Joystiq hands-on: Zack & Wiki

Here's the scenario: the treasure chest is overhead and guarded by a wall of fire that can be deactivated once you fill a statue full of water using a seemingly unreachable fountain below. Capcom's Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure is a fun game that is almost guaranteed to be ignored because of its cartoonish visuals. And it's a shame, too, because we had a lot of fun.

The motion controls of Wii remote are used extensively. Movement is done via pointing our protagonist to objects he can interact with. Creatures can be turned into useful items -- here a column that can be used to fill a birdge and plug a lava hold. Our favorite little detail came with using the empty bottle. We couldn't figure out how to draw water from the well until we actually turned our wrist over and filled up the bottle as if we were in real life. It's not a megaton feature, but it certainly shows the attention to detail being taken with the title.

We're not going to start a campaign to buy the game, but we'd definitely recommend you check it out. Zack & Wiki is a great example of how to utilize the Wii remote and a smart adventure / puzzler. The game is due out later this year.

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