Wreckateer

A great title for kids. Many of the plain jokes and goblin humor is not lost on the younger crowd.

You use solid motion controls to control projectiles that wreck castles. It's basically Angry Birds on Kinect: it just works much better than anyone could have anticipated, given the Kinect's pedigree so far.

Actually, Wreckateer is so good that you can't help to ask yourself why Rovio Entertainment hasn't yet gotten around to launch their disgruntled poultry at Microsoft's motion sensor.

Wreckateer is a Kinect-game that actually works. That alone makes it better than most other Kinect-games. It resembles Angry Birds so much that Microsoft should give a portion of its proceeds to Rovio, but that doesn't mean that Wreckateer isn't a lot of fun to play in short sessions. Many different projectiles to shoot with and a challenging score-system can't prevent boredom from setting in after longer sessions though. Consider this a nice snack.

Visually vibrant, solid play mechanics and colorful characters make Wreckateer an attractive game for the casual set, but quirky Kinect controls keep it from greatness. This is the perfect example of a game where Kinect should have been an option, rather than mandatory.

Those looking for something new on Kinect will find this game simple but refreshing. It has plenty of durability and can become challenging sometimes, and motion detection works very well, although physics are not as spectacular as they should be. It lacks some charm and originality, but it is one of the best downloadable titles for Kinect.

One the best games published this year for Kinect.

A good "ballistic destruction" game, with functional and well-thought motion controls and overally satisfying gameplay. With better artistic and level/puzzles design could have been a real must-have.

Wreckateer's merry destruction is backed up by enjoyable score-chasing and good Kinect controls.

In the end, Wreckateer has all the hassle of the Kinect, all the smoke-up-your-ass style of Peggle, all the gameplay of Angry Birds, and a little Shrek-style humor for good measure.

There's a rich, deep, accessible and fun score-attack game lurking not far beneath Wreckateer's rubble, but it never fully reveals itself.

I do have say though that the game can be repetitive and there is not a lot of incentive to play once your done; however, given the affordable price of 800 MS Points, Kinect owners may just want to take a serious look at this downloadable title.

Wreckateer is, surprisingly, the best of the first three 'Winter of Arcade' releases. It's not a particularly ambitious or exciting game, but it meets its own fairly modest goals with only a few hiccups, and shows that full body motion controls can be fun, even when they don't always work the way you'd like them to.

It's a solid game and can definitely provide some fun, but it's not anything unique that you'll be itching to invite people over to play.

In longer sessions, Wreckateer exposes the extent of its creativity, leaving you with little to wonder about and discover as you grind through too-similar stages. But it works both as a Kinect puzzle game and a relaxing casual diversion.

When it works though, the game is incredibly fun and I was having a blast destroying castles as I eradicated the goblin menace. It was completely random when the game wanted to 'work' and when it didn't. When it worked I didn't want to stop playing, but as soon as I started having issues with Kinect recognizing me and not doing what I'm intending I wanted to turn it off right away.

Kinect actually works. [Issue#89,p.88]

There's a lot to like about The Wreckateer; it's a fun, if slightly lightweight offering, and its Kinect controls are well implemented. But as good as it is, The Wreckateer won't win over anyone who isn't already convinced by Kinect. It looks like players may have to wait for the next generation of consoles before that's even possible.

Thanks to some interesting gameplay mechanics Wreckateer reserve a few surprises, leaving satisfied those who were looking for a fun and disengaged approach able to donate a little bit of extra challenge.

It's a "3D Angry Birds", no doubt about that, but it can be fun, especially if you invite your friends over to your house for some party play.

The closest thing so far to a 3D Angry Birds game, but although the Kinect controls are fine it's the gameplay and visuals that need adjusting.

In small, small bites, Wreckateer's chaos is infrequent enough to be relatively inoffensive. It's actually well-suited for a party game, as its score-chasing design and habit of overstaying its welcome are built for frequent turn-passing. But trying to storm through a few dozen castles in one, single-player session is an invitation for dismay, because in Wreckateer, repetition isn't education - it's punishment.

We were disappointed both by the game's wonky physics system and the Kinect's strange lack of sensitivity, which had us constantly wishing we could just pick up on Xbox controller and play without flailing around. It's fun, but just like the castles inhabiting the game's many stages, Wreckateer is full of structural weaknesses that make it way too precarious, and one bump away from collapse.

Wreckateer's main problem has nothing to do with Kinect; the game's fatal flaw is that it never manages to engage with its audience. The hollow, unmemorable levels are bountiful yet unspectacular, and the game's tumbledown physics feel so commonplace and uneventful that even the novelty of aiming with Kinect can't save it.

Iron Galaxy knows how to make the most of Kinect as simple gestures make technical shortcomings of the motion detection hardware almost disappear. However, good controls don't constitute a good game: The deconstruction of too many similar castles does not translate into the same kind of ridiculous fun you get from Pain, Flatout and others.

A flabby flap-fest. [Oct 2012, p.85]

Even if you've been hankering for a reason to dust off your Kinect, there is no shortage of fleeting distractions better suited to the task.

Wreckateer is an interesting experiment and certainly one of the more accurate Kinect titles with clear and responsive controls (despite a large space requirement) but it forms an uneven experience.

Sadly, it runs out of ideas by the halfway point (there's no online play), offering little more than increasingly steep medal targets that put you at the mercy of the game's rather inconsistent physics. Worse still, some levels have very rigid solutions, which sit awkwardly next to the knockabout, anything-goes approach of the early game.

Entertaining at first, the repetitive grind of 60 cookie-cutter levels wears on you quickly in this Angry Birds clone.