I’ll get started by stating the obvious. Zack and Wiki is one of the most innovative and unique titles for any system this generation. This game can’t be done on any other console. It just isn’t possible. Not only is it a great game, it’s a great third party game; which is something Nintendo has been lacking. From start to finish, this game is a personality filled point and click adventure with mind bending puzzles that will leave you feeling like you have been challenged as a gamer.

First thing I’m going to point out is something everyone should have noticed by now, the beautifully crafted cel-shaded visuals. Simply put, these visuals bring life and personality to the game. It is obvious that Capcom spent their time with trying to create a gorgeous game on the obviously underpowered Wii. Surprisingly, the title only runs at 30 frames per second, which isn’t a problem to me. Where the problems begin is when the game dips below 30 frames per second when a lot of particle effects are being shown. While this doesn’t happen often, it happens enough to become a slight annoyance every now and then. Don’t fret though, this game still runs in beautiful 480 progressive-scan and 16:9 wide-screen modes.

Next on the plate is the audio. Surpringly for me, the music is epic. It fits the stages perfectly. No matter what stage you are in, be it jungle, ice, lava, or anything else, the music fits perfectly and adds that extra layer of immersion which makes the experience that much better.

Last, but most definitely not least, is the game-play. You follow a young pirate, Zack, and his his flying golden monkey, Wiki, on a quest to find all of the missing parts of Captain Barbaros’ body. While the idea is simple enough, some of the puzzles are not. Obviously, the game progresses in difficulty, but what you wouldn’t expect from this kiddy looking game is that some of the later puzzles are mind-numbingly difficult. You will be losing your life often in this game due to booby-traps and mistakes you make which will sometimes make the level unbeatable.

But what really sets this game apart from the rest is how you approach it. You tackle the game using only the Wii-mote to control Zack and his interactions with the environment. This is the part of the game that makes Zack and Wiki a truly great game. You control Zack by pointing and pressing A to tell him where to go. While this sounds simple enough, I would have liked an option to control him with the nunchucks analog stick. It can be a tiny bit of trouble commanding Zack where to go sometimes. In addition to controlling Zack, you will take control of various items and use them throughout the level to help you get to the treasure. Since each item has its own control scheme, this can add a good amount of variety to the game.

Ending Comments
Zack and Wiki is a great game that deserves to be picked up. With a $40 price tag, it should be considered a sin to not pick this game up. It wonderfully revitalizes the point and click genre on Wii. While not perfect, its flaws are small enough to be forgiven. I personally thank Capcom for giving us this game. I think all of us should thank them for their wonderful support by buying this great game.

• Graphics-8-Beautifully crafted with some frame rate drops.
• Audio-9-Epic music that fits perfectly with the levels; lack voices.
• Gameplay-8.5-Great point and click adventure; great level design and challenging puzzles; lots of great Wii-mote usage, some uses could have been crafted better.
• Overall Package-8.7-A great value for $40; last around 15 hours for average gamer, only replay value comes with beating your own scores and multiple ways to beat some levels.