AMN's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Capcom's Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaro's Treasure stars a young pirate named Zack, who, along with his sidekick, Wiki, sets out to hunt down the legendary Barbaro's treasure. The title unfolds as a point-and-click adventure, similar to old PC games like Sam & Max, using just the Wii-mote's pointing capabilities and motion-sensing for all its control needs. The adventure takes you through a number of diverse areas, ranging from snowy locales to the depths of a magma-filled volcano. The goal is simple: reach the treasure chest at the end of each stage. But completing said goal is anything but simple or easy. This is an incredibly challenging – and rewarding – affair. While there is some story dialogue throughout Zack & Wiki, the star of the show is its intelligent, challenging puzzle design.

What's Hot
When it gets down to it, there's a very simple thing that makes Zack & Wiki such an instantly lovable Wii game. It's smart. Damn smart, even. The game's dev has engineered puzzles that challenge in ways that few games do today. Zack & Wiki's level and puzzle design is intricately designed and linked together, constantly impressing. In fact, it's hard not to wonder, while playing the game, why can't all Wii games be this good? It's particularly remarkable that many of the stages in the game can be completed in a number of ways. While the bulk of the adventure is fairly linear, there are exceptions. The nice thing about Zack & Wiki is that the puzzles just make sense. The underlying coherency of its design often allows for multiple approaches to solving each area. Each has a logical solution, and even though it's an incredibly difficult game, it never stops satisfying.

The game's difficulty is offset by its humor. The humor throughout Zack & Wiki is likable, although depending on your personal tastes, you might disagree. Zack, for example, loves chocolate candy bars. During intense cut-scenes, it's not unusual for the camera to pan back to Zack, who will be munching on a crunchy chocolate bar – with not a care in the world. The game's spilling forth with this kind of lighthearted, fun humor.

Snugly tying the humor and level design together is the game's diverse level design. Just as you start to get tired of an area, you're done with it, and it's time to explore a totally new world. This keeps the game moving forward, with few dull moments.

Lastly, Capcom has made superb use of the Wii-mote and all of its capabilities. Pointing and clicking to explore areas is as intuitive as it gets. It might not be a game that anyone can beat, but it's one just about anyone control. Want to go somewhere? Point and click. Want to investigate an object? Same thing. Even cooler, the adventure challenges you to really think. If you're holding a goblet and want to fill it with water from a fountain, simply motion dipping the cup into the water and pulling it out. It's cleverly done.

What's Not
The very thing that distinguishes Zack & Wiki from your run-of-the-mill game – its challenging difficulty – is also its downfall. Some will simply be turned off by the game's almost heartless, unforgiving attitude. When you mess up, it's your fault. Entirely. Start the level over. Indeed, later in the game, there is a lot of trial and error, which can become frustrating. You'll have to redo the same parts multiple times before arriving at a solution. We love the challenge offered by Zack & Wiki, but simultaneously, there are times where it can become overly difficult.

The game's theme can't help but remind us of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and like Zelda, Zack & Wiki sometimes feels mute because of its lack of full voice-acting for its dialogue. There is some voice work – laughs, giggles and so forth – but it quickly become repetitive. Additionally, some dialogue is repetitive, too. For example, each time you find a piece of Barbaros, you're met with the same lines of text every time.

As a whole, the Wii-mote controls are superb, but there are a few instances in which it fails to accurately detect your motion gestures, which is unfortunate.


Final Word
When we first started playing Zack & Wiki, we found ourselves instantly liking the adventure. There's something undeniably fun and enthralling about this point-and-click adventure. The level design and puzzle design are sweetly wrapped together, creating a wholly entertaining experience. The controls, meanwhile, define Zack & Wiki. Nintendo made the Wii-mote so we could play console games like it. Furthermore, the adventure is thoroughly satisfying, thanks to its challenging difficulty level. That said, the difficulty could be a turn off for those that can't cope. It's not an easy game. Still, we love.

Playing Zack & Wiki, we couldn't stop thinking about how Wii needs more games like it. That's because it's true. In fact, the industry needs more games like it.

This is a must-play.