Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure

Although many games have incorporated adventure elements, pure adventure gaming seems to have gone the way of the proverbial Dodo bird in favor of other video game mainstays like action and platforming. This is where Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure dares to be different. It is an adventure game first and foremost, one that ignores the conventional demands for perfect timing and frantic button-mashing to focus instead on the need to explore anything and everything.

Say hello to Zack and Wiki, the strangest pirates you'll ever meet.

The two characters doing all of this adventure are none other than Capcom's newest stars, Zack and Wiki. Zack is a rookie want-to-be pirate with a taste for treasure and chocolate bars. His faithful companion is a golden flying monkey with a helicopter tail named Wiki. Together, these plunderers embark on a journey for fortune only to discover a treasure chest with the cursed golden skull of the legendary pirate Barbaros. In exchange for assembling his scattered gold-encrusted remains and lifting the curse, Barbaros promises Zack and Wiki the way to Treasure Island along with his famous ship. To do this, Zack and Wiki must travel to a variety of venues across the map and brave the multitude of traps, savages, and creatures that stand in their way.

Zack and Wiki brings back adventure gaming in a way rarely seen on a console: point and click, or more accurately, point and mash. Rather than move Zack with an analog stick, players simply point to where they wish him to go and push the A button - no Nunchuk necessary. The same is true for interacting with objects. The camera zooms in for more precise interaction with the various items that must be found to successfully clear each stage.

Shaking trees and looking under rocks are the most common ways to find items, but the most useful objects are found in the creatures that Zack and Wiki encounter. When snakes, centipedes or other beasts show themselves, players can shake the Wii Remote to have Zack summon Wiki for assistance. Your monkey partner has the unique ability to turn into a bell that transforms certain creatures into useful objects such as "slither grippers" for grabbing out-of-reach items or a "centi-saw" for cutting down trees.

First level: saw down a tree before you get squashed by your plane.

Interacting with objects changes the camera view to first-person so that there's no confusion as to where to point. A smiling mannequin in the top right corner of the screen will then demonstrate how an item is to be used with the Wii Remote (assuming Zack is holding it). Although the figure looks a bit out of place against all of the detailed scenery, it does a nice job of showing gamers how to perform the necessary motion.

Pointing and clicking for movement may take a few minutes to adjust to for gamers raised on analog sticks, but the gestures are highly intuitive and satisfying to perform. When Zack has to cut down a tree, players make a sawing motion; when Zack has to drop a coconut down a hole so it hits a snake on the head, or stack three stones in a certain way, players simply turn their hand as they would in real life. The accuracy of the motions may make puzzle solving all the more tricky, since they could be so obvious that players over think them.

Between each stage, Zack and Wiki will retire to the hideout of their Sea Rabbit pirate gang. Here, the duo can ask for useful hints, buy items, send one of the Sea Rabbits to search for treasure, view statistics, check the progress of old Barbaros, or plan their next adventure on the map. This elaborate menu is creative, although a bit cluttered, and the members of the Sea Rabbits are charming, colorful folk.

What other game features a bunny as an airplane pilot?

The scenery of the stages is colorful and beautiful. The initial environment is a jungle setting with lush coconut trees, water slides, ruin structures and hungry savages (must be all of their dancing). The cartoon-like look of the game works so well that even the most realistic 3D-obsessed gamer will probably find the style appealing. The frame-rate ran smoothly with only an occasional hiccup in progressive scan and widescreen. While the sound effects of the game are crisp and appropriate to the scenes, the absence of voice acting in favor of text and weird Zelda-inspired squawks can be annoying.

Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure looks like a thrilling adventure even from this early stage. Come back for Stage 2 as the adventure continues.