Game Review: Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure
Rated by 1 member
What Parents Should Know
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 Media Review
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.
