# Forbidden Desert — user reviews > 41 indexed App Store user reviews of Forbidden Desert by Button Mash Games Inc., rated 4.80/5 from 480 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/forbidden-desert/id657395017/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/forbidden-desert/id657395017.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 415 · 4★ 49 · 3★ 9 · 2★ 2 · 1★ 5 ## 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 ## Newest reviews (10 of 41) ### 5/5 — Maddeningly fun *2018-01-21* This game has 5 different levels of difficulty. Level 1 you should win every time. Level 2 you may win about 50% of the time. Level 3 you might win 1 out of every 100 games so roughly 1% success rate. Level 4 and 5 you better be able to accept that you’ll never win... Regardless it is insanely fun to play. I prefer level 3 myself, but get use to losing. ### 4/5 — Great game *2017-12-02* Love this game! It would be great if I could play online with friends who also have the game.... 🙂 ### 5/5 — Great App version of my fav co-op game! *2017-11-25* This is a well implemented version of my favorite co-op game. The different roles allows for greater replay ability. ### 5/5 — My Favorite iPad Game *2017-11-23* I am a Forbidden Island player who found that I loved Forbidden Desert even more! It plays well on the iPad, which not all board games do. It plays well with groups and alone. I also appreciate that ButtonMash Games clearly reads these postings and fixes identified issues with good speed. My one wish: that I could eventually turn off the animations. I enjoyed them for the first few months, but game play would be faster without them. ### 5/5 — Good Game *2017-11-18, version 1.3* Lots of fun! ### 4/5 — Love it *2017-11-01* Forbidden Desert is a great game and better to play on iPad than the original board game. Just needs a little bit better of a tutorial, since it gets a bit complex if you’re new to the game. ### 5/5 — Incredible *2017-07-06* I thought nothing could even be close the the first Forbidden Island but I was wrong this is just as great! **Developer response:** Thanks! I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the game. :-) ### 5/5 — Forbidden Dessert *2017-02-21, version 1.2* Love this game. True to the board game in every way with the added advantage of not having to remember how many cards have been drawn. Great graphics and easy to play. I find I enjoy playing all characters so I don't necessarily need another person available to play it with me. Can leave the app and resume play whenever I want. Highly recommend. ### 5/5 — Great - like the board game *2017-01-07* This is a good companion to the board game because it helps you get the rules straight in your head. It's better in some ways because the graphics and animation are fun. 👍🏼 ### 5/5 — Fabulous iOS Challenge *2016-04-09, version 1.1* I'm blown away by how challenging - and how much fun - this game is. The Beginner level is probably a must for most first-timers, but even at that level, you'll be skillfully planning out your strategy to achieve your long- and short-term goals. The graphics are a big plus, and simply having a bug-free game is fantastic. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Terrible *2023-11-29* No directions! ### 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. ### 1/5 — Broken *2020-05-18* Tutorial doesn’t work - I slide the shovel to the right but nothing happens, I cannot advance or get the tutotiral to work. Can’t figure out how to play. Disappointed. **Developer response:** Hi! Thanks for reporting this. We just released an update to fix the tutorial bug. ### 2/5 — No online play *2020-04-05* Disappointed that I can not play this online with friends **Developer response:** It’s true, For­bid­den Desert is pass-and-play mul­ti­play­er only. I’ve up­dat­ed the app de­scrip­tion to make it clear­er. My friends and I cre­at­ed this app as a hob­by project and, un­for­tu­nate­ly, we don’t have the ded­i­cat­ed time avail­able to main­tain on­line fea­tures (they tend to need a lot of main­te­nance). One work­around is that you can share your iPad screen on some video chat apps. You’ll be the only per­son able to con­trol the board, but it works okay be­cause the game is en­tire­ly co­op­er­a­tive. ### 2/5 — Overrides podcast audio *2018-02-03* Game is great, but can’t listen to anything while I play it, real bummer ### 2/5 — Excellent game *2016-07-15, version 1.2* I very much enjoy playing this game on my iPad and using the physical edition. They should bring it to iPhone. ### 3/5 — Nice game, mine can't shuffle well *2018-06-10* I bought the board game to play on our next game night and decided to get this app to play several games ahead of time. They have a nice tutorial video and good rules section. If you are new to the game I would review these and play on the easiest level (one below Novice) which is unique to this app with less bad cards and is almost a sure win. Remember there is an Undo button in case you click on the wrong button. I have been playing on the Novice level which was a 50/50 chance of winning or better until I hit all four of the Storm Beats Down (SBD) in six cards which was sure death in two straight games. In my next ten games I had all four SBD a few times in eight cards and nine cards. It can't seem to get a good shuffle lately. I just hope the game wii eventually get out of this cycle. Having my Water Bearer die three straight games of thirst almost had me delete this game. I really like this game and hope my experience isn't normal. ### 4/5 — The ForbiddenDesert review *2021-05-16, version 1.9* I LOVE THIS GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ### 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 ### 4/5 — Great game, but should be on iPhone *2018-01-18* I wish the app was available on iPhone, not just iPad. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 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 :) ### 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 ### 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! ### 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. ### 5/5 — Love it! *2020-05-07* Great rendition of the game! I did initially think that I’d be able to play online with friends, but we solved that with a video conference. Just one person has to do all the driving, that’s all. Super fast response to the bug in v1.5, thanks! ### 5/5 — Best team game ever! *2020-04-25* Love this game! Combined with airplay on a big screen - it rocks! ### 5/5 — Forbidden Sky App? *2020-04-11* Love these board games and I love that my wife and I can play them on the go. Please release the next game soon so we can continue to enjoy these games. **Developer response:** Thanks for the kind review! For the time being, we don’t have plans to make Forbidden Sky. My friends and I created these as hobby projects and we just don’t have the time needed to make an entirely new one. ### 5/5 — Beautifully faithful *2020-01-30, version 1.4* Love the board game and this app perfectly recreates and even enhances the game with great little animations and sounds but never sacrifices the visibility of the board and info. Very well designed and one of the top apps out there! --- *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.*