October 22, 2007 - Every once in a while we stumble upon a surprisingly excellent videogame - a title whose smart play mechanics and stylized visuals are so well married that we're taken aback by the end result. Not necessarily because the final product is a masterpiece, but simply because it is much better than we had originally expected it to be. Take, for example, games like Rocket: Robot on Wheels, the first project from Sucker Punch Studios, or Space Station: Silicon Valley, from then-little-known software company DMA Design, which went on to create Grand Theft Auto 3. Now, Wii has its very first videogame shocker and it is Capcom's Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure. Like Rocket or Silicon Valley before it, it's a title whose concept seems obscure and surely destined for retail failure, but once you finally sit down and play it, well, it's just too much fun to ignore. We've been running the Buy Zack & Wiki in 2007 Campaign since we first discovered the game's appeal and now that we've finally quested for all of Barbaros' treasure, we can definitively state that Z-Dub belongs in your library.
Zack & Wiki follows an aspiring boy pirate and his flying golden monkey sidekick as they progress through a series of stages in search of treasure. The game features a beautiful cel-shaded presentation that reminds us very much of the style employed very effectively by Nintendo with The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. As the two characters explore icy caverns, jungles and ruins, haunted castles and lava-filled mountains, the worlds are brought to life with gorgeous graphics complete with fluid character animation, detailed architecture, advanced particle and lighting effects and a host of other visual extras, from reflective objects to foreground heat distortion. Disappointingly, though, the title only runs at 30 frames per second (and there are still dips when there are lots of particles on-screen), and the majority of storyline is delivered via text overlays and not voice acting, one of the same issues we've had with several recent Zelda projects. Z&W displays in both 480 progressive-scan and 16:9 widescreen modes.
It's a strange thing to write, but despite utilizing a control method more akin to classic adventure games - you don't actually control the hero and his sidekick so much as you direct them through levels - Z&W really uses the Wii remote well. If you've been playing videogames as long as we have, you'll be able to recall those old-time favorites - your Kings Quests, Monkey Islands and Full Throttles - whose point-and-click setup and clever hurdles drew you in. Z-Dub is clearly inspired by some of these hits of yesteryear, which may be a good or bad thing depending upon how you feel about those long-ago hits. Obviously, we still carry the flame.
In Z&W, each level is effectively one overgrown puzzle. You point the Wii remote at the screen to look around the booby-trapped worlds and then click on items, objects and characters so that the two characters will walk toward and interact with them. It's as simple as it is easy. In addition to the fundamentals, you will be challenged to hold and use the Wii remote in several dozen different ways in order to simulate on-screen tools, whether it's a centi-saw cutting through a tree branch, a hammer pounding the top of an enemy's head, or a crank turning the gears of a primitive machine. We're not going to spoil a single challenge for you, but the quality of the puzzles present in the title is second to none. Indeed, Z-Dub presents some of the smartest and most rewarding challenges in any adventure game we've ever played and it's for this very reason that you will appreciate the title. (And if the purely puzzled-based stages don't hook you, the boss fights surely will.)
Most of the Wii remote gestures needed to complete the quest add to the experience and simultaneously prove that Capcom really thought about how to make the most of Nintendo's console. That's not to say, however, that the control configuration is perfect. You're always expected to figure out the correct motion for certain tools and sometimes the answer is more obvious than others. Also, quickly and precisely pointing to some level locations and objects can occasionally be difficult. Capcom has thankfully enabled the option to pull back the camera when necessary.
The two travel through more than 20 self-contained levels, all filled with environmental puzzles and obstacles, not to mention enemies. The selection may seem flimsy - and don't get us wrong, we'd have preferred there were twice or thrice as many stages - but consider that the majority of the challenges are likely to take a half hour or more to figure out. Indeed, a few puzzles had us stumped for more than an hour. Multiple that figure by 24 and you end up with a title that will run you in the realm of 15 hours to complete, possibly less if you're a puzzling wizard, but probably more. Then, of course, you can replay stages in order to up your score because the adventure calculates how many hints you use and how quickly you're able to progress to the end of each challenge. On top of everything else, you can advance in multiple ways through some of the stages - a completionist's goal.
Closing Comments
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure is a dumb name, plain and simple, but don't let that (or the game's seemingly "too kiddie" exterior) deter you from picking it up because this is one of Wii's very best offerings. Not only is it beautiful, taking visual cues from Wind Waker, but it's really clever and equally rewarding. When you solve one of the game's booby-trapped levels, you will absolutely feel like you've accomplished a genuine feat. The puzzles will work your brain over in some cases. Bearing that in mind, Z-Dub would appear to be exactly the opposite of what its name and art style suggest – this is a game for adults and not so much kids, in my opinion.
Z-Dub is not flawless. The title's occasional die-and-retry gameplay challenges will be called cheap or even be cited as poor design by some critics. I can see the point, too, and yet I'm reluctant to make the same critique, for even when I died – and I definitely did die, trust me – I felt compelled to try again (over and over, if the situation called for it). Meanwhile, although I'm very happy with the bulk of Wii remote mechanics, a few gestures seem finicky. Finally, the title would have surely benefited from a smoother fluidity throughout – not to say the framerate is ever unbearable, because it's not, but with so much IR-based pointer functionality in levels, I'd have preferred that everything ran at 60 frames.
All things considered, though, Z&W lives up to the hype that we helped generate. The end product is one of those welcomed surprises – an unpredictably top-quality undertaking whose winning marriage of sometimes-genius environmental puzzles and beautiful graphics will suck you in. It also perfectly encapsulates what I always hope for but seldom see from third parties: an original Wii project that really makes the most of the console. And don’t' forget, Z-Dub retails for $39.99, $10 cheaper than most Wii games.
I've stated it before and I'll happily state it again: buy Zack & Wiki. If you do, maybe we'll get a sequel with twice as many levels and WiiConnect24 support for downloadable levels.
We’ve been covering Z&W for a long time running, and my enjoyment with the game still stems from the same place it always did. Zack & Wiki is an entertaining point-and-click design, but more than that it’s a game that uses the Wii remote in a fashion that sets the entire product apart from anything you can experience on other consoles. With most Wii games thus far it’s as simple as adding waggle or putting IR into an otherwise cookie cutter design – most first party Nintendo games are even guilty of this. With Z-Dub, though, it goes beyond that, as the game asks the user to perform actions that simply can’t be done without the Wii remote. This is the type of engaging, innovative interaction we all imagined when seeing the controller for the first time, and it’s exciting to see a developer that really gets what the system is all about. Even more than Mario Galaxy, Zelda, or Wii Sports, Zack & Wiki delivers an experience that you can only find on Wii.
| 9.0 | Presentation Beautiful graphics and cut-scenes, but lacks voice work. Story is funny at times. Interface is perfectly suited to the pirate theme. Lots of extras. | |
| 8.5 | Graphics Very pretty cel-shaded visuals that remind us of Wind Waker. Extremely varied level designs. Added graphic extras like advanced particles and heat distortion. Framerate suffers sometimes. | |
| 8.0 | Sound Lacks voice work for the most part, but the one-liner character calls are humorous. The music matches the stages well. | |
| 9.0 | Gameplay Point-and-click style adventure done right. Spectacular puzzles and great control. Lots of Wii remote gestures, a couple of them finicky. | |
| 8.0 | Lasting Appeal About 15 hours the first time. Better replay value than we anticipated because you can go back and replay levels to up your score. Also, some stages can be completed in multiple different ways. | |
| 9.0 | OVERALL (out of 10 / not an average) |  |
Source: http://wii.ign.com/articles/829/829301p2.html
Brian ZuckerGeneral PR Manager, VGChartzbzucker@vgchartz.com
