Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure

Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure is a pirate adventure from Capcom that set out to make full use of the Wii Remote as a tool for solving puzzles rather than just a gadget for swinging a sword. The player takes on the role of young pirate Zack, who alongside his monkey Wiki searches for the treasure of the legendary Captain Barbaros. Wiki can also transform into a golden bell that instantly resets the current puzzle to its start - a handy safeguard against frustration, since every level is one large, interconnected puzzle.

Each map in the game functions as a single complex puzzle in which objects, animals, and mechanisms interact with one another, and the player must figure out the correct sequence of steps from start to finish. Wii Remote controls are worked into the puzzles quite literally - the player turns a key in a lock by tilting the controller, saws with a hand motion, or swings on a rope, and these gestures aren't just for show but are genuinely necessary for progress. The level design ranks among the most thoughtfully constructed of its console generation, and the game rewards patient thinking far more than quick reflexes. Solving the puzzles also often requires experimentation and attentiveness to small environmental details that at first glance seem like mere scenery.

Although critics praised the game highly for its originality and clever puzzles upon its 2007 release, it flopped commercially and became one of the classic examples of a great game noticed by only a handful of players. Today it ranks among the sought-after cult titles of the Wii library. Why play it: Because it's one of the most cleverly designed point-and-click adventures ever released on any console.