Hello again Vizzed Board, 1gnika here with another review. If you read the subtitle for this review and thought "review for Secret of Monkey Island", you would be wrong. Instead this review is about a lesser known gem for the Wii called "Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure." Released by Capcom in October of 2007, this game was a case of a gem getting lost in the shovelware avalanche of the early Wii games. This game is quite good... to a degree. First things first though...

Disclaimer: This review is purely based on one persons' opinions and experience playing the game in question. Potential spoilers will appear during the review. This review is wholly owned by 1gnika. Any attempts at plagiarism will be met with swift justice. You have been warned.

First Impression: This is another game I got over the holidays because I heard good things about it. I popped it into my Wii and, once again, was floored. In more ways than one.

Gameplay Experience: Let us start with what you see and hear. Graphics, a good example of what is possible on the Wii. Good solid lines mixed with eye popping color, and a slight anime style to it. Sound, good quality background music mixed with cartoony sound effects, but little to no voicework. Luckily that is rectified by the expressions on the characters' faces.

Now we go to controls. It is a one-player point-and-click with just the Wiimote. Luckily, there is an option to add multiple players for a little co-op action. You might need all the help you can get, reasons which I will explain later. Motion controls are there as well to do certain tasks during the game, and they range from nice and tight to a little loose and/or awkward, your mileage may vary on that aspect.

Storywise it is quite good albiet a little cliched. Basically you play as Zack, the newest recruit for a pirate crew known as the Sea Rabbits (a bunch of rabbits no less), and his strange, hovering, golden monkey named Wiki. You are on a quest to find the mysterious Treasure Island, and the legendary ship once owned by the great pirate Barbaros. After a harrowing encounter with the Sea Rabbits' adversaries, the Rose Pirates (lead by the incredibly spoiled Captain Rose) you find the golden talking skull of Barbaros who will tell you how to find Treasure Island if you can find the rest of his body.

Accomplishing that task is easier said than done. The overall goal for each stage of the game is to open the big golden chest at the end. In the way are a series of puzzles to solve to reach said chest. How these puzzles work is quite intuitive. Aided by Wiki (who can turn into a bell to turn enemies into useable items and back) you try to solve each little puzzle in turn to solve the big puzzle. Now here is where the extra help from some other human players can come in handy, these puzzles start out easy, but then they get balls-to-the-wall hard, quite quickly as a matter of fact. It gets to the point where one screw-up somewhere will guarantee either failure, or death (yes you can die in this game). But it is quite worth it, to a degree, to see the chain reaction that occurs when you've done everything right, and ends with you getting the treasure.

Conclusions: In short, is this game good? Would I recommend it to others? In this order, yes, and if you enjoy a good puzzle, or a good challenging game overall, then yes. If not, then this game may not be your cup of tea. The puzzles are quite hard, and there is lots of other content to find in a side quest, but there is a good story somewhere in there, and there is even a good plot twist that is too good to spoil. If you can get there without breaking too many controllers.

Final Verdict: 4 shakes of a golden monkey out of 5.

Good review I never played that game but I may tell my friend about it.

I like your review, this makes me want to look it up and see the gameplay