# Forbidden Desert — A co-operative adventure!

> Cooperative board game adaptation about desert survival and escape. (iPhone/iPad app by Button Mash Games Inc..)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/forbidden-desert/id657395017 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Button Mash Games Inc.](https://appshunter.io/developer/427419775)
- Category: Games, Board, Strategy
- Price: $6.99
- Rating: 4.80/5 from 480 App Store ratings · 41 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 9+
- Requires: iOS 11.0 · 202 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2016-02-11
- Data updated: 2026-06-10
- Monetization: paid
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/forbidden-desert/id657395017/reviews.md

## What is Forbidden Desert?

Forbidden Desert is a thrilling cooperative adventure based on the best-selling board game.

"Forbidden Desert is definitely one of the best co-op board games in the App Store." - Touch Arcade

"Anyone looking for classic board game goodness should grab this." - iPadBoardGames.org

"Quite possibly my favorite digital board game interface ever." - Pocket Tactics

FIGHT TO SURVIVE
Your mission to recover a legendary flying machine has just been thrown into chaos. An unexpected sand storm has forced your helicopter to make a crash landing. Now, stranded in the vast desert and exposed to an unrelenting storm, your only hope for survival is to quickly excavate the ancient city, find the parts to the flying machine, and rebuild it to escape.

WIN OR LOSE, WORK TOGETHER
In order to survive your team must work as one. Forbidden Desert is a co-operative board game designed for 2–5 players. Share water and equipment and collaborate to plan the best strategy for victory.

OVERCOME THE ODDS
An unrelenting storm, disastrous sand dunes, and a blistering desert sun — Forbidden Desert is an incredibly challenging board game that will test the limits of your team's skill. Does your team of adventurers have what it takes or will you become another artifact of the Forbidden Desert?

Details:

Features:
∙ Co-operative gameplay - everyone wins/loses together
∙ Pass-and-play multiplayer for 2-4 players (with one iPad)
∙ Single player gameplay (by controlling multiple Adventurers yourself)
∙ Learn the game with an in-depth Tutorial and Rulebook
∙ Enjoy beautiful artwork from the original game
∙ Collect Game Center Achievements
∙ Save games in progress and return to them later

## Key features

- Cooperative gameplay
- Pass-and-play multiplayer
- Single player mode
- In-depth tutorial
- Beautiful artwork
- Game Center Achievements
- Save/load progress

## What do users think of Forbidden Desert?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 👍 Excellent faithful adaptation of board game
- 🎮 Engaging co-op gameplay and strategy
- 🎨 Great visuals and animations
- 🔊 High-quality sound effects
- 📱 Works well on iPad with clear interface
- ⏱️ Quick 20-40 minute games
- 🧠 Challenging and mentally stimulating
- 🎯 Multiple difficulty levels available
- ♻️ High replay value with different roles
- ⚡ Fast developer response to bugs
- 📖 Good tutorial and rules documentation
- 🎪 Fun for both solo and group play
- ⏸️ Ability to pause and resume games

**Cons**

- 🐛 Tutorial functionality issues
- 📚 Insufficient directions for new players
- 🎚️ Steep difficulty curve between beginner and novice
- 🔀 Questionable shuffle/randomization algorithm
- 🔊 Overrides podcast and background audio
- 📱 iPad-only, not available on iPhone
- 🎬 Animations slow down gameplay
- 🌐 No online multiplayer option

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Tutorial slide interaction not responding (shovel sliding mechanic)
- Inconsistent card shuffling and randomization
- Audio override issues with podcasts
- Minor bugs in v1.5 (resolved by developers)

**Most requested features**

- Forbidden Sky app release
- Forbidden Jungle app release
- iPhone version availability
- Online multiplayer functionality
- Optional animation toggle for faster gameplay
- Better shuffle algorithm
- Persistent 'Back' button in rulebook
- Automatic wind change drawing option
- Expansion boards/content
- Increased difficulty with sand worm enemy

## Recent user reviews (10 of 41)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/forbidden-desert/id657395017/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Terrific co-op game and app for family play

*2024-04-02, version 1.9*

Great visuals, sound effects, gameplay, strategy. Hoping for the forbidden sky and jungle games to become apps soon :)

### 1/5 — Terrible

*2023-11-29*

No directions!

### 5/5 — Good Game

*2023-11-11, version 1.9*

I won so I’m happy

### 5/5 — Excellent but novice level too hard

*2023-01-16, version 1.9*

Superb game for iPad but gap between beginner level and novice level far too great as storm meter set too high. Hope this is remedied soon. Update. Finally succeeded on novice level after 30 goes quite a challenge but great fun. After 10 years of playing IPad games my top games are now Forbidden Island, Forbidden Desert, Four Winds (proper Mahjong), Pandemic, Virtual Pool 4 (great snooker option), and the old favourites Cluedo and Monopoly. They are all very well made and challenging and help exercise my brain in retirement!!! Many Thanks

### 5/5 — Get it

*2022-01-01*

Everything you need to enjoy the classic board game without all the extra stuff that gets in the way with other games

### 4/5 — The ForbiddenDesert review

*2021-05-16, version 1.9*

I LOVE THIS GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

### 5/5 — Easy to learn, 20-40 min games

*2021-02-26*

Used to play with college friends, now my son and I play on easy. Great fun strategy game, makes you think you’re really surviving in a desert!

### 4/5 — Next game

*2020-08-07*

Have both this and island on my system. Can’t wait for forbidden sky to join the mobile set

### 1/5 — Makes you loose

*2020-07-06*

I always loose! One star 4 U

**Developer response:** I’m sor­ry that you aren’t en­joy­ing the game. If you send me an email us­ing the Feed­back but­ton in the app, I’ll send you some strate­gies that might be helpful.

### 5/5 — Back to perfection!

*2020-05-22*

Ever since Carcassonne was downgraded and Pandemic was utterly trashed, I get nervous when I see my favorite board game apps getting updated.  Luckily after a few small bugs in the latest updates the developers responded quickly and fixed the problems.  So back to 5 stars!

Hopefully we get Forbidden Sky someday as this series is currently among the best board game adaptations on iOS.

**Developer response:** Thanks for taking the time to list these issues. 
1 and 2. I recently released an update that fixes both of these. :-)
3. That one sounds pretty annoying. We’ll try to isolate the problem and fix it soon. 

I can’t commit to adding better UI support for the 12.9” iPad, but I’ll see what we can do.

## Frequently asked questions about Forbidden Desert

### What is Forbidden Desert?

Forbidden Desert is a cooperative adventure game based on the popular board game. Players work together to survive a crash landing in a vast desert, excavate an ancient city, find parts to a flying machine, and rebuild it to escape before the storm overwhelms them.

### How many players can play Forbidden Desert?

The game is designed for 2-5 players. It supports pass-and-play multiplayer for 2-4 players on a single device, and also offers a single-player mode where you control multiple adventurers.

### Is Forbidden Desert free to play?

No, Forbidden Desert is a paid application. There are no in-app purchases or advertisements mentioned in the description, indicating a one-time purchase for the full game.

### What platforms is Forbidden Desert available on?

Based on the description mentioning 'App Store' and 'iPadBoardGames.org', it is likely available on iOS devices. The mention of 'Game Center Achievements' also suggests compatibility with Apple's ecosystem.

### What is the main goal of the game?

The primary goal is to work together with your team to survive the harsh desert conditions, locate all the necessary parts for a legendary flying machine, and successfully rebuild it to escape the desert before time runs out.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.9 — 2020-05-18

Fixing a bug that prevented the tutorial from working correctly.

### 1.8 — 2020-05-11

Fixing a bug that caused the card counter in the discard view to become invisible when the iPad was in Dark Mode.

### 1.7 — 2020-05-10

This version fixes a bug that caused equipment to appear slightly transparent in the player area.

### 1.6 — 2020-05-06

Fixing a bug that caused the Navigator's special ability to crash the game. Yikes!

### 1.5 — 2020-05-05

Just a small update to the app description.

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## More apps by Button Mash Games Inc.

- [Forbidden Island](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/forbidden-island/id427419772)

All apps by Button Mash Games Inc.: https://appshunter.io/developer/427419775

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*