Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure

"The Son of Link and Wario"

Capcom is one of my favorite video game developers and publishers ever. I am almost always satisfied with what they produce, with awesome games like Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, and the legendary Mega Man series. Seeing as how most of Capcom's games are pretty violent I was surprised that Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure was ever even conceived. However, just because the game isn't like the usual Capcom fodder of zombies, awesome sword battles, and explosions, don't think that it's a bad thing. In fact, the innocence of Zack & Wiki is what gives it some of its greatest moments.

Starting off, I'll have to explain why I chose the tagline of "The Son of Link and Wario" for this review. Well, if you've played WarioWare: Smooth Moves for the Wii then you are familiar with the forms that the game teaches you in order to play the micro-games. Well, Zack & Wiki definitely uses this idea, but doesn't give the forms weird names like WarioWare did. Now, if you have ever touched a video game in your entire life, you probably know what The Legend of Zelda games are like. Zack & Wiki definitely takes a lot from that series with the basic style and the puzzles feel a lot like puzzles from a Zelda game. However, combining two great game series doesn't seem like a bad thing to do...and for the most part, it isn't.

The nunchuck is not used in this game at all, instead you just use the Wii remote to point at the screen to go through the game. You click an object and Zack will go investigate it. You may have to do something to the object that involves using the capabilities of the Wii remote like moving the remote back and forth in order to shake a tree. Clicking around and figuring everything out usually isn't that frustrating and it's actually quite fun...except in the larger levels where it takes about a minute for Zack to run back and forth to get all the items he needs (you can only carry one item at a time). Unfortunately, this definitely steals from the game's total appeal.

By using this point-and-click method, don't be surprised if you are reminded of many PC games. It definitely feels like one of those old PC games that required you to click your way around and solve puzzles to progress...because that's obviously what the inspiration was. However, it sometimes feels like Capcom was trying to make a Zelda game but without the adventuring in between the massive puzzles.

You may need a certain object to continue, but without much to work with in the environment, whatever will you do? Well, by shaking the Wii remote, Zack will shake Wiki, and thus turning nearby animals into useful objects. I found this idea to be very clever. Usually, the different ways you need to hold the remote are because of these items and that's when the game starts to feel a little bit like WarioWare. I think more games should take heed of what Zack & Wiki did and encourage players to imagine that the Wii remote is the actual item on the screen because it adds a little to the experience. However, sometimes the controls were unresponsive or the game didn't give clear enough directions on what you had to do, which could lead to a cheap death.

Yeah, you can actually die in Zack & Wiki, making going through the levels usually a matter of trial-and-error. However, by collecting coins in the environment you can buy "platinum tickets" which are basically lives. By using these tickets after you die, you are put in the moment right before you made the fatal error. You can also buy dolls which you can use to get hints from the oracle. I like the hint system, especially since some of the game's puzzles are insane, but the fact that the price of the dolls gets steadily higher is a little annoying, especially since sometimes the dolls reveal something to you that you already knew and thus you have wasted a crap load of money.

Your hideout is the main hub and this is where you buy items. There are a bunch of other people in the hideout, but they are pretty much useless, which makes the screen cluttered for no real reason at all. Depending on how fast you completed a level, all the little secrets you found in the level, the amount of money you collected, and if you used any hints or revives, you earn points that goes toward your score. By getting your score up you move through the ranks of a pirate, but its simple to earn points when you can just repeatedly do a level over. There is a co-operative mode in Zack & Wiki that is very similar to the one in Super Mario Galaxy, where other people have cursors on the screen, but all they can really end up doing is annoy you. It would be much simpler to just have someone sit there and make suggestions on what to click on.

Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure is actually a pretty funny title...at the beginning. The story just isn't really there and the jokes just slowly start to disappear as the game progresses, which is a real shame. The game would have been a million times better if some thought was actually put into the story aspect of the title. Basically, there is an ancient pirate that had an all-powerful ship, but he ended up cursed. His body parts were separated and spread about the world and you have to find all of his parts to put him back together and get his ship.

Similarly to Wind Waker, Zack & Wiki is cel-shaded....oh, and it's a game about pirates. I'm sorry for making all these comparisons, but Capcom didn't really try at making the title very unique. The characters all look pretty cool and there is pretty much no glitches in the game at all. The puzzles are brilliantly designed, but the trouble comes when the stages are too big. Say, you make one mistake that prevents you from completing the level so now you have to restart the whole thing and go through it all again. This can be very, very aggravating.

Just like Zelda (sorry) there is no voice-acting in Zack & Wiki, but the characters do make noises unique to them before they start speaking. The score is pretty good, but not Zelda caliber. I'm kind of surprised that they didn't just take the music from Zelda and stick it in the game.

Since Barbaros (the ancient pirate) only has sixteen body parts Zack & Wiki doesn't end up to be a very lengthy game except for when you have to keep restarting a level because you messed up. If you used a walkthrough you could probably complete the game in about three hours. However, if you play through the game without using a walkthrough, it'd probably take at least 10 hours. There isn't much replay value unless you feel like playing through some old puzzles that you forgot how to do or something.

Zack & Wiki is a very fun game and will test even the greatest puzzle person's mind. More hardcore gamers may be disappointed that the game is essentially only a point-and-click adventure, but more open-minded gamers will definitely find some enjoyment in the game. Capcom had some pretty good ideas in this game, but they took too much from other titles, which kind of blurred Zack & Wiki's image of being unique. I would definitely like to see a sequel to Zack & Wiki or at least a game that uses some of its better ideas.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/26/08

Game Release: Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure (US, 10/23/07)