Forbidden Island Review - Starlit Citadel Reviews Season 1

Starlit Citadel reviews Forbidden Island, with Kaja Sadowski and Joanna Gaskell. In Forbidden Island, players race to retrieve 4 treasures hidden by the ancient Archean Empire before the island they are on sinks into the sea forever. The game lasts about half an hour, and can be played by 2 -- 4 players.

Video and Title by Rob Hunt - Phasefirefilms

[StarlitCitadel]

To be fair, we usually do 2-3 takes, but with both cameras running at once. Extending that to 4-6 would be prohibitive in terms of time cost, especially given that we shoot 4 reviews a night, and they already take ~1 hr/review (including setup, takedown, and some b-roll).

[Melvin]

At some point in humanity's timeline, people started saying "so" at the beginning of every sentence. This video is the earliest example on record that I have found.

In seriousness, great review.

[StarlitCitadel]

Nope, it's just a regular key. The necklace is made from an old lock-and-key set that would have been used for a keepsake box or something similar.

[sasjhwa]

My wife, 8 year old son, and I played for the first time last night. This easily made it into our top 5 favorite games. It is fast and has just enough stress inducement to be fun without overwhelming players.

[christalbot]

We've enjoyed playing this game a lot. A funny story though; this was the game that gave me the quickest loss I've ever experienced. One of the six original flood cards was Fool's Landing. The first player was nowhere near Fool's Landing and didn't have a Sandbags card, so they couldn't shore it up. The first treasure card they got was a Waters Rise and the first card drawn was Fool's Landing; thus sinking it and loosing the game. I had to laugh: nobody else had even gotten a turn.

That was my first time trying to show that group the game and we decided it wasn't meant to be that day. We've since played a couple of times and enjoyed it immensely.

[maardal]

Love these reviews by Kaja and Joanna. They explain the games and concepts really well and the pros & cons are often objective and fair :)

[RobHuntProductions]

it's really hard to get them to look in to both cameras at the same time without going crosseyed.

[StarlitCitadel]

Haha, fair enough. I think my opinion of tin boxes has been skewed by having to ship and receive the darned things -- they just dent so easily.

[michaelneubauer]

Nice review. Your explanations are very clear and give viewers enough information to make a reasonable buying decision. Who can ask for more?

One question and one suggestion:

Question: Kaya, are you wearing a Kappa key?

Suggestion: I don't want to offend your composer, but I would use some Bach or suchlike (e.g. Well Tempered Clavier, etc.) or some Wagner for the dramatic sci-fi games.

[Nucklechose]

I agree on FI's ability to be a gateway game, especially for families and kids. For adults, I use Pandemic for similar reasons: they're not roll-n-go like mass merch'd games, theme is well integrated into the mechanic, and being cooperative, everyone shares the thrills and are totally engaged in everyone else's turn.

[GioiaFede]

So you wouldn't recommed this to someone who's already very much into Pandemic?
On what can I base my decision to wether buy Forbidden Island or Forbidden Desert?
Thank you very much! Very nice explanation, clear, easy to understand and very pleasent video experience overall. I subscribed!

[monkT]

With the Mensa seal on the box my group was expecting a more weighty intellectual co operative like pandemic and it ended up falling short of expectations. On the other hand I gifted it to my brother and his kids love the artwork and have a fun time with it. Speaking of kids, I loved your guys filler games episodes and hope you do a few more every once in awhile.

[parkarboy]

Looks fun and as always great content. I know I'm nit picking, but last bunch of vids still have you ladies looking into the wrong camera :(

[chrisjordan]

Nice review as always. I just picked this game up at a very low price! I'm breaking my kids into games and this is an easy one to pick up yet provides a ton of fun! 

[StarlitCitadel]

The card stock is thin. This copy hasn't had a lot of plays as yet

[MadEcki]

Looking at the state of the role cards, I noticed they're pretty worn (especially from the margins). Is this a sign of thin/inferior card stock, or does the game just get a lot of plays?

[anzaeria]

Great concept. It looks like a fun game. Though I'm curious about something. Supposedly, the game is for 2 - 4 players and yet I see six characters that you can choose from. There seems to be a bit of a discrepancy there.

Edit: Ah it seems that one player can be in control of more than one character.

[beserkerninja]

This game is amazing and my family/friends usually play it at least once every time we hang out. I'd recommend it to everyone and it's super cheap.

[poppamike]

Tx for this AWEsome review! It will make the difference!
Saw this game at Barnes today and doing a lil' research. Added it to our Amazon wish list.
I'd also like to note that both of you are QUITE hot, so that doesn't hurt the review either! Just sayin... ;)

[parkarboy]

Indeed smartybum :P That's why you do two takes.