The annual Summer of Arcade 2012 promotion has brought us some audacious experiments. Indie darlings Limbo and Bastion both broke ground with their inclusion in the Xbox Live spotlight, leveraging the assured publicity to unleash their creative visions into a crowded market. Wreckateer does not continue this proud tradition. It is a Kinect version of Angry Birds. And yet… it still might be worth a look.

Wreckateer takes place in a swords ‘n’ sorcery world of knights and monsters, presumably filled to the brim with epic quests and dangerous adventures. Unfortunately, you play as your average, every-day exterminator, who has been hired by the Wreck & Tinker Destruction Company to rid the Kingdom of the Goblin Menace. Instead of tenting over the castles and filling them full of pesticides, you go straight up medieval on their hindquarter region by firing siege weaponry into their fortifications, murdering everyone inside.

Let’s not kid ourselves. Plot is as irrelevant to Wreckateer as it is to Rovio’s enraged poultry franchise. Your job is to fire a ballista into a series of castles, causing as much carnage as you can in order to rack up points. There are bonuses to be earned, special shots to be mastered, and arms to flail, but at the end of the day this is a simple arcade experience. And there’s nothing wrong with that–Fruit Ninja Kinect is a highly respected, fun, and successful title–but don’t expect some kind of radical reinvention of the grumpy pheasant formula.

Physics!

“Better With Kinect” is basically a punchline at this point, but this may be the closest any game has come to earning that tagline. Certain Finnish companies may have perfected touch controls in the “try to knock down things with other things” genre, but there is a certain satisfaction to the physicality here that is endearing. I wouldn’t doubt that this could be a fun title to bust out when you have some friends over, as it operates right at the intersection of casual and One More Try Syndrome. It also doesn’t hurt that this seems to be the most responsive Kinect software I’ve ever encountered.

You need maneuver your arms and body to simulate drawing back on the ballista, weighing the pros and cons of speed, aim, and shot type. Faster shots are more powerful, but you can more easily steer your shot in mid-flight if it has some loft to it. The expected (and necessary) ammunition variations come in every flavor you could hope for, including projectiles that splinter in mid-air and ones with large blast radii. Power ups and extra point icons float on the breeze, waiting for you to angle through them for a high score.

All of this is stock and standard, but that may be selling the content short. There are 60 unique fortifications to decimate, each presenting a more challenging arrangement of parapets and goblin jerks to flatten. There are leaderboards, a head-to-head multiplayer mode, and the ability to create custom playlists of castles, in case you want to subject your friends to a particularly relaxed or grueling experience. It also goes without saying that this game has console quality graphics and sound, which is more than can be said of certain irate Neornithes.

The scenery can be surprisingly pretty.

If there is any place that Wreckateer noticeably comes up short in a direct comparison with its furiously feathered competition, it’s the charm department. Iron Galaxy has managed some humor and personality, but I don’t think we’re going to be seeing any goblin plushies, lunchboxes, or move tie-ins any time soon. It’s such a strange thing to consider, but this downloadable title might exist in the unique position of being both outclassed by an iOS app and being one of the best games for Kinect. The mind boggles.

I recently called sports games the hardest to review because of their gradual iteration, but it’s becoming clear that casual party games exist on the opposite end of that spectrum. With a simple set-up and easily explainable mechanics, the casual party game is a cinch to summarize and deliver a verdict on. Is it fun or not? Yes, yes it is. However, it’s hard to believe that the market will bear $15 downloads when similar experiences can be had on mobile devices for a fraction of that. I guess we’ll see.

A review code was provided by the game’s publisher for review purposes and played for about 6 hours. The title is an Xbox 360 Kinect exclusive.

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Wreckateer Review

By Austin Yorski

The Summer of Arcade 2012 continues with Angry Birds for Kinect.