This is a colourful, ocasionally frustrating and enjoyable game
The Good: Beautiful artistic graphics and soundtrack – Great puzzle design – Lovable characters – Superb use of the Wiimote – Fun for the whole family
The Bad: Weak story
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Zack & Wiki is one of those games that doesn't look so good in paper, and really what can be good about a pirate kid with a flying monkey that turns into a bell as a partner? It sounds like a Cartoon Network show. But its so much more than that, a surprisingly good adventure game, but by adventure i dont mean adventure like Ratchet & Clank, Banjo or Mario, its a point and click adventure, and a good one at that.
In the game you'll take control of Zack and Wiki (duh) a duo of pirates working for the sea rabbits (which is some kind of pirate team). One day Zack & Wiki are on a expedition and get attacked by the Rose Rock rival pirate team, Zack and his partner land on an island, where they find a chest that contains the skull of the legendary pirate Barbaros. He'll ask you to find all his body parts and in return he'll grant you a wish, and so this incredible adventure begins. It's not the most original story, nor is interesting at all, so thats one point where the game fails. But Zack & Wiki are a great duo, they're not too cute for their own good like it happens in Dewy's Adventure, but they're cute enough to be lovable, in addition Johnny Style (the pilot) is a really funny character that will make you laugh more than once in the adventure.
During the game you'll find yourself in a set of different stages, from a volcano to an ice palace, each has two different areas in the beginning, but after you beat those you'll unlock two or three more and after they're finished a boss fight (if you can call it that) will be unlocked. Each area is relatively small, and short, but the puzzles are so well done that it'll take you more than half hour sometimes to beat it. For this one you'll only use the wii remote and just point to where you want Zack to move and press the A button so he goes where you want him to go.
Interaction with the objects and enemies is crucial in this game. There are many things to do to solve each puzzle, and each uses the motion controls in a unique way; to pull levers, place items where they're supposed to be and such. But you dont get the items right from the start, to get these items you'll use Wiki and shake the wiimote so he can turn into a bell and itemize your enemies, centipedes become saws, bats become umbrellas and spiders become rackets. Good news is the motion controls work great, almost flawless. In addition three other people can help you out in the game, the first player controls Zack and the rest highlight items that could be useful, its not great, but it does what its meant to do well.
During the first play-through it could take about twenty hours, but there's a lot of replay value because you always want to get a better score in each level, in addition you can also buy tokens to get hints and extra lives that are very useful because they'll respawn you in the point before you where killed, these are very useful, not only because you can get stuck a lot but also because if it wasnt for that you'll be restarting quite often.
The graphics are beautiful, they're are cartoony and colourful, but that doesnt mean the animations are not great, its quite the oppossite, plus there are also some great looking lighting effects. And the music is not less good, the soundtrack is gorgeous and fits each stage very well.
All in all Zack & Wiki represents one of the best third party effort on the wii so far, it has beautiful graphics, superb gameplay and its challenging, a must have for any wii owners.
