Zack & Wiki for the Wii

[CheddarLimbo]

If you can push past the extremely saccharine animation and voice acting, Zack and Wiki is a really solid adventure/puzzle game. And by "adventure" I mean "old-school-Sierra-King's-Quest-point-and-click-adventure", not action-adventure like, say, God of War or Zelda.

Puzzles involve moving about smaller themed "zones" to reach a treasure chest hidden somewhere in each level. Meanwhile, you'll find yourself outsmarting or defeating various critters and bosses, and using tools within the environment to progress. Just about every item (of which their are around 50, maybe more) has its own unique motion controls. This part is a lot of fun because it means you are turning the wii-mote like a key, pushing it like a lever, or holding it at an angle like a magnifying glass, etc. Contrary to many other Wii titles, this aspect is executed almost flawlessly, and I can think of only a few times in which the controls were a problem. But half the fun is figuring out how to use the items; the game shows you how to hold the wii-mote, but not how to move it to make the item function correctly.

The game is fit for smaller kids to watch with mild cartoony violence and some monsters, but some of the later puzzles are diabolical. My three year old son loves to play with me, and tells me what I should do, or where to go. Also, other players can "assist" by drawing on the screen to point out clues, and other objects with spare wii-motes.

For the tougher puzzles, there is a built in hint system, but I highly encourage you to ignore this function, as it removes all the value from playing. You'll feel much better solving the puzzles on your own anyway.

I'd say the adventure proper has about 10 hours in it, unless you want to get all of the extra treasures. If you do, you're going to need about 15 hours at a minimum, and you'll be replaying each level at least three more times (and that's assuming you can puzzle out the crazy bonus requirements needed to gain the extra treasures). But those are all ancillary and don't give much satisfaction unless you're one of those "100%" people.

Sadly, this bombed as a commercial venture. I don't know if the publishers did a real poor job of promoting it, or what. But as a result it's very cheap at most retailers. It's easily worth the 12 bucks I paid, so if you're interested in a fun light-hearted puzzle game I vigourously recommend this game.

[Eclipse]

Thoroughly loved this game. One of the few I played to completion without interruption. It's full of neat puzzles and genuinely funny moments as the puzzles are worked out (the "mousetrap" death is my favorite). There are a couple nonsensical puzzles, but for the most part it was just a very clever, fun, unique game.