Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure

"A standout title for the Wii"

Capcom may rehash a lot of their franchises, but they do occasionally make some new ones. And on a console filled with ports and rehashes, I was very pleased to play a game as original as Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure.

Zack & Wiki follows the adventures of, you guessed it, Zack and Wiki. Zack is a young, non-menacing looking pirate, who found a flying golden monkey named Wiki while searching for treasure. Together, they set off to locate the pieces of Barbaros, a legendary pirate that was cursed, turned to gold, and divided into pieces. Zack must travel the world to locate treasure, become the most notorious pirate ever, and earn his reward from Barbaros: a totally sweet pirate ship and a whole island filled with treasure!

The gameplay consists of solving lots of puzzles to reach treasure chests that contain parts of Barbaros. It's similar to a point-and-click adventure game that you would expect to find on a PC. You point (using the Wii remote of course) and press the A button to move where you are pointing, and to pick up various items. You'll have to use these items in a proper order on certain things to progress. One thing that sets Z&W apart from a lot of other point-and-click games is a slightly heavier focus on action. You can actually get killed in a lot of ways, so you need to think about when and where you are going to use various items, unlike a lot of other games where you can simply try all your items without any negative result. This makes the game more tense and exciting. To fend off against enemies, you'll shake the Wii remote to ring Wiki (he transforms into a bell when his tail is grabbed) and transform enemies into items. Clever usage of these items is what will get you through the levels, and to the treasures.

The puzzles start off simple enough, but become very challenging as the game goes on, and every level presents fresh types of challenges, or forces you to think about new uses for items you've already seen. Despite the game appearing to be "kiddy", I don't think any children will be able to complete this game without help. The later levels can be very difficult to figure out. Although the puzzles here tend to be much more logical and solvable than most adventure games, there are a few sections when you are supposed to do something ahead of time to prevent something bad that you couldn't have possibly anticipated. These few "trial-and-error" moments really bring down the enjoyment of the game, as they will force you to restart the level. Another negative is that using items in the game frequently involves the use of motions with the remote (example: for using a key, you must twist the remote to turn the key in a lock). A lot of the motions work very well, but sometimes they seem a little bit glitchy.

From a presentation standpoint, Z&W is very good. The Wii is not capable of "next-gen" graphics, so the cel-shading art style hides the graphical limitations very well and suits the cartoony characters nicely. The levels you travel to are mostly themed, such as a group of levels in a volcano, a group of levels in a jungle, a group of levels in a castle, etc. They are visually interesting and have pretty good details. The main theme music is very good, and the rest of the music is mostly atmospheric stuff that sets the mood for whatever environment you're in. The voice acting here is pretty much done to the same extent as a Zelda game: a few little snippets of people saying a word or two, a character's name, or letting out a scream, but it essentially doesn't have voice acting.

Gameplay time is higher than most games: about 15 to 20 hours for your first play through. However, after beating the game there are a bunch of bonus treasures to find, which require replaying levels and doing different things. You get vague hints on how to find these bonus treasures, and it will keep you busy for a while longer if you don't use a walkthrough. The game also gives you a score based on how well you did in each level, and replaying levels to try and get the best possible score is an addicting challenge as well.

Graphics: 9 out of 10 - The cel-shaded cartoon style looks great, although the game has some framerate dips.
Audio: 8 out of 10 - Solid music, especially the main theme. Lack of full voice-overs is disappointing.
Gameplay: 8.5 out of 10 - A few trial-and-error puzzles cause frustration, motion control not 100% accurate.

Final Score: 8.5/10
The best PC-style adventure game on any console, and one of the few original titles worth buying for the Wii.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/27/08

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