Wreckateer

 Xbox 360
Metascore
67

Mixed or average reviews - based on 46 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 46
  2. Mixed: 32 out of 46
  3. Negative: 1 out of 46
  1. Destructoid
    Jul 24, 2012
    90
    While the storyline may be a bit hokey and the voice-acting a bit childish, the fun that can be had with the gameplay and smooth easy motion controls just can't be denied. It's the best kind of fun: simple to play, but hard to master. It's a casual motion controlled game that actually works well, and offers up real satisfaction when that control pays off it high scores and massive destruction.
  2. G4 TV
    Jul 23, 2012
    90
    Wreckateer nails what Kinect play ought to be. You feel utterly ridiculous flapping your arms around, but it's fun rather than frustrating.
  3. Planet Xbox 360
    Jul 23, 2012
    90
    If you're up for some destruction and don't have Angry Birds handy, this is clearly the next best thing.
  5. InsideGamer.nl
    Aug 21, 2012
    83
    A great collection of bullets and smart level design make Wreckateer a compelling and challenging puzzle game.
  6. XGN
    Aug 11, 2012
    80
    Wreckateer is one of the first Kinect games since the camera's release in 2010, that actually works well. We've had tons of Kinect games that found a mare's nest. That makes it a huge relief when we discovered that Wreckateer works as it should work.
  7. Console Monster
    Aug 1, 2012
    80
    As far as Kinect games go Wreckateer is one of the better ones available, and at 800 Microsoft Points you really can't complain for several hours of gameplay.
  8. Gamereactor Denmark
    Jul 30, 2012
    80
    One of the best Kinect titles ever to be released on XBLA. Surprisingly fun, and if you have a Kinect for your Xbox 360, it'd be almost wrong not to give Wreckateer a chance.
  9. Gamestyle
    Jul 25, 2012
    80
    Not the best game on XBLA by a long shot, not even the best Kinect game, but a solid addition to anyone's catalogue.
  10. Eurogamer Sweden
    Jul 23, 2012
    80
    Wreckateer brings comedy and controlled chaos to the destruction business. It will give you tired arms and sore shoulders, but it is worth it. As a downloadable title it is a pure steal and must be considered a required try (if not buy) for every Kinect-owner.
  11. Gaming Age
    Aug 6, 2012
    75
    It definitely feels like it works, but I'll freely admit that I wish the game had some type of optional controller support like Child of Eden. Still, as a Kinect only experience, it's worth checking out for owners of the hardware that are probably finding little reason to keep it plugged in at the moment, and I think you'll definitely get some enjoyment out of it.
  12. TeamXbox
    Jul 30, 2012
    75
    Wreckateer gets a lot of things right. The gameplay is accurate, responsive, and fun. It challenges advanced players that want to get gold while maintaining the fun factor for a younger audience. A little more variety with the structures could've taken the repetitiveness out of destroying familiar variations of the same castle. Wreckateer is a diamond in the rough.
  13. Game Informer
    Jul 26, 2012
    75
    While I can forgive The Wreckateer for lacking innovation, I can't forgive these lapses in execution – especially in a game that demands so much of the player. I enjoyed the game despite its flaws, but it's a missed opportunity for developer Iron Galaxy and Microsoft.
  14. Official Xbox Magazine
    Jul 23, 2012
    75
    What redeems Wreckateer, ultimately, is its variety. Each gleefully cartoony castle is sprinkled with point targets, explosive satchel charges, cowering goblins, and special icons that make your shot speed up, bounce, and so on.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
5.5

Mixed or average reviews- based on 18 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 18
  3. Negative: 6 out of 18
  1. Xborn74
    Jul 28, 2012
    7
    "Wreckateer" is an XBLA game, exclusive for Xbox 360 and with Kinect, which costs 800ms points and has 1.66 GB of download size. The game"Wreckateer" is an XBLA game, exclusive for Xbox 360 and with Kinect, which costs 800ms points and has 1.66 GB of download size. The game tells the story of a novice in a medieval demolition company (a job called Wreckateers), which tests new ways of destroying castles, with the use of a crossbow and special bullets.

    The game's graphics have a colorful and relaxed look, with a more animated style, and 3D effects, with an overall look more "cutesy", being other games with the graphical style, that we see in games like Fable Legend. The details of the characters are exaggerated and have a more strange look, remembering dolls. The enemies and characters so the game has a more childish apparence.

    Your avatar appears in the game, but it's translucent, controlling the crossbow. The castles have some visual details, that follow the same pattern, but the emphasis in this area is in the details at the demolition action, with landslides and smoke, all in slow motion.

    The game has various effects of destruction, which are different for each type of ammunition used, and destroying things in seqência fireworks are released and shown on the screen, which has several bars and graphs points final score curves. The style of the castles has a nice variation at each stage, and the towers collapse and the fall can destroy other towers, or the houses that are behind them, like in a falling domino game.

    Audio: the game has an adequate instrumental music track, passing through medieval to the liveliest tunes, such as the ones whe see in Kingdom of Keefling and Fable, the characters have all voiced dialogues, with English accents. The other sounds are good.

    The gameplay fully uses Kinect, and has the goal of destroying structures in the target castle, causing destruction and cumulative multipliers, yielding a score final. In order to obtain the different scores medals of the game (gold, silver and bronze), we should destroy structures and gat bonus points, either by detonating explosive charges trapped in castles, or killing Goblins in places that are around you. Killing the Goblins, gather bonuses points and a Mulligan, which is activated with the left arm, which symbolizes a stage in-game Retry to try to score better.

    The crossbows are controlled by you joining arms in front of you, to load them, going back to provide tension and guiding up or down the shooting angle, and opening the arms to shoot. Thereafter, and depending on the type of bullet, you can control the trajectory of the shot, and it may have different effects in the targets.

    We can take control normal crossbow shots, using his hands, with two magical Gauntlets - the normal bullet is fired and uses hand movements to be able to maneuver it, in order to pass through shield-like markers zones to get the target zone (usually with an extra point icon, like 5K or 10K). We also have the flying bullets, which are activated after being thrown, opening the arms and is used to control the inclinations of his trajetory, in the shield zones, and we have other varied bullets as the Split, which are formed by four interconnected magic structures, which can be controlled to and rotated horizontally more targets.

    At each stage of the nine stages, we have score bars to be reached that are shown to the left of the screen, and that strate the points needed to score and medals, and multiplayer that can increase the final score. The sensitivity and detection of body movements in this game are good (to control the flying bullets and crossbow), and easily learned. To control the crossbow, do not need much space to the front and back, but need some space to the sides.

    The game also provides unlockable avatar items, and is the first game of a program called Famestar Avatar (which will be activated on Full House Poker and Kingdom of Keeflings among others), which allows you to use points earned in it for the weekly specials such items avatar and clothing.

    Summary: for 800MS Points, with a nice Kinect gameplay driven by destruction style points (like in early Burnout games) and inspired by Angry Birds like games (aim-shot-destroy targets like games), this is a causal game, worth the investment, especially when you have children. The action of destroying things ends up being a bit addictive, but can get boring over the medium to long term - still, the cost / benefit and enjoyment of the game make it worth your money.    … Full Review »
  2. Sevendust94
    Jul 26, 2012
    9
    When I initially purchased the game, I immediately became frustrated when the kinect-controls seemed to do things on their own. I finallyWhen I initially purchased the game, I immediately became frustrated when the kinect-controls seemed to do things on their own. I finally discovered that my controller was on and causing some kind of strange interference with the on-screen avatar. Once I got the controls to work properly, I found the game to be an absolute blast. I thought only my son would enjoy it but 2 days later my arms are sore from playing constantly trying to set high scores.

    +only 800 ms points
    +kinect controls work very well(post-Issue)
    +does not get boring like angry birds and the games are not really comparable at all anyway

    -Trying to see leaderboards is a bit of a task
    -strange controller interference
    -physics could be better    … Full Review »
  3. TheDesertFox
    Sep 7, 2012
    7
    Da pochi giorni è disponibile, grazie ai ragazzi di Iron Galaxy, sul marketplace di Xbox Live, l'Arcade Wreckateer, ovvero il primoDa pochi giorni è disponibile, grazie ai ragazzi di Iron Galaxy, sul marketplace di Xbox Live, l'Arcade Wreckateer, ovvero il primo gioco che sfrutterà il sensore di movimento Kinect nel tentativo di bissare il successo avuto dal gameplay di Angry Birds su dispositivi mobili, ma questa volta riproposto su di una home-console. Difatti non dovremmo far altro che, con dei 'semplici movimenti', caricare una enorme balestra e abbattere ben 60 castelli(uno per livello) per completare la nostra avventura medievale.

    Appena fatto partire il gioco, tuttavia, la prima cosa che ci salta agli occhi è la scritta 'with Avatar Famestar', difatti, Wreckateer è il primo gioco ad utilizzare questo programma di ricompense ideato da Microsoft, che ci permetterà, previo il completamento di determinate sfide, di acquisire, una volta raggiunti abbastanza Famestar Points nel nostro contatore, bonus in-game come vestiti o particolari oggetti per il nostro avatar(come già permesso dal servizio UPlay di Ubisoft). Microsoft ha già annunciato i prossimo giochi che utlizzeranno questo servizio, e saranno Fire Pro Wrestling, Homerun Stars e Avatar Motocross Madness.

    Wreckateer ci vedrà assunti dalla ditta di distruzione di castelli popolati da Goblin 'Wreck & Tinker Destruction Company', che tramite un breve tutorial ci spiegherà come dovremo muoverci per adoperare la nostra balestra. Un passo avanti con le braccia tese per afferrare l'elastico di tiro, un passo indietro per tenderlo, a seconda della forza desiderata, potremo girarci a destra o a sinistra, in alto o in basso a seconda di dove vorremmo mirare, e poi via! Basterà allargare le braccia improvvisamente e il colpo partirà verso il nostro bersaglio. Avremo ben sei diversi tipi di proiettili a disposizione, tutti dotati di power-up differente, si va dal semplice masso, di cui potremmo modificare la direzione mediante l'utilizzo di due mani virtuali che appariranno subito dopo averlo scoccato dalla balestra, al proiettile spaccato, che potremmo dividere in quattro parti aprendo le braccia al momento desiderato in maniera da riuscire a colpire una parte più ampia del castello di turno, passando per il colpo alato, che ci farà mimare un aereoplano nel tentativo di colpire il punto desiderato, e altri che incontreremo più avanti nel gioco.

    Dal punto di vista grafico il gioco non è proprio il massimo, i castelli dopo qualche livello dimostrano un po' poca ispirazione, sicuramente è tutto volutamente 'minimalist', ma almeno gli effetti di crollo delle mura e delle torri potevano essere curati un po' di più. Lascia anche l'amaro in bocca l'impossibilità di scatenare veri e propri effetti domino, difatti le distruzioni avverranno solo previo collisione con i proiettili da noi lanciati, mentre il danneggiamento di altre parti di castello dovute alla caduta delle parti colpite avrà inspiegabilmente effetti minimi.

    Il comparto sonoro del gioco non presenta nessuna musica o effetto degno di nota, solo qualche piacevole musica di pura ispirazione medioevale, ma niente più.

    L'estrema giocabilità e l'immediatezza dei comandi sono il punto di forza che rendono Wreckateer un gioco che ci sentiamo di consigliare a tutti i possessori della periferica di movimento Microsoft, difatti previo l'acquisto alla cifra di 800 punti, avremo garantite parecchie ore di divertimento e di sfida alla ricerca dei punti deboli dei vari castelli che incontreremo livello dopo livello. La modalità multiplayer competitiva presente nel gioco ci darà la possibilità di confrontarci con un amico in una battaglia al colpo più distruttivo risultando più che divertente.

    Che dire Iron Galaxy, ha senza dubbio creato un titolo piacevole e divertente che calza a pennello con l'utilizzo di Kinect, ma la cose che mancano veramente sono una fisicità 'reale' dei colpi, come quella presente nell'ottimo Angry Birds, e una ispirazione artistico/tecnica che rendano il titolo piacevole da vedere almeno quanto da giocare. Vi consigliamo di provarlo prima di acquistarlo.

    VOTO: 7,0/10(www.videogicoare.org)    … Full Review »
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