Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure



Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure is an Adventure Game released for the Nintendo Wii by Capcom in the year 2007. The main characters of this title are:


 * Zack, a member of a pirate crew consisting mostly of rabbits (with the exceptions being Zack, a human boy, and Wiki).
 * Wiki, Zack's monkey friend, who has the ability to change him/her/itself into a bell.
 * Barbaros, once the greatest pirate in the world, now reduced to a talking golden skull due to a curse.
 * Captain Rose, The leader of the Rose Rock Pirates who constantly make trouble for the Sea Rabbits

The plot, in a nutshell, is as follows: Zack, Wiki, and their pirate friends hear about a great treasure on a previously-uncharted island. Zack and Wiki find the treasure, a golden skull, which turns out to be Barbaros. Through the skull, Barbaros tells the duo that he will reveal the hiding spot of his vast fortune if they can find the rest of his now-golden skeleton and break the curse. Zack and Wiki accept this offer and travel across the island, solving a multitude of puzzles in order to collect the various pieces they're searching for. Most of these puzzles are solved by Wiki, who can magically transform enemies into items while in bell-form.

By the way, you'll probably die. A lot. In a number of ways that could put Dragon's Lair to shame. While the cel-shaded graphics look cute, this is NOT a game that young children can beat easily.

"Barbaros: To think, I spent my whole life as a pirate in search of gold and now I'm made of the stuff!"
 * A Boy and His X: A boy and his golden magical flying monkey.
 * Abhorrent Admirer: Talking to Barabaros for a while while he's a skeleton makes him ask you to tell Granny to stop staring and smiling at him which she apparently does all day. Make of this what you will.
 * Always Night: The haunted house themed levels.
 * Applied Phlebotinum: Wiki's Bell Form.
 * You Fail Physics Forever:  do not work that way. Not even if you're a pirate.
 * A Twinkle in the Sky: One of the many ways to get a Game Over
 * Best Boss Ever: The giant squid battle.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: Barbaros' mother always told him that pirates should, much to his confusion.
 * Butt Monkey: Those poor Goons...
 * Comically Missing the Point: In the bookshelf you can find information on the crew. When Captain Hulk was told that he was "A big guy with a big heart" he responded "Guess I should lose weight".
 * Convection, Schmonvection: Being inches away from lava does not harm Zack in the slightest. This is however subverted with the goons who while they don't die from being near lava, visibly suffer.
 * Dragon Is A Mommy: The third boss. She only emerged because Zack made its child cry and, throughout the level, only sending the tagalong baby dragon into a crying fit will provoke it to attack you repeatedly. At the end of the level, it is perfectly content to leave you alone to get the treasure after being reunited with its child.
 * Dumb Muscle: King Growl. As his in-game description puts it he's, "a few bananas short of a bunch."
 * Enemy Mine: Eventually, Zack and Captain Rose are forced to team up leading to a very unhappy Captain Rose.
 * Everything's Better with Monkeys: Wiki. Duh.
 * Everything's Squishier with Cephalopods: The  in "The Great Chase"
 * Expressive Accessory: Zack's hat mirrors his emotions from depressed to happy to even surprised.
 * Expy: Wiki bears a strong resemblance to Data from Mega Man Legends.
 * Flavour Text: Barabaros and Dimmy are a great source of trivia and interesting comments.
 * Gentle Giant: Hulk, your leader, though you only know this by what Dimmy tells you since the captin doesn't say or do anything the entire game.
 * Ghost Pirate: These appear as standard one-hit kill enemies in the Barabaros' Castle stage. There's also Barbaros' undead pirate lackies, though they look mor like pirate mummies.
 * Guide Dang It: Most of the late levels. Luckily, in-game hints can be bought in exchange for Oracle Dolls.
 * Harmless Freezing: In one of the ice levels, Captain Rose is frozen solid and is simply thawed out shortly afterwards with no ill effects. She even attacks you upon being thawed out!
 * Heroic Mime: Zack is unable to talk and often relies on his many facial expressions and Wiki to communicate.
 * Idle Animation: When doing nothing, Zack will pant in the Volcano levels, shiver in the Ice world, and simply eat some chocolate everywhere alse
 * Incredible Shrinking Man: In one level Zack can shrink to the size of an ant to go under a door, and then change back through mad science.
 * Instant Sedation: On one of the first levels, Zack has to put a sleep mushroom into the goblins' soup to ride the bird shaped vehicle to the chest undisturbed. (If he doesn't, he ends up in the soup.)
 * Irony: Barabaros' situation. Best explained by himself


 * Joke Item:
 * Lethal Lava Land: The volcano themed levels.
 * Lock and Key Puzzle: Almost all the levels.
 * Lovable Coward: Johnny is known to simply run away when there's trouble and come straigh back when all is calm.
 * Averted in the last levels in the game where he is a huge help.
 * Light and Mirrors Puzzle: Involving a laser beam and an ice monster.
 * MacGuffin: The gold bones of Barbaros and his golden hat.
 * MacGuffin Delivery Service: Zack and Wiki to Barbaros.
 * The Many Deaths of You: Squished by a giant boulder, fall into a river of magma, freeze yourself, fall off a waterfall, eaten alive... there's a multitude of ways to fail a puzzle, as the unsuspecting soon learn, and each death has a unique scene associated with it. See most of them here (and a sequel containing the rest.)
 * Marathon Level: The second to last level is incredibly long compared to all the other levels in the game, and plus there's no checkpoints.
 * Nigh Invulnerability: Whether it be bodily harm by lava, frost breath, missiles, large falls, Zack's personal use (sometimes semi-justified), the same seven goons will always appear in the next level ready for more punishment.
 * Nintendo Hard: Most of the puzzles.
 * Noblewoman's Laugh: Captain Rose excels at this trope.
 * Non-Human Sidekick: Wiki yet again.
 * Non-Indicative Name: No, you cannot edit the levels in this game.
 * Obviously Evil: Barbaros.
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: Just take a guess who the hint oracle is...
 * Pirate Girl: Captain Rose.
 * The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Most of your pirate friends just hang around the hideout and never do anything for most of the game, you're the one always dying for the treasure.
 * The exceptions are Johnny, who will commonly scout out levels to give you some advice, and Maddy, who checks around other parts of the island to find treasure while you are off looking for parts of Barbaros.
 * This is Lampshaded in the character bios, mentioning that Loafrey and Dimmy seek out treasure in their minds while Maddy seeks out treasure in reality.
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: Wiki.
 * Rube Goldberg Device: The level Three Colossi has one that leads to Zack being crushed flat unless the player finds a way to activate it without him being in the way.
 * Sequel Hook:
 * Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The second world.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: In the last level in the fourth world you are required to liquify animals into chemicals using a machine. The music that plays during the process is unfittingly peppy and silly.
 * Spoiler Opening: When they first find Barbaros' skull, he is really surprised Wiki doesn't remember him.
 * Stealth-Based Mission: A lot of times you have to navigate around guards or mooks in a level.
 * Tears of Blood: Bell Tower of Requiem has a stone face bleed out of its eyes into a bucket of water.
 * Tech Demo Game: One of the best example of a non first person supported Wii game that exists to show off the cool motions a player could do with motion controls.
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Zack's Chocolate Bar
 * Tribal Carry: One of Zack's possible "deaths" fits this trope.
 * Weird Moon: In one puzzle, you have to pick up its reflection out of a pool of water.
 * Weird Moon: In one puzzle, you have to pick up its reflection out of a pool of water.