Review: Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure

Capcom
Available for the Nintendo Wii

It’s not very often that I go back and review an older title, but Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure is just one of those games I just had to revisit, if only just to convince a few readers to save this game from the depths of the bargain bin.

Zack, a young pirate boy and a golden, helicopter monkey named Wiki travel the world searching for adventure and treasure, along with aside their goofy gang, The Sea Rabbits. During a treasure finding mission, the gang is attacked by Captain Rose, a rival treasure hunter and once the dust settles, Zack and Wiki discover a treasure containing the golden head of Captain Barbaros. The true adventure begins when Barbaros promises them his ship and treasure in exchange for finding all his missing body parts.



Each stage in the game contains puzzles that Zack and Wiki must solve in order to reach a treasure chest that contains a piece of Barbaros body. Zack must use items found in the stage to solve the puzzles, but he can only carry one at a time and can only use them on non-movable items. Wiki can turn into a bell, which when rung will turn enemies into useful items for Zack to use. In order to use items, the player must use the wii remote like the item: for example, you must pull the remote back and forth to use a saw on wooden poles.



The puzzle solving can be extremely hard in this game and even though you can buy hint coupons, you may still find the puzzles extremely hard. With lots of enemies to kill you, Zack can die a lot and starting levels over several times can be frustrating. You can revive Zack at a safe point with platinum tickets, but any cheating will diminish your puzzle score and getting a perfect score on each level is key to getting a 100% overall game score. As frustrating as the puzzle solving is, you can’t help but keep coming back to the game and when you finally do solve a level, it really gives you that great sense of accomplishment.

Capcom’s hidden treasure, Zack and Wiki has been over looked and underappreciated by many due to its misleading outer shell, but if you put the goofy graphics and annoying sound effects aside, Zack and Wiki is a really great game that will test your brain. For all the old Lucas Arts adventure game fans looking for something besides the new Sam and Max games to fill their days, this is your next gaming purchase and with such a low sticker price of $29.99, how could any one say no?

Rating: 9 out of 10
Buy it!