User Reviews (11 - 21 of 61)

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Stern but Fair

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I haven't finished it, but so far it's a great game, but quite difficult. There are definitely hair-pulling moments, but the puzzles are clever enough to keep me coming back. So far, there has never been a point where I'm stuck on one level and can't go play another one, which I think is great.

Tremendous fun with great presentation.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game marries a light hearted presentation to mind bending puzzles. The difficulty has been overstated in most of the reviews; I was expecting to get frustrated but so far I've only had to consult online FAQs a few times, and have enjoyed the game thoroughly, even when stuck. The character designs and animations are very cute and amusing. Despite being a single player game, the game is fun for spectators because they can help solve the puzzles. Highly recommended for those looking for something offbeat.

A wonderful, one-of-a-kind video game treat!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 31, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I used to lament that the "Golden Age" of PC click adventure games was largely over; the fun, fantastic themes, the crazy puzzles, and the sense of whimsy found in classic LucasArts titles has largely come and gone. It's with great surprise and delight that I say Zack & Wiki brings us a near-perfect iteration of that core game mechanic, broken down into more manageable portions and incredible use of the Wii Remote which rivals every other Wii game out there.

Using your Wii Remote, you point and click your way through each game area, creating tools (by ringing your Remote like a bell to turn animals and some enemies into a more useful alternate form like grippers, cylinders, saws, etc.). Using those tools, you solve the puzzles in each area in order to obtain the treasure chest, and then move on to the next area. It sounds like your typical classic adventure game until you witness and take part in all the amazing uses for the Remote to interact with the game. You'll make saw-like motions, twist your Remote to simulate touching a stick to a campfire to make a torch, hook a work onto a fishhook, "toss" your Remote to throw certain objects, use the Remote as a crank to drill, and about a million other things. This really heightens the sense of immersion, and makes an already fun game that much more enjoyable.

There only a few, superficial critiques of the game I can give, but they shouldn't deter you from buying this game at all. The overarching story is fairly thin, but it's not like this is a sweeping adventure in the style of The Legend Of Zelda. It can also occasionally be tricky clicking around to move Zack to a certain spot on the ground. Other than that, I really haven't much to complain about :)

This is really a must-buy game, and absolutely worth having in your collection!

Good puzzle game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: November 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Dont let the visuals fool you. This is a very difficult puzzle game.

If you are buying this for young childeren... think twice. A very good game for adults, some of the latter stages can only be solved with lot of trial and error. You need to put in some serious time to complete this one.

Incredible

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 15
Date: October 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Having finally played Zack & Wiki after months of waiting, I can say it is indeed a great game and lives up to the hype.

My favorite part is when I find an item and have no idea what to do with it - so I look at my Wiimote and think. Do I turn it upside down, make a precise swing, or flip the entire controller? Not since SSX Blur have precise movements been so important, which is a nice change from the usual "waggle" games.

Zack and Wiki is a point & click adventure game. If you're a fan of the genre, it's similar to an old Sierra game where your character can die. While newer adventure games remove all types of death and player punishment, Zack & Wiki embraces it's sadism. Death is around every corner. It adds tensity, making you really *think* your ideas through before you try them. Reasoning out a puzzle is more fun than trial and error, and Zack & Wiki's constant fear of death promotes thinking.

What separates Zack & Wiki from the traditional point & clicks is a platformer feel. There are points for finishing quickly, coins to collect, well defined levels, and of course motion controls.

If you decide to buy this game, please don't read spoilers or buy a strategy guide - it would ruin the experience. If you're stuck and it takes you a couple days to figure a part out, ask a friend to watch you play. 4 people can use Wiimotes to give you tips and help figure out puzzles - my friend solved the first boss while watching me, and she'd never played the game.

Zack & Wiki is a masterpiece. I hope developers take note of what's possible on Wii. If we can't get a sequel, we at least need copycats.

Most Comprehensive use of the controller to date

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: November 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I LOVE this game.

Okay, so you got your sky pirates, and your treasure, and a golden monkey that can fly with a propeller tail and turns into a bell... And right there it's worth the price of admission.

What you also get for your money is a well crafted puzzle game the likes of which we've not seen since Grim Fandango and the "...Monkey Island" series. There are TWO reasons the game does not get an overall 5/5 stars. Firstly is the fact that the controls are BIASED TO RIGHT HANDED PLAYERS and lefties are pretty much out of luck. If you're a right handed person, I'm sure you don't care, but one of these days I'd like some game to be left handed only and then we'll see how you like it! (/cry) The other reason is probably related to the first one, that the controls are sometimes a little hinky for me. (Particularly with the musical mini-game. I can't seem to keep time with that thing to save my life.)

What I love most about this game, aside from it's charm, is that it seems to me that somebody at Capcom obviously sat down and said "Okay, how many different ways can the Wiimote be used?" and then utilized every single way in game play.

This game would be a great way to spend time with the kids. Not only is it an exercise in reading and problem solving but additional Wiimotes can be used for spectators to point things out on the screen!

This is supposed to be a kids' game?!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: June 24, 2008
Author: Amazon User

40-plus hours of gameplay is no exaggeration, but you're a better person than I if you can get more than an hour or two into it without wanting to spike your Wiimote into the TV.

Zack & Wiki is a puzzle/adventure game with a heavy anime flavor; although the tiny amount of voice acting is in English, it's obvious that the actors are speaking their lines phonetically ("Sea Rabbits" becomes "See-Rabito," for instance). Not that I mind, except that it's sort of incongruous with the written dialogue. Other reviews have compared the gameplay to old-fashioned point-and-click adventures, but honestly, I don't think I would have made that connection if I hadn't read it beforehand; there are inventory items, but you don't keep them from one level to the next, and there's almost no plot to speak of.

To be fair, there are good things about the game; it's certainly original, and aside from the issue with the voice acting, the characters are pretty endearing; Zack's facial expressions are a hoot, and Captain Rose is adorable, in her anime-girl way.

Unfortunately, the thing that cripples Zack & Wiki is the gameplay itself. The designers made it possible to die, for instance; that wouldn't bug me, except that way too often, the thing that kills you is something that you never in a million years would have seen coming unless you either worked on the design team or you possess the gift of second sight. (Occasionally, especially in the "Flute of the Growlin' Goblins" level, the thing that kills you is the Wiimote misinterpreting the motion you're trying to make, or not make; in this level, there's a crank-operated gondola thing that sometimes keeps going even when you've stopped flailing your Wiimote.) What's worse, the game seems intent on punishing you, and punishing you dearly, whenever you do get killed; not only do you lose all of your money and points, but unless you've got an expensive "platinum ticket," you have to go all the way back to the beginning of the level. There's a hints system, but not only are the hints even more expensive than the platinum tickets, they seem to have no bearing on the progress you've made; if you've made it halfway through the level and you buy a hint, you'll most likely be told something that you figured out for yourself twenty minutes ago. (Plus, as you already know if you're reading this, we have an "internet" nowadays; why screw around with in-game hints when you can get all the hints you need from GameFAQs or any of a million other places? I'd maybe understand if Zack & Wiki was made back when there was no internet to be had, but the thing's only a year old. It's especially dumb when you realize that you can access that very same internet right from your Wii.) And yeah, you can go back and replay levels to recoup your losses if you want, but why not make it reasonably possible to get through them on the first try instead of artificially lengthening the gameplay by making you repeat everything?

To be honest, I have no idea who the designers had in mind with this one; the overall tone suggests they intended the game for younger players, but I'm a full-grown adult and I can't even get through more than five minutes with my sanity intact. I haven't beaten the game yet, and I'll probably keep trying, but at this point, it's more like a vendetta than anything else. (Plus, it seems a shame to waste the money I spent on it, although I have a feeling that ship has already sailed.) I should point out also that I totally saw the "plot twist" coming. Be smarter than me, and avoid Zack & Wiki at all costs.

Great game, but marred by interface and tedium

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 21
Date: November 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I got Z&W to play because of all of the great reviews. People said it was hard and perhaps that is why it never sold as well as it should have. I am offering a bit of criticism here, although I did find the game fun over all:

I would suggest another reason: the interface is needlessly irritating. Everything you want to do takes about two more clicks than it should. Just doing the first scene in the plane is an exercise in never-ending clicking that just makes you want to quit right there before getting anywhere. Later in the game, I certainly don't need it to always keep telling me how to use items I have used before and I every time I pick up a tool, I don't need the little animation telling me that I found it.

Once you get past the irritation of the first stage and the story gets going, you get to the first set of levels which are interesting and fun. Then, about on the third map, the puzzles become, not more complex, but just more irritating. You will often have to die multiple times on a long stage just to discover something, and you have the choice of using a ticket and losing a ton of points or just going through the tedium of solving the entire stage again. The puzzle points are designed to be awarded to a person playing through the stage after already knowing it, not for the person who is clever and figures it out on the first try.

The arcade elements often add a bit of tedium and not much challenge. You just run around a bit more to finish the stage rather than actually adding to the challenge (e.g. the snow dragon's breath stage)

There is often no indication what a particular action will do until you do it. So you click on the baby dragon's head thinking you are going to pet it, but instead you smash it on the head. A small non-modal prompt explaining the action would be more useful.

The puzzles themselves are often interesting and well thought out. It is a shame that they didn't think about the flow of gameplay and a bit more about how tedious the game can become...

AMAZING puzzle game, with decent 2-player, just poorly marketed

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The box art and the title of this game may immediately turn you off, and since it looks like something for a 10-year-old, I understand. Sadly, this game is a little too hard for most 10-year-olds and teens might feel like this game is too "babyish" for them.

So, twenty to thirty somethings are the ideal market for this game, since they may fondly remember the King's Quest, Space Quest, (etc.) point-and-click puzzle games, to which this game owes a lot of credit. Actually, it's better than those older games because the levels are self contained and feel more like individual puzzles. It loses that story arc appeal that King's Quest had, but it's worth the trade. And the best new addition to the genre is the ability to work with someone on the puzzles (up to 4 total can play at once). I'm 29 and trying to find a game that my wife will play with me is always a challenge, with the last one being Animal Crossing on Gamecube. Finally, another game she'll play with me! That alone is worth the price for me.

Please don't judge this book on its cover. It's much more than it looks, with its sense of discovery and teamwork, it's my other favorite game this winter. (Mario Galaxy, I love you, too.) Even the annoying, immature marketing choices wear away quickly, and you start to appreciate the graphics for how beautiful they actually are. This aspect reminded me of how Wind Waker, another game marketed to a younger crowd, easily won me over and even convinced me that a cartoon styled game will age better than a realistic game, like Twilight Princess. The campy cartoony style makes it over the top and fun where realism would have come off as flat, and it will win you over if you give it a chance. Now, some of the voice acting the bald guy teaching you Wiimote moves is so dumb it's funny, but other than that, this is a classy game which I hope speaks well for the Wii's future.

Return of Monkey Island?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you loved the old Lucas Arts Monkey Island series growing up, or the Indiana Jones adventure series, you will love this game. It's a console-version of the old point-and-click adventure puzzle games of the 90's. Funny and irreverent, though maybe not as much as monkey island.

This is one of the few games I like on the Wii, and intend to finish. Some hardcore gaming-types may be put off by the cartoon graphics, but I have yet to meet someone who has not been addicted to the gameplay, i.e. solving puzzles and mysteries to move ahead. It's a very innovative puzzle-adventure game, and the first one I've seen that works well on a console.

Get it.

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