Previously known as "Project Treasure Island Z", the recently-christened Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure has been catching a number of eyes, not least for its highly colorful style, but also because of the way it's played: it's a new entry in Wii's revival of the point-and-click adventure genre, married with motion-sensitive Wii controls for performing a number of different actions. It's played entirely with the Wii Remote.
At this past E3 show, I worked my way through the tutorial and briefly poked around a few of the demo levels. The tutorial started out with the titular Zack (a chocolate-loving pirate) and also-titular Wiki (his flying monkey) aboard their airship, the Sea Love It. Zack's sleeping, and you need to wake him up.
The tutorial kicks off explaining how to get around and interact with objects through the use of humorous dialogue. The Wii Remote is held pointing the screen, yielding a cursor; pointing at a spot on the screen and pressing A will make Zack walk there. You can drag around the pointer in this fashion and Zack will follow.
Interacting with objects is done in much the same manner; pointing at them will make the cursor change, and pressing A will do some context-sensitive action. In this case, it's talking to the pilot of your ship, Johnny. You'll then need to look around and figure out what's going on with the ship, which you can do by holding the B button and moving the pointer to the edges of the screen. (I actually found this rather difficult to pull off, but my problem was likely the tether Capcom had to keep ne'er-do-wells from walking off with their Wii Remote—it was much too short.) Once you've found out that there's a red alert siren flashing away, you can select it by pressing A.
But why's the alarm going off? Next stop is the camera icon, in the upper-right corner of the screen. This will pan out to a much larger view of your surroundings, and you'll see that your tiny little ship is surrounded by a much larger one, piloted by beskirted piratess Captain Rose, rightful owner of all treasure. She orders your ship shot at and dumps a number of her own goons on it, who commence hammering away at its hull. Johnny ejects at this point, and Zack is left with Wiki to figure out how to bail.
In the corner of the ship is a lever. The usual point-and-click works here, but you're not done yet. The game's trademark comes into play here: moving the Wii Remote in some way to use the in-game objects. Once you've selected the lever, you'll need to mimic pulling it by holding your Remote perpendicular to the ground and pulling it toward you; the in-game lever is pulled and Zack and Wiki go flying out the back door of the now-disabled ship, which explodes in a shower of crates.
Zack and Wiki are now in free-fall to the ground below. Wiki suggests Zack take a look around to see if anything might help him, and sure enough, one of the crates (off the corner, requiring the B button to find it) has something interesting in it: an old, closed umbrella. Wiki suggests Zack inspect it, which is done by clicking the item icon that now shows the umbrella (it seems Zack only carries one item at a time, though it's possible this was limited to the tutorial and level fragments I saw in my playtime.)
Inspecting the umbrella throws it up on the screen; Wiki suggests Zack look at it closely. The Remote can be used to rotate the umbrella and check it from all angles, but that's not even really necessary: you'll see pretty much right away there's a round white number 2 on the umbrella's handle. Yep, you guessed it: pressing the number 2 on your Remote pops the umbrella out, and Zack begins drifting safely downward.
Wiki has one more thing to tell Zack how to do: throw items away. Just go to the item icon and drag the item off it. Doing so disposes of Zack's umbrella, which puts him back into freefall...
Zack's fall is broken by a tree, and he finds himself hanging upside-down. He won't get out on his own, though; you'll need to work it out for yourself that you should shake the Remote. Once you've done that enough, Zack will fall out and spot what he's really here for: treasure. Unfortunately, danger also lurks, as his ship's carcass is heading toward the spot where he's standing, halfway down a waterfall—you'll see it approaching in a cutaway on the corner of the screen, giving you a lengthy but still limited time in which to escape.
The treasure sits on land that looks safe, but getting there is another matter; there's a sizable gap. A tree on the edge of the ledge you're on can be pushed on, but it won't budge; what does budge is a menacing-looking centipede.
Wiki takes this opportunity to explain his own strange dual nature: in addition to being a flying monkey, he's also a magical bell of sorts. Shaking the Wii Remote like you would a bell transforms him and makes him ring; the ring transforms the centipede into a useful item for Zack: a Centi-Saw. (Ringing him again near a dropped object will return it to its original form, Wiki notes.) With the Centi-Saw in hand, select the tree, and start cutting away at it with Remote movements toward and away from the screen, and eventually it'll topple.
Crossing the tree leads to the treasure chest, which is haunted by an evil spirit. Ringing Wiki again (useful fellow, eh?) will expel the spirit, and what's inside... well, I'll leave that for you to find out, when you play the game. Suffice it to say you're launched on your bigger quest at this point.
Zack & Wiki tickled me most because of its entertaining dialogue. I really did spend an awful lot of time working my way through the demo tutorial (as well as taking notes), but the whole thing was highly enjoyable. The characters ooze personality both visually and orally, something I'm really looking forward to when I get a chance to play the entire game later this year.
Putting the game on Wii gives you the ability to share it as you play; it strikes me the game would be very well-suited to playing as a family, which I plan to do when the game arrives later this year. Zack & Wiki is coming this October, and I'm looking forward to the adventure; I hope you are too.
At this past E3 show, I worked my way through the tutorial and briefly poked around a few of the demo levels. The tutorial started out with the titular Zack (a chocolate-loving pirate) and also-titular Wiki (his flying monkey) aboard their airship, the Sea Love It. Zack's sleeping, and you need to wake him up.
A Not-So-Gentle Introduction
The tutorial kicks off explaining how to get around and interact with objects through the use of humorous dialogue. The Wii Remote is held pointing the screen, yielding a cursor; pointing at a spot on the screen and pressing A will make Zack walk there. You can drag around the pointer in this fashion and Zack will follow.
Interacting with objects is done in much the same manner; pointing at them will make the cursor change, and pressing A will do some context-sensitive action. In this case, it's talking to the pilot of your ship, Johnny. You'll then need to look around and figure out what's going on with the ship, which you can do by holding the B button and moving the pointer to the edges of the screen. (I actually found this rather difficult to pull off, but my problem was likely the tether Capcom had to keep ne'er-do-wells from walking off with their Wii Remote—it was much too short.) Once you've found out that there's a red alert siren flashing away, you can select it by pressing A.
But why's the alarm going off? Next stop is the camera icon, in the upper-right corner of the screen. This will pan out to a much larger view of your surroundings, and you'll see that your tiny little ship is surrounded by a much larger one, piloted by beskirted piratess Captain Rose, rightful owner of all treasure. She orders your ship shot at and dumps a number of her own goons on it, who commence hammering away at its hull. Johnny ejects at this point, and Zack is left with Wiki to figure out how to bail.
In the corner of the ship is a lever. The usual point-and-click works here, but you're not done yet. The game's trademark comes into play here: moving the Wii Remote in some way to use the in-game objects. Once you've selected the lever, you'll need to mimic pulling it by holding your Remote perpendicular to the ground and pulling it toward you; the in-game lever is pulled and Zack and Wiki go flying out the back door of the now-disabled ship, which explodes in a shower of crates.
A Pirate, A Monkey, An Umbrella
Zack and Wiki are now in free-fall to the ground below. Wiki suggests Zack take a look around to see if anything might help him, and sure enough, one of the crates (off the corner, requiring the B button to find it) has something interesting in it: an old, closed umbrella. Wiki suggests Zack inspect it, which is done by clicking the item icon that now shows the umbrella (it seems Zack only carries one item at a time, though it's possible this was limited to the tutorial and level fragments I saw in my playtime.)
Inspecting the umbrella throws it up on the screen; Wiki suggests Zack look at it closely. The Remote can be used to rotate the umbrella and check it from all angles, but that's not even really necessary: you'll see pretty much right away there's a round white number 2 on the umbrella's handle. Yep, you guessed it: pressing the number 2 on your Remote pops the umbrella out, and Zack begins drifting safely downward.
Wiki has one more thing to tell Zack how to do: throw items away. Just go to the item icon and drag the item off it. Doing so disposes of Zack's umbrella, which puts him back into freefall...
On the Ground
Zack's fall is broken by a tree, and he finds himself hanging upside-down. He won't get out on his own, though; you'll need to work it out for yourself that you should shake the Remote. Once you've done that enough, Zack will fall out and spot what he's really here for: treasure. Unfortunately, danger also lurks, as his ship's carcass is heading toward the spot where he's standing, halfway down a waterfall—you'll see it approaching in a cutaway on the corner of the screen, giving you a lengthy but still limited time in which to escape.
The treasure sits on land that looks safe, but getting there is another matter; there's a sizable gap. A tree on the edge of the ledge you're on can be pushed on, but it won't budge; what does budge is a menacing-looking centipede.
Wiki takes this opportunity to explain his own strange dual nature: in addition to being a flying monkey, he's also a magical bell of sorts. Shaking the Wii Remote like you would a bell transforms him and makes him ring; the ring transforms the centipede into a useful item for Zack: a Centi-Saw. (Ringing him again near a dropped object will return it to its original form, Wiki notes.) With the Centi-Saw in hand, select the tree, and start cutting away at it with Remote movements toward and away from the screen, and eventually it'll topple.
Crossing the tree leads to the treasure chest, which is haunted by an evil spirit. Ringing Wiki again (useful fellow, eh?) will expel the spirit, and what's inside... well, I'll leave that for you to find out, when you play the game. Suffice it to say you're launched on your bigger quest at this point.
Impressions: Being A Pirate
Zack & Wiki tickled me most because of its entertaining dialogue. I really did spend an awful lot of time working my way through the demo tutorial (as well as taking notes), but the whole thing was highly enjoyable. The characters ooze personality both visually and orally, something I'm really looking forward to when I get a chance to play the entire game later this year.
Putting the game on Wii gives you the ability to share it as you play; it strikes me the game would be very well-suited to playing as a family, which I plan to do when the game arrives later this year. Zack & Wiki is coming this October, and I'm looking forward to the adventure; I hope you are too.