Let’s get one thing out of the way right away: Zack and Wiki has a stupid title. I’ll admit, when it was first announced I completely ignored it because I thought it was a game based on some horrible Nickelodeon cartoon series. Don’t let Zack and Wiki’s title and outward appearance fool you into thinking this is a game for kids though. Zack and Wiki is a challenging, lengthy adventure that will have you ripping your brains out through your nose trying to figure out its tough puzzles. The challenge is all worth it though, as Capcom’s latest effort is also one of the best games to come out on the Wii so far.

The story centers around two characters: Zack, an aspiring young pirate, and his magical flying golden monkey named Wiki. The two are members of a gang of pirates called the Sea Rabbits, and their general purpose in life is to find treasure (what else do pirates do?). Of course, a legend tells of a great lost pirate ship that holds almost infinite wealth and notoriety to whoever can find it. After your plane is forced to crash and you’re given a quick tutorial, the two characters meet up with the disembodied golden head of the great pirate lord Barbosa. Barbosa then instructs you to find the rest of his disembodied parts so he can return to his normal self. In exchange, he’ll show you to the ultimate treasure ship. Pretty good deal, hey? So, Zack and his bizarre monkey friend set out on the adventure to become the world’s ultimate pirates.

Zack and Wiki plays like the adventure titles of old. Instead of having direct control over your character, you simply point and click at locations on the screen and your character will move to it. Click on an item, and Zack will interact with it. This control method works almost all of the time… sometimes you’ll find yourself not getting quite as precise control as you want, or have trouble making Zack pick up a particularly small item. Where the game truly shines is where you get to use your items. Shaking the Wiimote will turn Wiki into a bell, and his magic powers will transform living things into items. Turning centipedes into saws, boars into hammers, moles into drills… anything you can think of is possible. Zack can then use these items to solve puzzles in ways that can only be done on Wii. You’ll have to hold your Wiimote sideways and turn it like a crank to operate the drill, or move it back and forth like a saw to saw through wooden planks. This unique control scheme really gives the title a feel of only being able to be done on the Wii. Of course, some items work better than others. Rotating blocks around to fit in a puzzle by twisting your wrist just feels awkward. Generally though, the items work brilliantly. This is certainly a title built for the Wii, and it shows.

Where the game loses some its marks for me is in its difficulty level. Now, I love a tough game as much as the next guy, but Zack and Wiki artificially inflates its difficulty level with extreme trial and error gameplay. You’ll have gone through an entire level, spent half an hour solving all the puzzles and collecting all the coins, only to be killed by something completely random right at the end. You’ll press a button and an unexpected chain of events will cause a giant boulder to roll and crush you. Or you’ll start to fall down a cliff, and unless you grabbed that umbrella before you triggered the event, you’re hosed. Of course you can use a Platinum Card, an item which revives you just before you died, but these are in short supply and are very expensive to buy, not to mention decrease your rank on each level. The game also softens its difficulty by providing you with Oracle Dolls, items which you can use to give you hints. But again, these are pricy, limited, and decrease your rank. Fortunately, the random deaths at the end of the levels only happen once every four stages or so, and the puzzles that surround them are brilliant. It’s so rewarding when you finally figure out how to make that giant icicle fall and reveal the treasure chest. Capcom’s crafted a game that is always challenging, but never feels impossible. Oh, the boss ‘fights’ are great too, definitely some of my favourite stages throughout the game.

Zack and Wiki is a pretty easy title to look at too. It implements beautiful, Wind Waker style cel-shaded graphics, and it all looks amazing. The fire levels especially impressed me, with the heat shimmering and floating ashes. There is some noticeable slowdown however, especially during the boss fights. It never really detracts from the experience, since Zack and Wiki is a relatively slow moving game anyways, but it’s worth being noted. The musical score is nice and calming, which is excellent. None of it is very memorable, but it’s better than annoying music. Speaking of annoying, how about that voice acting. None of the characters actually speak, instead following the Banjo-Kazooie route of making random sounds while the text appears. And it’s horrible. All the character sounds are so grating and irritating… during the mass of exposition at the start of the game, you just want to throw your controller through the TV. Once the game gets going everybody shuts up, but the thought of Barbosa’s voice acting will still haunt you in your sleep.

Zack and Wiki is a fairly lengthy title, clocking in at around 10 – 15 hours depending on how fast you figure out the puzzles. You’re awarded a certain number of points (the game calls it HirameQ, and I have no idea what that means) for completing the puzzles quickly and without trying stupid things. Getting the max amount of HirameQ and not using any Oracle Dolls and Platinum Tickets will increase your rank. Your completion time for each level will also be saved. This encourages replaying the levels, but you really won’t play through a level more than twice. Once you have all the puzzles figured out, it’s easy to get a perfect score. It would’ve been nice if Capcom had implemented some kind of online leaderboard for the completion times so you’d have something to compete with other than your own best times.

Here we come to the major problem with Zack and Wiki, and it’s not something that will detract from its score at all. The graphics, the voice acting, the title… it all screams kids game. But Zack and Wiki is so far from being a kids game it’s silly. It has a super high level of challenge, something that will turn kids off. However, older gamers will be drawn to its rewarding gameplay and puzzle design that utilizes the Wiimote wonderfully. Zack and Wiki is a great game that can not be done on any other console, and for that reason alone it should find itself sitting in your Wii as soon as possible.

SCORE: 8.6/10