News

• Reviewed on: Nintendo Wii
• Also available for: N/A
• 
  
• The Good: Lovely art design and full of entertaining puzzles; "Point and click" controls are perfect for the Wii Remote.
• The Bad: Though logical, puzzles can be rendered unsolvable with a single mistake. Curiosity is often repaid harshly. The Wii Remote's abilites are overstretched when using items.
• The Verdict: Featuring cerebrally challenging puzzles that are highly rewarding, Zack and Wiki: Quest For Barbaros' Treasure is a great title for anyone looking for something to task their brain, not just their thumbs.
• 
  

It's difficult for current releases to stand out in the face of overwhelming juggernaut that is the upcoming launch of Super Mario Galaxy, and one title likely to be forgotten is Capcom's new original adventure title Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros ' Treasure. Despite Capcom's pedigree for quickly grasping new systems strengths and developing games that fit them (Resident Evil 4 on Wii is just one example) the lack of brand recognition could lead to many consumers missing out on an engaging, if occasionally frustrating, point-and-click adventure game that features a rewarding mix of puzzle and problem solving.

Ring Wiki's Bell

While the Nintendo DS has seen the release of several point-and-click inspired adventure games, including the superb Phoenix Wright series (also developed by Capcom) the genre appears to have received a true "next-generation" update on the Nintendo Wii with Zack and Wiki. Anyone familiar with games from the heyday of point-and-click adventures in the mid 90s (such as The Secret of Monkey Island or Gobliiins) will be instantly comfortable with the use of the Wii Remote to command Zack around a variety of self-contained levels on a quest to rebuild the golden skeleton of the pirate Barbaros.

The majority of the game is controlled in the traditional style of point-and-click adventures, but there are some important differences. Zack moves to any area on screen or investigates any object selected by hitting the A button, but can only carry one item at a time, and as a result, relies on Wiki, his golden monkey accomplice, to create useful items. For no immediately apparent reason, Wiki can take the form of a bell, and when rung (by shaking the Wii Remote) he can turn any nearby fauna into an item. For example, he can turn a centipede covered in sharp teeth into a saw.

Any items either found or created are similarly used by manipulating the Wii Remote. So, to cut down a tree, the player selects it and then, holding the Wii Remote, rapidly "saws" back and forth until the on-screen tree is felled.

Curiosity Killed The Zack

Developers have created many inventive uses for the Wii Remote, yet I'm not entirely convinced it's as responsive, or versatile, as Nintendo would like to have us believe. As a result, many of the more complex manipulations that Zack and Wiki ask for (such as those that require rotation) are terribly fiddly to pull off. As with some other Wii titles, I never felt entirely in control of certain actions, often relying on luck to use items the way I wanted to.

The main flaw of Zack and Wiki is how slavishly it repeats the formula of early point-and-click adventure games — by which I mean those that punished the player severely for making mistakes. Curiosity in Zack and Wiki is often repaid with instant, unavoidable death, and in certain sections you can find yourself making such a mess of a puzzle that you have to restart it from the beginning.

The game features a hint system and the ability to revive your character mid-level, however. As both requests require the player spend some in-game currency they are very much a last resort — and you can be revived after a point where the level is unsolvable!

Colour Commentary

Although brutally exacting, the puzzles in Zack and Wiki are always logical, and as a result are very rewarding. Every level completed feels like a job well done, no matter how long it took. It's worth noting that the many deaths and forced restarts wouldn't be as bearable if it wasn't for the excellent art design. Zack, Wiki and the levels they explore are a joy to interact with, and even the animations that accompany failures are usually amusing to watch — once, anyway.

The game includes a "multiplayer" mode for up to three other players with Wii Remotes pointers, and allows them to draw on the screen (akin to sports commentators during replays) to highlight interesting, or important, things on screen if the main player is stuck. This makes the game a good pick for families who want to play something together. However, children playing alone are likely to find the puzzles too difficult to enjoy.

Though a largely forgotten genre, Zack and Wiki: The Quest for Barbaros' Treasure has revived point-and-click adventures with style, and anyone looking for something to task their brain, not just their thumbs, will find much to enjoy here.