There isn’t anything like a game that engrosses you from start to finish and thankfully the game I am are covering in this review, Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure, does just that. This is one great adventure game, mainly revolved around solving puzzles in the mould of the Monkey Island, Broken Sword genre of games and yes the humor is there too.
Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure follows the story of a boy pirate named Zack and his flying monkey sidekick Wiki. At the beginning of the game you come across a mysterious talking skull, which turns out to be none other than the legendary pirate Barbaros, on finding this out Zack gets quite excited and eventually makes a deal with Barbaros which will see him search for the pirate’s body parts in return for his ship.
Throughout the game you will be required to solve all manner of puzzles in order to progress, at the beginning of the level pointing the Wii remote and pressing B allows you to look around, to give yourself an idea of what needs to be done, it is then a case of putting your plan into action. The controls are very simplistic and this makes for a big plus point as far as the game is concerned, to move Zack all you need to do is point to where you want him to go on the screen and press A, this also applies to when you want to examine an item, here you simply point at the item and push A.
The game utilizes the Wii remote in many ways however it will always guide you as to how you should hold the control in these situations, for example, near the beginning of the game when you are falling through the sky you will find an umbrella, to open it you will be asked to hold the remote as you would the umbrella and then simply push the button to open it, this continues throughout the game with various items such as snake grabbers, saw’s, etc. This is a brilliant use of the Wii remote and really makes you feel like part of the game.
Once you get started in this game it is really hard to put it down, the puzzles are really addictive and not to mention, challenging, from booby traps, sawing through trees, poisonous snakes and dancing goblins there is a lot to keep your brain thinking of your next move and if all this is not enough for you then the boss fights are just pure genius.
The game offers over 20 levels, some more difficult than others, all of which are filled with puzzles, enemies and other obstacles, while this may not seem a lot, some of the puzzles will take you quite a while to complete and given that you are rated at the end of each level, if you are a perfectionist then this is one game you are going to go back to again and again.
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure looks absolutely fantastic, all of the environments are beautifully drawn as are the characters and while the game does have quite a cartoony feel to it, this should certainly not put anyone off, in fact I would go as far to say that this is probably one of the best looking games Wii games so far.
If the game has one flaw then it comes in the sound, unfortunately the designers have decided to go with the read what the characters are saying off the screen approach, while this may not be a big deal for some, I for one prefer when the characters have some personality, I just feel that it adds so much more to the game.
There is so much more that I could tell you about this game, such as how you attack, what types of puzzles you will encounter, etc, but I am reluctant to do so because I do not want to spoil what is probably my favorite Wii title yet. Zack & Wicki really is a welcome surprise for me, I wasn’t sure what to expect at first, but it really does deliver in so many ways. This is one game you will be glad you parted cash for, don’t take my word for it, check it out for yourself.
