The Nintendo Wii had an incredible first year. The console has already surpassed the Xbox 360 in sales, worldwide, despite the fact that Nintendo has been struggling to meet demand. Sadly, Nintendo has also struggled with getting good games on store shelves. To make matters worse, Smash Bros. was delayed. Not all hope was lost though, the Wii still had 3 big games this holiday Season; Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, and Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure. With Smash Bros out of the picture, theres more reason to buy Zack & Wiki. Sure, Zack and Wiki is probably not as good as Smash Bros may end up being, but it's still one hell of a game. I would say the game is like Myst, Zelda and Pirates of the Caribbean, with the difficulty of a Rubik's Cube from hell. As far as story goes, it's similar to Pirates of the Caribbean. Jack & Will.... I mean, Zack and his flying monkey, Wiki, are the newest members of the pirate crew, The Sea Rabbits. While they're being shown the ropes, they're shot down by a rival group of scallywags, lead by the beautiful Captain Rose. Fortunately our dynamic duo makes their escape, and are also lucky enough to stumble upon a treasure chest. When they open the treasure chest, they find the skull of the cursed pirate, Barbaros and strike a deal with him. Barbaros agrees to give Zack his ship, but in return Zack must find the missing bones of Barbaros. So Zack & Wiki set off on adventure, to search the globe for treasure and of course, the bones of Barbaros.



It's not the most engaging story, but it does have the charm of a Saturday morning cartoon. Especially considering the graphics are cel-shaded, so the game does in some ways, look like a cartoon. Which isn't a bad thing, because the cel-shaded style still looks pretty snazzy and clean for the most part. Also, the characters have a lot of personality and can be pretty funny. For example, when Zack gets really cold he chatters his teeth, like a cartoon character might. It's always cool to see little details like that, and it adds to the whole cartoon vibe. The music also fits in pretty well with the atmosphere. You probably won't go around humming music from the game, but it does its job. When the level calls for something spooky, you'll get music that will give you the heebie jeebies. But there is one problem, there isn't much voice acting going on. Zack and a few of the other characters will shout stuff out here and there, but you won't hear anyone actually talking. Some voice work would have really put the presentation over the top.



Don't let the cutesy style throw you off. You're not any less of a man if you play this game. You're more of a man if you're able to beat this game, because it's hard as hell. The game is a point and click adventure, with some puzzles similar to the ones you would see in Zelda. Each level starts off with a treasure chest in plain sight. There will be plenty of puzzles you must solve first, before you can take the treasure and skedaddle. The levels are filled with tools that will help you reach your goal. The tools you use will have you flipping, twisting, dropping, and even throwing the Wii remote to solve puzzles. But if you're not careful or if you're stupid, you'll fall in to a booby trap, and get yourself killed. Not everything is obvious, as some puzzles will have you stumped for a couple of minutes to an hour, depending on how smart you are. If you're an idiot like me, you'll get stuck for an hour or two. Don't let this frustrate you too much. Once you figure things out, it become a very rewarding experience.



At the end of each level you're scored on how well you did. So this gives you more incentive to go back and replay levels. You can replay to increase your score, for fun, or to find even more treasure. There are also multiple ways to beat some levels and to top it all off, the game can last about 15 hours, so there is plenty of lasting appeal. Different themed stages will keep you interested throughout the experience. Some levels will put you in the middle of a ship battle and other stages, will have a stealth theme that would make Sam Fisher eat his heart out. The many different themes will keep the game fresh for all of its challenging 15 or so hours of gameplay.



Zack & Wiki does have its problems though. The frame rate did drop a couple of times on me, more voice acting would of been nice, and the Wii remote didn't always work flawlessly for me. A few times, I got a bit frustrated because of this. And it is possible that the difficulty might turn some people off. Besides those small problems, the game is worth every penny. It's only forty dollars, and it's one of the best Wii titles available. Zack & Wiki is funny, challenging, and the puzzles are very satisfying. It's especially fun taking turns with a girlfriend or boyfriend (by the way, I'm looking for a girlfriend. So if you're interested we can play Zack & Wiki together. Send me a private message at the forums). Seriously, if you're a Wii owner, go pick this one up.