A Rare Treasure
Point-and-click adventure games have been around for quite some time in the video game industry. While their popularity has certainly dwindled since the days when Myst was topping the PC sales charts, there remains a dedicated fan-base hungry for new titles in this genre. With the Wii-mote’s user-friendly ability to point and click, the Wii seemed like a logical destination for developers to reinvigorate this seemingly dying genre. Thankfully for gamers everywhere, Capcom has taken full advantage the Wii’s controls and made an incredibly unique and immensely entertaining title.
You will play through this title as a young pirate named Zack. Accompanied by his best friend Wiki, a golden flying monkey, he is on a quest to become the world’s greatest living pirate. One day, while searching for some treasure, Zack and Wiki stumble upon Barbaros’ head locked away in a treasure chest. In exchange for Barbaros’ fabled pirate ship, Zack and Wiki quickly agree to help Barbaros become whole again by finding all of his body’s scattered pieces and reassembling him. Admittedly, while the story doesn’t sound that amazing, it does ultimately succeed in pulling you into the experience and adequately compels you to play through the entirety of the game.
As a Wii game that centers around a young boy, his monkey friend, and an ancient dismembered pirate, one would probably not expect this to be a photo-realistic title. Even with a decidedly anime graphical style, this is easily one of the best looking games on the console. All of the game’s characters and environments are vibrant, beautiful, and well animated. Everything from its amazingly detailed bosses down to Zack and Wiki’s expressions make this game feel alive and a joy to look upon.
Still, don’t be fooled by Zack & Wiki’s kid-friendly appearance. While this is a game clearly targeting a younger audience, it is a very deceptive title. Beneath its cute and cartoony exterior lies a beautifully complex gameplay experience. As previously mentioned, it is a point-and-click adventure game, having you pointing your Wii-mote at the screen and clicking the A button to move around and interact with the environment. The objects in the environment that can be interacted with will cause the on-screen cursor to change colors making it slightly easier to figure out the basics of your objectives. While this does make finding items and puzzles a breeze, deciding how best to complete each of these quandaries can still become incredibly difficult.
In the beginning, many of the puzzles are very basic and can usually be easily figured out without much time or difficulty. However, once you’ve completed some of the earlier levels, the puzzles slowly become quite ingenious and multi-layered. Zack & Wiki does a very good job of raising the difficulty level at a reasonable pace. Instead of essentially just tossing new swimmers into the deep end, many of the game’s items and puzzle elements will gradually increase in complexity during the course of the title’s many levels.
All of the items in this game are used by mimicking the desired motion that you would perform in a similar, real life situation. As you progress, you will have several familiar items that you will suddenly discover an alternate use for that you will need to be successful. For example, an umbrella can be opened to slow your descent, used as a poking device, and flipped around so that you can use the hook on the end to grab switches. Thankfully, there are many opportunities throughout the game to experiment with some of the various items and puzzles that you find. In the end, your initial curiosity is often greatly rewarded.
Fortunately, even if you do happen to get stuck, this game also offers you the ability to purchase oracle dolls (basically a hint) and platinum tickets (essentially a redo) with the money that you collect during levels. As you purchase more of these items though, the price of each will continue to rise to help keep players from relying too heavily on their aid. Another slight drawback of using oracle dolls and platinum tickets is that each one will subtract substantial points from your overall score, making it harder to attain your goal of becoming a famous pirate.
In your quest to become the greatest pirate to ever live you must earn a plethora of Hirame Q points. You start every level with a Hirame Q of zero. As you complete pieces of, or even whole, puzzles, you are given a number of Hirame Q points based on how efficiently you figured it out. If you complete a puzzle perfectly, you will be given the full amount of possible points for it, but if you make a mistake or try to use an incorrect item, you will be given fewer points. At the end of every level, your Hirame Q points are added to your total and your status as a world-renowned pirate will grow accordingly. While this scoring doesn’t really affect the gameplay, it is a nice challenge to see just how many points you can earn from each level.
I can’t state this enough; so far, this is one of the best Wii games of the year. With its complex gameplay, beautiful graphics, interesting controls, great sense of humor, and user-friendly approach, this is truly a game that will appeal to virtually any gamer. For fans of the point-and-click adventure games and newcomers alike, this is a great title to pick up and have a fun challenge with. Since there are many levels and increasingly difficult puzzles involved in each, Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure will keep you satisfied and scratching your head for many hours to come. The amazing boss battles, which definitely need to be experienced to be fully appreciated, are worth the price of admission alone.
RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 4.4 Graphics
A beautiful visual style overall with some incredible looking bosses. 4.5 Control
The Wii-mote is used brilliantly in this title as a pointer and with the numerous other movements that are mimicked during this game. 3.6 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
The music in this game is quite fitting and well done. Unfortunately, some of the character’s saying are vastly overused and can quickly become incredibly annoying. 4.7
Play Value
With a large number of increasingly more difficult levels, this game is a definitely a long-lasting joy to play.
4.4 Overall Rating – Great
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.