flood meter reaches its maximum value, if the helicopter pad disappears, if a treasure becomes unattainable, if a player is on a sinking tile and cannot get to a non-sunken tile, or if the entire island disappears.
Board game sequel
![Forbidden Desert board game layout](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Forbidden_Desert_board_game_layout.jpg)
A sequel to Forbidden Island was released in 2013, titled
Forbidden Desert. The game is situated in a desert and still employs many of the same mechanics as Forbidden Island. However, there is added difficulty as well as new player roles and mechanics. An additional sequel was made in 2018, titled Forbidden Sky. This game, while again largely similar in mechanics as the two previous games, focused on manipulating circuitry to activate a rocket and escape a floating platform during a thunderstorm.
Reception
In a review of ''Forbidden Island'' in ''
Black Gate'', Andrew Zimmerman Jones said "Overall, there's really nothing negative I can say about this game. It is an outstanding cooperative game that's fun for all ages, and for experience levels ranging from hard-core gamers to casual gamers to novices. Once you play a couple of times, the set-up is extremely quick and the game itself goes quickly as well."
Awards
* Winner for
Golden Geek
Game of the Year (abbreviated GotY) is a title awarded by various magazines, websites, and shows to a deserving game. Many publications award a single "Game of the Year" to a single title that they feel represents the pinnacle of gaming achievemen ...
Best Children's Board Game 2010
* Winner for
Mensa Select
Mensa Select is an annual award given by American Mensa
Mensa is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organisation open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardised, supervised I ...
2010
* Winner for
UK Game Expo Best Family/Children's Game 2011
* Nominee for
Spiel des Jahres
The Spiel des Jahres (, ''Game of the Year'') is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the purpose of rewarding family-friendly game design, and promoting excellent games in the German market. It is thought that the existence ...
2011
References
{{Reflist
External links
Forbidden Island product pageat Gamewright Games
Forbidden Island pageat
BoardGameGeek
BoardGameGeek (BGG) is an online forum for board gaming hobbyists and a game database that holds reviews, images and videos for over 125,600 different tabletop games, including European-style board games, wargames, and card games. In addition to ...
Forbidden IslandYouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
video on the
TableTop
Tabletop may refer to:
Mountains
* Table Top Mountain in Rangeville, Queensland, Australia
* Table Top Mountain (New York)
* Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa
* Tepui, flat top mountains in South America
Places
* Tabletop, New South Wale ...
web series.
Forbidden Island Rulebook
Board games introduced in 2010
Cooperative board games
Gamewright Games games
Islands in fiction
Mensa Select winners