Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure - E
Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this game has only mild cartoon violence. However, when you make a mistake within the game, your character can die. For example, if you walk on a trap door, you end up being impaled on spikes. But no gore is shown and you can come back to life and retry the puzzle. We set the minimum age category at 8 years old to reflect the difficulty level of the puzzles. Because the puzzles can be tricky, a great feature of the game provides parents with a way to consult while kids play by circling areas kids should investigate. Unfortunately, the lead character likes to chomp down candy bars.
Families can talk about what makes this such a good game. It is the puzzles? The characters? The banter and silliness of the dialogue? How often did you use the hint system? Zack and Wiki are the rare characters with no movies, TV shows, or long-running game series under their belt -- did you like playing with new characters? Why do you think they make more games featuring characters you already know?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Jinny Gudmundsen
Every once in a while, a video game developer does everything right. That's the case with ZACK & WIKI: QUEST FOR BARBAROS' TREASURE, this year's sleeper hit for the Nintendo Wii.
What makes this game so special is that it combines a quirky cartoon adventure, featuring a young pirate boy and his whirly-gig sidekick, with outstanding environmental puzzles that get your creative juices flowing. Plus, to keep kids from getting frustrated, the game builds in a hint system and the ability to redo fatal mistakes. And, as icing on this video game cake, the game is loaded with hilarious dialogue.
The story's premise is simple: Zack, a candy bar-munching pirate boy, wants to become the greatest pirate in the world. To do that, he needs your help finding treasure. In the game's 24 environmental puzzles, the goal in most is for Zack to get to the treasure. Standing in your way will be a variety of goons or monsters, mysterious objects, and physical barriers. Each puzzle starts with a flyover, giving you a bird's-eye view of the landscape and the location of the treasure. Helping you is Wiki, a magical creature with a tail that can spin like a helicopter. Wiki hovers near Zack and has the magical power to turn ordinary items into useful tools.
For example, in one puzzle, you arrive at a location that looks like an exotic water park. A treasure chest is hiding underwater in a cave. To get there, you need to slide down a water slide; knock out the guardian goon by having Wiki turn a frog into a bomb; find a worm to put on a hook of a fishing pole; catch a big, toothy fish by casting with the Wii remote; and then pull up a stopper at the bottom of the pool of water to drain it so that you can reach the key to the treasure chest room. Finally, you must replace the stopper to refill the pool so you can swim under the water into the cave housing the treasure chest.
The key to solving these puzzles is to figure out what you can manipulate in the environment, and in which order you must do things. If, in the example above, you slide down the waterslide before sending the frog bomb down to stun the guardian goon, the goon will grab you, truss you up, and you "die" (nothing bad is shown -- just that the puzzle is over). The good news is that you can restart a puzzle as many times as you want.
You solve each puzzle by using the Wii remote in a variety of creative ways. To move Zack, you point and click. Clicking on things around you will reveal money and hidden objects. As you work your way through the game's progressively harder puzzles, you will use the remote to twist open doors, cast a fishing rod, play the piccolo, shake animals to morph them into tools or weapons, and so much more. Some actions require timing, others require finesse. In the higher levels, you will do some fighting.
With over 30 hours in gameplay, the puzzles can be played slowly over time. There are also mini-games to explore. Plus, the game allows others to get involved as advisors who can draw circles around areas to investigate. This is a fun way for a parent and child to play together.
For another good Wii game, check out Super Mario Galaxy. Players who enjoy this might also want to check out The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, an adventure game on the Nintendo DS.
Rate It!
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ViolenceWhen you mess up, you can fall into a pit and become impaled on spikes, but it isn't gory and you can restart from the moment before you made the wrong choice. In other instances when you do something wrong, the goons can truss you up and carry you off, but again, you can always restart the puzzle and try to avoid your previous mistake. You can use frog bombs to knock out goons but it's all very cartoonish. Near the end, you have a sword fight with some zombie pirates. |
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Educational ValuePuzzles encourage logical and creative thinking. |
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