Do you need another cooperative game in your life, but your kids are outgrowing the little kid games? (Or maybe you’re just bored of them; I won’t judge!) Forbidden Island could be just the game you’re looking for.

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While setup is not hard, you are placing 24 island tiles, and this can get frustrating if you have young kids that are always trying to “help.” Castle Panic and Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters might be easier to set up, but they also have small pieces that can be choking hazards.

Forbidden Island is the first in a series of three games. I’ve also heard good things about Forbidden Desert and Forbidden Sky, but Forbidden Island is supposed to be the easiest (with Sky being the hardest).

This is how the tiles are set up; always use all the tiles and arrange them randomly but in this layout.

Other than the role cards, there are two decks of cards. The flood deck has a blue back and the treasure deck has a red back. There are 24 tiles in the island, and there are 24 cards in the flood deck; one for each tile. In the treasure deck, there are five cards for each of the four treasures. Plus five “waters rise!” cards, three helicopter lifts, and two sandbags.

All the cards in the treasure deck.

After arranging the tiles as instructed in the very clear instructions, it’s time to start flooding the island. Draw six cards from the flood deck, one at a time, and flip the corresponding tile over to its blue and white “flooded” side. Shuffle the role cards, and deal them out randomly. Each player takes their matching pawn (careful; the colors can be a little ambiguous). Each color has its own entrance gate tile on the island. Place your pawn on the correct tile, and deal two treasure cards to each player.

On your turn, you can take up to three actions. These can be any combination of moving (one tile counts as one action), shoring up (one tile counts as one action), giving a treasure card to another player, or capturing a treasure. After your actions are complete, draw two treasure deck cards, and then draw the number of flood cards that are equal to the water level.

Your goal is to capture all the treasure pieces and get safely off the island before it floods. You need to use a Helicopter Lift card when all players are on Fool’s Landing in order to get safely off the island. Starting at the “normal” level, my family can usually win, but there are also Expert and Legendary levels, so plenty of challenge available.

In order to capture a treasure, you must be on one of two tiles where that is possible and have four cards of that treasure. Each treasure has two tiles as designated spaces where they can be captured. There is also a hand limit of five cards, so keeping the four you need to capture a treasure, plus any other cards (like sandbags or an airlift) that you may need later, can be a challenge.

Unlike in Hocus Pocus, discussion is encouraged. However, in order to keep one player (I’ll confess, that’s usually me!) from taking over the game, the player whose turn it is gets veto power. I can make a suggestion, but my daughter can ignore that suggestion and do what she wants to do.