Even though they are supposedly "forbidden," there's no taboo against their ownership or use. You can purchase and play Forbidden Island or Forbidden Desert without enduring stares or having an old Russian woman hiss and/or shield the eyes of her children. I always find out just how hardcore I am not when I go to Board Game Geek, but I always thought that Forbidden Island was a stripped down version of Pandemic, also by the same designer, and if we make a line between these two games that charts their relative complexity, there is a point on this line marked Forbidden Desert right between them. But it's not Pandemic Junior; I would say that it's more like Forbidden Island 2XX Hyper Gear Mega rev2.Y.
