Zack & Wiki - Quest For Barbaros' Treasure on Wii

Sweet agony

ChrisBarraclough from London [Highly rated reviewer] , 08/04/2008

If you like the idea of dying over and over again, in a variety of deeply unpleasant ways, then Zack & Wiki is for you. It may look like a kiddies game, but it's clearly been tailored for the ultimate in masochistic pain-huggers, who take great delight in beating themselves in the crotch with a breeze block every night. Most games will reward you for your curiosity and exploration, by revealing secret items or hidden areas, but Zack & Wiki will rip open your chest and yank out your still-pulsing heart, before smashing it with a brick and [CENSORED] on the bloody remains. Simply clicking on a ladder or a flicking a switch can result in you being eaten by cannibals, crushed by a statue, turned into ice, stripped of your flesh by a stream of lava, or even have you plummet out of a plane to your untimely demise.

It is basically a puzzle game, where you have to manipulate the environment in order to reach a chest. There are baddies, but your only way of disposing of them is by ringing a monkey that can fly like a bell - whoever made this game is clearly a fan of C-grade substances, or maybe just a mentalist. And while we're on the subject, what's the point of having a flying monkey as a companion if he never bothers to actually bloody help? The chest is just across a small gap, but instead of getting him to fly over and open it, you have to whittle a small boat out of a pair of pants, then sail down a chute and catch a fish using only an Oxo cube and a Rick Astley CD, and so on and so forth until your brain bleeds out of your eyeballs and you die screaming, the same as Zack. Plus, you can finally be just within reach of the chest, but if you forgot to saw your auntie's leg off at the very start and bring it with you, then you can't melt it down to make a key to unlock the final door. Silly you, back to start.

If you like pain and death, and, more importantly, redoing things over and over again until your desire to kill reaches a crescendo, then look no further.

One-Sentence Review: What Pin-Head would play if he had a Wii (after completing My Barbie Adventure first, naturally).

More at ChrisBarraclough dot com

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Dont rent this because...

lifeinsepia from Leeds [Highly rated reviewer] , 30/01/2008

Its too long! Its a great game, but you really need to buy it to get the full experience!

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Disappointing

Murph from Reading [Highly rated reviewer] , 25/03/2008

After reading a couple of reviews about this game on a few web sites I contemplated buying it but decided to put it on my rental list. I'm so glad I did this as if I'd parted with £30 to buy this game I would have felt ripped off.

The thing that turned me off most about this game is the constant interruptions to play. Every time you collect an item for the first time on the level it has to give you the whole Zelda show you the item up close, telling you what it is with a little fanfare. And every time you go to use an item on a particular object for the first time on the level it has to show you how to hold the Wii controller, even if you’ve used that item on a identical object earlier on in the level it has to show you what to do on this one.

Being objective I’d have to admit the game play isn’t too bad and it would probably appeal to players who are close to the 7+ age rating, just not one for me I guess.

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could be good

shazzer from Llandudno [Highly rated reviewer] , 03/03/2008

i didn't play this one for very long as it was quite long winded working it out etc... i think its been made quite well and could have a good bit of game play to it but it's definatley a game you would buy and go back to, rent only if you want to keep it for a while so you get a decent game play from it.

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Active Brains

tinytoadstall from Southampton , 07/04/2009

This is a great game to keep your brain active and is strangely addictive........ The previous review of this game by Chris “Sweet Agony” is scarily accurate but I found I just could not let this game defeat me........ I enjoyed playing this in short bursts and felt it was exercising my grey cells as well as being quite entertaining........ A game for playing in between the mind numbing violence of a shoot um up.

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Great puzzles

thewoods from London , 28/02/2009

This is a fun game after you get past the annoying intro. I was expecting a point and click adventure like the old Monkey Island games but this is not that kind of game. Each puzzle is a self contained mini level with great cartoon design and some quite fiendish solutions. The Nintendo noises and cut scenes are grating, but I bought the Wii for gaming and Zack and Wiki delivers in that respect with some inspired use of the remote and required lateral thinking. Give it an hour you might like it, just turn the volume down a bit and don't play alone.

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