Forbidden Dessert

After entertaining non-gaming (or semi-gaming) friends last night and enjoying K2 and Heck Meck, today Stanley and I sat down for a gaming digestif... of Forbidden Island.

The first thing I have to say about this game that I really dislike is that it comes in a tin. Come on guys. Cardboard is the thing. Cardboard sounds, feels, and smells nicer  - and can also be cut up with a bread knife as an option.

The second is that it might not see the light of day at GNN Tuesday sessions because it's A. a co-operative and B. a family game.

The third is that it's great. As adventurers Stanley - Archeologist - and I - Navigator - crash-landed in a desert, wrecking our helicopter. Like all good adventurers we set out without telling our mums where we were going, so we're kind of screwed. Our only choice: to find the remnants of an ancient flying machine, rebuild it and fly out before the desert empties our canteens and we expire.

There's a modular board of tiles and a heap of sand - cardboard sand! - that sits on top. On your turn you move around the desert either getting rid of sand (I'm not entirely clear on where it goes) or excavating: flipping a tile to find out what bounty lies beneath the desert's surface. This way you eventually discover the locations of the flying machine parts, grab them and rebuild them at a launch pad.

thanks to BGG user Emsdad

Other hidden gems are curiously-still-functioning jet packs and the like; stuff that helps you fend off both the heat, and the storm that is continuously moving around the desert, threatening you with a burial under an out of control sandpit.

We managed to win in a fraction under an hour but I think next time it'd be even less. You can set the difficulty level to different degrees, where more sand comes out earlier and your water supplies dwindle faster.

A really lovely game.