Game of the Week: 'Forbidden Island'

We believe that few things are as enjoyable as sitting around the living room floor, playing a game with your family. Each week, in the ‘Game of the Week’ column, GeekDad will suggest a fun, family-friendly game everyone can enjoy while spending time together. Here’s this week’s pick:

Forbidden Island

Cooperative games are great for family night. You win or lose as a group while sharpening your teamwork skills. In Forbidden Island, you each take on the role of an adventurer, searching an island for four ancient treasures. However, your searching has activated the island’s curse and the tiles you stand on are sinking! Each turn the player has three actions: move, shore up a sinking tile, give a treasure card to another player, or collect a treasure (by turning in a matching set of four treasure cards). The player then receives two treasure cards, and then flood cards are revealed, flooding or even removing location tiles from the game.

With simple rules, the game plays very quickly; it’s a perfect after-dinner game, even on a weeknight. Parents need to step back and let the kids work out strategies, but once you do, it’s a delight to see them come up with their plans. There is a lot of replayability here as there are six unique adventurer ability cards, as well as a scaling difficulty level. Often called a “gateway game,” Forbidden Island is an excellent intro to cooperative games and fills those short game sessions perfectly.