By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune

(MCT)
"Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure"
For: Nintendo Wii
From: Capcom
ESRB Rating: Everyone (cartoon violence)

CourtesyMCT

Wiki's constant interruptions inspire fear that, because "Z&W" is an old-fashioned adventure game on a very new-fashioned (and mass-market) gaming console, Capcom has decided to hold our hands tightly as compensation. Factor in the cutesy (albeit technically impressive) graphical style, and one can't help but pigeonhole this as a game for kids.

Fortunately, level two changes everything. The coddling stops, and "Z&W" suddenly comes into its own as an ingeniously fun point-and-click adventure game that's far more intelligent than first impressions imply.

While a storyline glues it together, "Z&W" essentially is a collection of levels, with each level presenting a treasure to acquire and a handful of cause-and-effect puzzles to solve in order to reach the treasure. Imagine a micro-sized version of the dungeons in a "Zelda" game, and you can loosely understand how these puzzles present themselves.

The big difference, of course, is the point-and-click interface _ a concept almost completely foreign to console gamers.

Fear not. It works. The indirect control you have over Zack's movement (point the cursor, press button, and there he goes) gives "Z&W" enough of a console game feel to flatten the adjustment curve, and the game makes numerous clever uses of the Wiimote when you're interacting with the many items Zack can use. Players who like some head-cracking with their puzzle-solving won't find much here, but the puzzles more than compensate by being both legitimately challenging and relentlessly original.

"Z&W's" lone stumble, beyond the first level and the occasional puzzle that falls flat, is a scoring system that penalizes you for taking chances that don't pan out. Overcoming a tricky level should never feel anything less than rewarding, but it's hard to get excited when the game gives you a lousy score for being adventurous.

Furthermore, there's no satisfaction in gunning for your high scores. Once you've solved a level, it takes no skill whatsoever to go back, do everything right, and "achieve" a perfect mark. Fortunately, the score system doesn't impede your progress through the game's otherwise sterling adventure, so you generally can ignore it.