As you progress through the puzzles, you’ll gain HQ points with more points being awarded for completing tasks quickly and not requiring multiple tries to complete a task. Once the stage has been completed, your HQ score will translate into a rating as well as go towards a cumulative score that determines what level of fame Zack has achieved. You’ll also be able to find coins during the stages which can then be used to buy oracle dolls for hints when you get stuck in a puzzle, revive tickets for when you die in a puzzle, or to pay one of the other pirate rabbits to go out and find special treasure such as songs from the game, or character and item descriptions.

The ability to get treasure helps extend the game’s longevity as once you’ve completed the game’s 20+ stages to resolve the story, you can go back to the various stages and complete them in different ways, or do various tasks to unearth special treasures as well as get more money to send your foraging pirate friend out for more items. As you complete the game, the library back in your pirate HQ will fill up with descriptions of some of the items you use in the game, however the only way to fill up the majority of the entries is to either uncover the treasure once you’ve completed the main game, or pay to have them found for you. Also, given that some stages have multiple paths to completion, the completionist in you will want to do every stage in every possible way so that you don’t have one incomplete totem entry in your item book staring at you and mocking you for your laziness.

There are some complaints, but they’re minor and in should in no way act as a deterrent to picking up the game. As mentioned before, the story is somewhat weak and doesn’t have the same depth or scope you’d expect from an adventure game. The voice work is minimal and can be very annoying with half of the cast voiced by what sounds like an extremely eager Japanese schoolgirl. It’s certainly nothing you’d mute the game over, but it can be annoying. Also, in later levels, one of the puzzles require a fair amount of setup, at least half an hour when you know exactly what to do, all to get to one moment of fairly twitchy gaming where a misstep by even half of a second means you’ll be cashing in one of your revive tickets, provided you had the forethought to buy them. Again, it’s not a deal breaker, but it can be frustrating.

Thankfully, even if you have to do a puzzle multiple times, you’ll be treated with gorgeous, colorful, cel-shaded graphics and lush, detailed environments. The frame rate can dip at times, particularly when you’re asking Zack to run around when there’s a lot going on in the background; however it never affects your ability to complete a puzzle.

With so many publishers looking to cash in on the Wii’s success, it’s always nice to see a game appear that is nothing but quality from top to bottom—the fact that this game is ten bucks cheaper than other Wii offerings makes it an even sweeter deal. Zack and Wiki may not bowl you over with its story, however the beautiful graphics, fiendishly clever puzzles and spot on motion controls makes it one of this year’s standouts on the Wii and an utter joy to play.