Information

Zack & Wiki box

Reviewed On: Wii

Available On: Wii

Players: 1

Rating: PG

Genre: Adventure


Developer: Capcom

Distributor: Nintendo


Release: 21 February 2008


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In Short...

"Point and click is still alive! Puzzle solving is great fun, but there are quite a few moments of frustration that keep this from being a truly killer title."
























































Zack and Wiki is a very simple game at heart. You play as Zack, the young pirate lad seeking fame (or should that be infamy?) and treasure with his pal Wiki, a golden flying monkey that can turn into a bell (yes, this is a Japanese game). After stumbling on the talking head of one Captain Barbaros (no relation to the similar sounding captain in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, I would think), together with their pirate crew of rabbits (wtf), they set out to find all the missing pieces of legendary pirate with the promise of treasure and Barbaros’ legendary ship as a reward. The story doesn’t really come into most of the game any more than that. It just acts as a reason to go and complete the many puzzles.

The puzzles themselves all take place in a self-contained environment (or ‘level’). You control Zack with the Wiimote by pointing and clicking on the landscape, and clicking on various objects of interest lets Zack investigate them or pick them up. Shaking the remote causes Wiki to transform into a bell and Zack to uh...’ring’ him, I guess. This transforms various animals or enemies into useful tools that can be used to solve the puzzles. Each puzzle forms the entire level, and this works wonderfully. It keeps things straightforward and pure. The puzzles themselves are generally very well thought out and designed however do not let the appearance of the game fool you! This is not a piece of cake, and probably not recommended for young children. Puzzles can be quite taxing, even on my superior brain. The difficulty of the puzzles does serve to make solving them all the more rewarding, and this is where all the good points of the game lie – the puzzle design. Now, onto the bad points...

My chief complaint with this game is the frustration caused by dated mechanics. There are far too many times where you are punished with death simply for trying something, or you find that you are stuck because of the order you completed actions. Sure, this may be reminiscent of adventure games of old, but honestly, it is not needed in this day and age. Death sees you either restarting from the beginning or using a ‘platinum ticket’ to restart from the last safe point. The platinum ticket system could be seen as a means of reducing frustration, but really those tickets should be unlimited and free. Having to repeat part of the level you have already done is boring and frustrating, especially if you still do not know how to solve the next part of the puzzle and die again. It is unnecessary and could have easily been avoided. There is also a hint system whereby players can use an ‘oracle doll’ to ask for hints when stuck, however this pretty much does away with any sense of accomplishment you may have gained by completing the puzzle yourself. The most enjoyable levels are the ones where you can’t die and are free to solve the puzzle at your own pace. These are enormous fun and really make you wish the whole game was like this.

Controls also don’t work as well as they should. Objects are typically used using wiimote gestures, however the game doesn’t always give an indication of how to use them and detecting the gestures is not as good as needed in a lot of cases. As an example, you are forced to cast an anchor at one point, by swinging it around your head and throwing it forward. However, despite my many, many efforts to do just this, the anchor would not launch. After consulting an online message board, I discovered that, in fact, you needed to leave the wiimote pointing at the screen for a few seconds for it to launch, rather than just flicking your wrist like common sense would dictate. Keep in mind that this was in the middle of a boss battle, forcing many restarts. Speaking of boss battles, the point and click controls do not work well when trying to dodge lethal boss attacks. More frustration.

Play time is about 12 hours for the main story. Completists will have a lot to do after this (such as finding all the hidden treasure and getting the maximum number of points), which would add considerable time. This reviewer, for one, could not be bothered with all that though, as it didn’t sound all that enjoyable (kinda reminiscent of the Triforce hunt in WindWaker, but much longer). While 12 hours may sound short, there is very little time here that you are not actually playing the game – as opposed to lengthy cutscenes in other games – so is not necessarily that bad.

Presentation wise, the game looks simple but nice. Nothing overwhelmingly brilliant, but everything works well. Audio is generally fine, however all the characters speak in a similar way to those in the Zelda franchise, with scrolling text and the occasional noise. Voice acting would have been a much better alternative, and Wiki’s voice is bound to irritate.

Overall, Zack and Wiki is a good (not great) little puzzle game. It’s a bit of a toss up as to whether all the frustration is worth it, but there is no denying that when everything comes together, this game works wonderfully. I hope that this game sells well enough to warrant a sequel, and Capcom do away with the instant death / retry mechanics and fix the control issues. If they can do this, and keep the great puzzle design, they will have a sure fire winner on their hands. Should you buy this game? If you enjoy puzzle games and have a great deal of patience, go for it! Otherwise, maybe consider it when the price drops.

By watchers_eye



The Verdict

 Graphics: A- Simple, but quite charming. Work quite well.

Sound: B Competent, but the lack of full voice acting hurts, and the ‘voice’ of Wiki will drive you nuts. ZAAAACKUUU!!

Gameplay: B+ Puzzle solving is great fun – a pity about the dated mechanics adding to frustration!


Overall: B+

Point and click is still alive! Puzzle solving is great fun, but there are quite a few moments of frustration that keep this from being a truly killer title.













































































































































































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