The overall structure of Zack & Wiki is a little more akin to a platformer than a traditional adventure game. Gameplay is divided into separate stages, each of which presents one self-contained puzzle taking place in a single scene; completing one stage results in unlocking others as you go along. Personally, I appreciated this separation, as it meant that everything I needed for solving the puzzle was right in front of me and I didn't need to do any tedious backtracking in order to find some tiny object hidden in some random location that I couldn't spot the first time around. Still, those who enjoy the freedom of movement offered by having many different locations and puzzles available at once may feel a little constricted in this regard. That said, the puzzles do manage to provide a substantial challenge, particularly once you get to the later levels. Most of them involve actual logic rather than guesswork, and some are impressively creative. A personal favourite obstacle of mine involves solving puzzles on both sides of a mirror, attempting to get rid of the “mirror” version of Zack guarding the level's treasure. Another one entails stealing a flute from a tribe of savage jungle creatures, who you must prevent from seeing you lest they boil you in a stew and munch on your remains for dinner.

In general, I would consider the game's puzzles entirely fair if it weren't for one major annoyance: the prevalence of sudden, unexpected deaths. Dying in adventure games went largely out of vogue by the late 1980s, and for good reason, I think. While it may be funny to watch nasty things happen to your character at times, it quickly gets tedious when you have to replay a significant amount of the game just to get back to where you were before. Plus, in many cases, there seems to be little or no obvious warning that you're going to die; some benign-looking objects actually wind up being lethal, while dangerous-looking ones turn out harmless, meaning that you often can't tell whether an action will kill you unless you try it at least once. There's no save feature present to counteract this, yet Zack & Wiki's developers did make at least some attempt to reduce frustration by adding a “revive” option, allowing you to try again from the point immediately prior to your demise. Unfortunately, this option is tied to the number of Platinum Tickets you possess, which you must purchase using coins found in levels. If you've run out of said tickets and don't have enough money to buy new ones – which happened to me often, to tell you the truth – you have no choice but to start again from the beginning of the stage.

An in-game hint system also exists, which I would have appreciated very much were it not for the fact that it wound up being next to useless. Similar to the “revive” option, asking for a hint in a level will cost you an Oracle Doll, another item that you need to buy with your coins. What exacerbates the situation is that the hints you ask for are not context-sensitive, meaning that the hint you get may be for a portion of the puzzle you've already figured out, effectively wasting the doll you just used. Eventually, I stopped using the hint system altogether, pooling my money towards buying more Platinum Tickets and consulting my trusted friend the Internet for help when I needed it.

Finally, there's a scoring system at play in each level, referred to as “HirameQ”, which is apparently some kind of Japanese pun on “IQ”. Evaluating you on how precise you are at finishing the level, i.e. how few “mistakes” you make, it seems to exist to provide replay value more than anything else, particularly given that the scoring does not have any effect on whether or not you clear a stage. Also providing replay value are additional secret treasures hidden throughout levels, as well as a bonus rhythm game to be played by shaking the Wiimote in time to some music – the latter of which I found painfully difficult, and I normally do well at rhythm games. These, too, are not essential to progressing through the game, as far as I can tell, which is fortunate, because I never felt any real incentive to proceed with them.

Overall, Zack & Wiki's gameplay is a fun attempt at adding something new to the adventure genre, yet its occasional unfairness and lack of meaningful story elements prevent it from being a true classic. I would venture to say that it feels more like a tech demo than a fully realized game a lot of the time. Still, what Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure does contribute to the genre is very significant in its own right, as a first step in moving adventure games towards a more immersive experience. Hopefully, it will inspire more developers to evolve these gameplay innovations and perhaps even integrate them seamlessly with strong narratives. If and when that happens, we might just get that great revival of adventure games on the Wii that we've been waiting for all this time.