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| Source // Wikipedia |
For a game critically hailed as an excellent demonstration of how the Nintendo Wii and only the Nintendo Wii can do this kind of thing, and one that had the potential to change how we all interact with adventure games, there really isn't a lot of Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure out there for us to have a look at.
I've certainly never heard of it, but then I didn't pay much attention to anything that came out on the Wii. Now I've got a copy of this mysterious game, I might as well find out what it seems so many other players never did. Just what is Zack & Wiki?
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| Source // Nintendo |
Frustrations
Childlike and colourful on the surface, this adventure puzzle hybrid may look and sound like a kids game you'd be right to cast aside, and I was about to do just that after some introductions that felt like they were aimed for someone closer to a 1/5th of my age.
Zack is a wannabe pirate, and his monkey pal Wiki is, according to my notes, starting to drive me nuts with the way he sounds. They both animate like they've come out of a kids cartoon, and the humour level is right about there as well.
After the plot gets going and the basic controls are introduced, we're into the first challenge: falling from a plane without a parachute. What do you do?
Zack & Wiki is a kind of point and click adventure game, where you need to scan your environment looking for something to use to solve a puzzle, and because this is a Wii game, those puzzles involve motion controls. What do you do when you find an umbrella falling from the sky beside you? Hold the Wiimote like an umbrella handle, and push the button to open the umbrella.
Alright, I admit, that wasn't bad. Upon landing, we do some more light puzzle-solving, bashing a caterpillar to use it like a saw to cut a tree to make a bridge.
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| Source // Nintendo |
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| Source // Nintendo |
Once again, you hold the Wiimote like a saw, roughly, and use a sawing motion, or a close approximation, to navigate your way through the environment. It's silly, dumb, and fun. Not laugh out loud fun, not the best thing since sliced bread fun, but fun in the sense of knowing that this is the form Zack & Wiki is going to be taking, and it's actually competent at doing so.
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| Source // Nintendo |
Fun Times
Stumbling on the animated skeletal remains of Barbaros - or his skull, at least - the plot takes the form of helping put him back together again so that Zack can become the great pirate he dreams of becoming.
Where is the rest of his skeleton? Scattered around the island behind puzzles, of course, and as I got more into Zack & Wiki, I started to explore some of those puzzles.
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| Source // Wikipedia |
Sadly, not even Nintendo want to show any promotional images of the game beyond this point, you know, the actual game itself, so I resort to this Wikipedia image of the first puzzle where, if memory serves, you've got to use some tools to knock something out of the way to open a path to some other tools to use or something?
I have no idea, and I'm now distracted by the multiplayer hint system, which sounds like a nice feature, though surely it'd be easier to just use your hands to point at the TV and your mouth to describe the solution to the idiot behind the main controls...
Final Word
My notes, typically, are useless to me. I only played this game a few months ago but clearly didn't play enough of it to make a solid memory of what I was doing at any given point. After an uneasy start, though, I was warming to the ideas it presented.
It's a little bit of a point a click, a little bit of a puzzle game, and sometimes fiddly to actually play, but even through the annoying sound effects and kid-friendly plot, I had to admire what it was trying to achieve - and mostly succeeding at doing so.
The Wiimote can be used for a lot of things, and it seems like Zack & Wiki was trying to demonstrate that. You could make a puzzle adventure for any system, but to make Zack & Wiki required the Nintendo Wii. With a broader appeal, it might have ushered in a whole load more games like it. It might have changed how point and clicks are played.
Instead, it was brushed aside. Despite all the awards and nominations it received, sales were described as "abysmal" in some regions. Even with high scores, people weren't attracted to it.
It's not a bad game at all, once you push your first impression to the side. I should really take that approach with Warhawk, come to think of it... It looks like one thing, but plays like nothing else, and is now a sort of hidden gem.
I don't think I'll be in a rush to play it again, and probably wouldn't stick with it through to completion, but I have to give it some props for what it does, taking motion controls and making the most of them - smartly, too. Definitely worth checking out at least.
Fun Facts
I knew this hat kids cartoon written all over it: 200 names were in the running for Zack & Wiki, with the final name being chosen to describe the main characters, the plot, to appeal to children, and that people "may associate with a kids cartoon series."
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure, developed by Capcom, first released in 2007.
Version played: Nintendo Wii, 2008.