Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure is a crossover between puzzle, point & click and adventure. Released a year after Wii's launch, it was the first 'big' point & click title on Nintendo's Wii console. It quickly gained status within the gamer audience as a cult hit, but, as expected, did not gain wide recognition from the mainstream audience. Most of the people who have played Zack & Wiki agree that it is a unique title which deserved better sales, and the game had a lot of loyal fans trying to promote it.

Zack & Wiki differs from traditional point & click adventure in an important aspect: the lack of an intricate storyline. You play as young pirate and chocolate addict Zack and his life-long buddy, Wiki the flying monkey, members of a pirate clan called the 'Sea Rabbits'. The start of the game sees your plane being attacked by the rival pirate gang of the Rose Rock Pirates, led by the hysterical Captain Rose. When pilot Johnny Style emerges with the only parachute, you plummet earthwards into a forest. Solving a small puzzle, you find a treasure chest containing the golden head of the legendary pirate Barbaros.

This marks the beginning of your journey to collect all of Barbaros' body parts. He has promised you that if you succeed, he'll give you his legendary ship and take you to Treasure Island. But will he keep his promise? And what about Captain Rose?

As you can see, the storyline is thin and shallow, but this game is all about the gameplay. From the Sea Pirates' hideout, you can choose a stage to play from a Super Mario World-style map. When you've entered the stage, you have to explore it and find items. Then, you have to use and combine these items in order to reach the treasure. The difficulty of these stages is shown by a rating in stars: one-star puzzles are insanely easy, while a ten-star puzzle will require a lot of repeat plays, brainpower and thinking-outside-the-box.

A new dimension is added to the game by Wiki's special power: the ability to turn into a bell. Ringing the bell near the game's various creatures will turn them into objects: a mole will become a drill, while a centipede turns into a saw. Also, this power can be used to immobilize patrolling Rose Rock pirates.

This game's hidden power lies in the feeling of satisfaction it gives you. Especially on the later stages, getting to the treasure gives you a feeling of joy few games can match. You are further ranked by the strangely named HirameQ-system: completing a puzzle in the ideal way will earn you maximum HQ points, while you will hardly get any points if you screw up too often or die. When you see your hard work rewarded with an 'Unpuzzleable' rating (the ultimate rating, achieved by combining the perfect techniques with seemless timing), it simply makes you happy. And on top of that, it will train your brain and thinking ability. Time spent on Zack & Wiki is time well spent.

Zack & Wiki features some of the greates control sets seen on the Wii so far. It is the perfect example of a game that would have been radically different (worse) if it wasn't for the Wii Remote. You'll find yourself placing objects into mechanisms, twisting and throwing things, cruelly pulling the tail of a baby dragon, picking up a phone, fishing, and so on. Walking is handled by typical pointing & clicking: just aim the cursor to where you want to go and press A. This game makes full use of the Wii Remote and does not require a Nunchuk.

The contrast between the game's bright, colourful and slightly childish presentation and its sometimes incredible 'hardcore' difficulty is one of the reasons it has struggled to find an audience. But when you are playing, the childishness quickly becomes a great feat. Capcom has seized each and every opportunity to have the game make fun of itself: the sounds Wiki makes are exaggeratingly baby-like, and the dialogues are supreme in their sarcasm.

This comedy value is increased by the 'cheap-deaths' which lurk around the corner in some stages. In such a 'childish' game, seeing your hero being impaled, burned, flattened and frozen can make you burst out laughing.

In short, Zack & Wiki is a great title with a completely own identity, cherished by its fans as a game to remember. It has something for every audience, will increase your thinking ability, looks gorgeous and is a lot of fun to boot.