Wreckateer is a physics-based destruction game by Chicago based developer Iron Galaxy. It follows the same type of gameplay of the famous Angry Birds, for the Ios and Android platforms. The difference here is that it is made to play exclusively through Xbox Live Arcade using the Kinect.

In Wreckateer, the player takes control of a giant slingshot ballista, aims and fires projectiles with the purpose of doing as much destruction and accumulating as many points as possible. There are two main characters, Wreck and Tinker, who will teach you the controls and give you advice as you go through 60 different stages of castles infested with goblins.

The key to success in Wreckateer is to master the 6 different types of projectiles: the basic shot, flying shot, lift shot, split shot, speed shot, and bomb shot. By motioning with your arms and hands, you can steer these shots in the air to pick up power ups and extra point bonuses before crashing in and destroying the castle. In order to advance to the next stage, you must score enough points to earn you a Bronze medal, which is the minimum amount of points required to unlock the next stage.

I played Wreckateer with another person, who doesn’t have a lot of video game experience, and found that the game is easy to pick up, play, and enjoy using the Xbox Kinect to further enhance the experience. The learning curve is really short and once we got the hang of controlling all the different types of shots, we found ourselves strategizing on how to do the most damage to the environment to get the maximum amount of points. Though this was fun to do in the early stages, as you get further in the game, the only thing that changes is the level design. The castles get bigger and more intricate, but that’s about as deep as it gets. Sure there are challenges along the way to help you accumulate Fame points for your Avatar, but the game in of itself is rather simple.

The game has a lot of replay value in that you can take mulligans to do over a bad shot or you can replay any stage to see if you can get the high score and earn a gold medal. By earning gold through the each area, you can unlock a bonus stage at the end but without a demo to see how it was done, getting the high score for each stage is very difficult. There are also weekly challenges that add some diversity but I was disappointed to see that the multiplayer only supports one other player locally as there is no online multiplayer available.

All in all, the game is fun and is not a bad buy. I would definitely recommend this game for those who already have an Xbox Kinect, especially because there aren’t really any “must-have” games for it. For 800 Microsoft points ($10), you can download this game which is now available as part of the Summer of Arcade promotion.