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Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure is essentially puzzle game with some adventure elements thrown in for good measure. Basically, you play as Zack, a bright young pirate on a quest to find treasures scattered around the globe. His sidekick, Wiki, is a golden coloured flying monkey that occasionally turns into a bell to turn living things into inanimate objects when necessary. A little weird? Maybe. A lot of fun? Definitely! 

The story follows Zack and Wiki on their journey to help the pirate captain Barbaros retrieve his body by finding treasures scattered around various locations in exchange for his Legendary Ship and a trip to Treasure Island. In order to obtain these treasures, you have to solve intriguing puzzles to reach a treasure chest at the end of every level. There are roughly 20 puzzles to solve. Most of which will take about half an hour or more to complete. The tougher levels may take more than an hour of your time.

Each level is very cleverly designed. It requires you to carefully observe your surroundings and identify the objects you’ll need to reach your goal. There are a lot of objects that you will use in the game to help you progress such as umbrellas, bombs, brooms, and sticks. Most of the time it requires simple logic as long as you understand the effects of your actions. Also bear in mind that there may be more than one way to clear a level.

The game utilizes cel-shaded graphics akin to Jet Set Radio Future or the Viewtiful Joe game series. It’s simply gorgeous. It only runs at 30 frames per second, but I found it not to be an issue at all. Characters are well designed and the environments are beautiful and lively. The music and sound effects are excellent. The game uses subtitles rather than proper voice acting. The characters only utter one-liners, though most are hilarious. The overall presentation might be a little misleading to some because of its cartoon-like nature. But really, this game would be more suited for older teenagers or adults because of the level of difficulty on certain levels.

Every time a level is completed, there is a sense of accomplishment. This game is quite rewarding as you will put on your best thinking cap on and put in a lot of effort to solve the puzzles, especially the harder ones. To add to the fun factor, a second player may join in by using a second Wiimote and drawing on the screen to point out clues, but the first player will still have to perform all the action required.

The control scheme utilizes the Wiimote very well. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this game wouldn’t even exist if not for the Wii’s unique input system. To control Zack, you point and click on a location you want him to go or investigate. To transform Wiki into a bell, simply shake the Wiimote. To use objects, you’ll have to hold the remote in various positions, much like in WarioWare: Smooth Moves. Whenever you need to hold the remote in a special way, there will be a guide on the screen showing you how it should be done. This makes the game much more engaging than any other puzzle game in the market, especially because the game was designed specifically for the Wii, rather than a game ported for the Wii just to add waggle controls.

As mentioned, there are about 20 levels in total in Zack & Wiki and should take most players roughly 13 to 16 hours to finish on their first go. After finishing the game, perfectionists will want to go through it once again to obtain hidden treasures in all the levels or try other alternate ways to complete certain levels to gain more points. It scores a high replay value for these reasons.

I would highly recommend this game to anyone, especially if you enjoy puzzle games. It would make a great family game as well because you can solve the puzzles together. But as noted earlier, it would be more suited towards an older crowd rather than younger children because of the difficulty of some levels, despite its cartoon-like appearance. You will need to have some basic understanding of nature and physics.

I personally loved it and found it to be highly satisfying every time each level is completed. Although it may not be perfect, it is one of the best games available on the Wii at the moment. The experience can’t be compared to other games on the Wii or any other platform as it’s unique to the system.

Platform reviewed: Wii

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