Wreckateer is a game that pits you versus castles. It is set in a green, hilly environment where any respectable castle should reside. It's not the most intricately detailed game, but the 3D environment is nice and pleasant. It's a fitting backdrop for destructions and explosions, that's for sure. Your Avatar is the star of the show, so you know what the main character is going to look like.

The voice work is actually pretty clever, hinting at pop-culture and hitting some subtle comedic marks. It brings it a little step above your average avatar-based Xbox Live Arcade game. The background music is happy and upbeat, sometimes incorporating a kind of medieval flair with flutes and other old world kinds of sounds.

I do long for explosions that are just a bit more fiery. I also wish more of the debris could linger, and the destruction looked a little more real. Everything seems to crumble the same way, and wood simply splinters into a few tiny pieces, not really keeping its original mass. It often doesn't look like you're punching holes into heavy stone buildings, waiting for the impending teetering crash. Rather, the buildings seem to mostly evaporate at and around the point of impact. Also, not much of the wrecked castle remains after you smash it, so you don't get that lingering giant pile of rubble that really makes you feel like you accomplished something. The more detail the better in these kinds of games, and while Wreckateer is pretty good, it could be much better.

Wreckateer sets you on a path of destruction, apparently a career path, because this is a job that requires training. You have two mentors to show you the ropes, Wreck and Tinker. They will show you how to use various types of shot that explode, fly, and so on. Of course they'll show you the basic controls on Kinect as well.

This is mainly a physics/puzzle game, so it's not particularly heavy on story. However, your motivation for destruction is mainly to get rid of goblins. Yes, apparently once these little guys move into a castle, the only option is to forcibly evict them by means of total destruction. It seems a bit harsh, but I guess that's life in Wreckateer.

Progressing through the game opens up new weapons, and of course new castles to destroy. You don't earn new weapons, per se, you have to use what is allowed on each level. This variety is fun, but sometimes the variety doesn't seem to feel much different. For example, there are a couple ways to speed up your projectiles, but it just doesn't feel much faster than a regular projectile.

The game is not multiplayer, but you can compete in Avatar FameStar Challenges to up your FameStar level. The FameStar system is something that shows up in other Avatar based games on XBL, so if you are into this kind of thing, Wreckateer can help you boost your score and give you new Avatar outfits.

Like any physics based game, it takes a while to get used to how things work. After a while, you can predict how things will fall and how they might cause a chain reaction of destruction. Wreckateer isn't really a high pressure, goal-oriented game. You can try to achieve different medal levels for each level such as Bronze, Silver, and Gold, but you can also just have fun destroying stuff. So while the game isn't particularly hard to play, if you want to earn all those medals, you'll have to take some time learning the ins and outs of each weapon and level.

Wreckateer is a Kinect controlled game, so it's going to have you up and moving your arms, but it's not a particularly active game. Standing for long periods of time is about the most taxing thing this game makes you do. You'll also look a bit silly with the arm-waving and contorting you'll have to do, but it's at least not difficult to get the hang of.

One of the basic controls make you lift your arms like you're pretending to be a plane. Then you'll tilt a bit depending on the direction you want to take. You might also be using your hands to "knock" the projectile you just fired in order to get it to change direction. That particular control was my least favorite, as it didn't seem to influence the projectile's path easily, and it often didn't register as a hit (turning your game into a frantic flailing session). Actually, I longed for a little more play in the physics, or maybe some projectiles that behave a little more chaotically. I wanted to play with the flight, and perhaps have it follow my hands a bit more closely, but it felt more like I was simply suggesting changes to the projectiles. A game like Boom Blox on the Wii, where you only influence the strength of your throw (for the most part) and you're only knocking down blocks, does more to make you feel connected to the destruction, oddly enough. The fact that you have to laboriously guide each projectile to its destination in Wreckateer doesn't help either. It just feels like something extra you need to do on top of setting up the shot and choosing the power level. It's like golf, but you need to run after the ball and keep batting it up in the air until it lands.

Wreckateer is a decent enough destruction game. It's just not the most satisfying destruction experience. You can turn it into a friendly party game by taking turns on the same level, but it takes some effort to get around the linear nature of the levels if you'd like to enjoy it this way.