Wheel World Review

Confession time: I’m not very comfortable on a bicycle. I did learn to ride as a kid, yes, but it was a little bit later than I think many kids learn and my opportunities to ride were pretty infrequent. Let’s be honest, I also begged to keep the training wheels on a little longer than I probably needed them. For this reason, I now always feel a little bit hesitant to get on a bike, but I still understand the allure. Although I didn’t ride very much back in the day, I’ve still been blessed with the experience of gliding down a hill with the wind whipping past my cheeks. I’ve felt the freedom that comes from coasting through neighborhoods on a sunny spring day.

This is my very long way of saying that when I first saw the Wheel World trailer, the idea of an open world cycling game intrigued me but I had my concerns. Would I feel the same uncertainty when I mounted the bike in the game? How closely would it simulate my awkward fumbling for gear shifts, or when I lose my pedalling cadence and my feet spin wildly for a moment, searching for any kind of resistance?

Wheel World in Action

One of my favorite types of gaming moments are when a game simulates a real life experience that feels inaccessible to me, but makes it just a little bit easier. I want the rose colored glasses to be left on when I imagine what this might feel like.

Wheel World, by developer Messhof, is an open world adventure and racing game for cycling sickos. You play as Kat, an unassuming new player on the scene of a riding-obsessed land. At the start of the game you meet Skully, a powerful spirit in charge of helping spirits transition between worlds. In order to make this transit, Skully possesses a legendary bicycle… which has been scrapped for parts. Together, Kat and Skully must transform the rusted hunk of junk that remains back to its former glory and save the world.

Just like riding a bicycle (but better)

I immediately breathed a sigh of relief when I began to kick the tires on my ride. Even the janky, rusted bike you start off with felt smooth and intuitive to maneuver. This was what I was looking for. All of the adrenaline of leaning into curves and rocketing down hills without any of the awkwardness or fumbling that I usually bring to the mix.

The controls start off very simple: pedal and brake, but you also quickly unlock Skully’s special boost ability. Boosting does just what you would imagine, giving you a little extra burst of speed if you need it in a pinch. In order to recharge your boost you need to prove your prowess on the bike by drafting, catching some air off a jump, or other minor tricks. Accomplishing these felt great. I finally felt as cool and capable as I’ve always hoped I would while cycling.

I immediately breathed a sigh of relief when I began to kick the tires on my ride. Even the janky, rusted bike you start off with felt smooth and intuitive to maneuver. This was what I was looking for. All of the adrenaline of leaning into curves and rocketing down hills without any of the awkwardness or fumbling that I usually bring to the mix.

It’s not the size of the parts, it’s how you combine them

I am an absolute sucker for gameplay mechanics that have narrative tie-ins, and Wheel World ate with its bicycle customization system. Of course, on your journey to retrieve Skully’s legendary parts, you come across a lot of spare bike parts that aren’t legendary, but are helpful for all kinds of riding styles and terrains. They contribute to one or more of your ride’s four stats: Power, Aero, Handling and Grip. Again, as a biking noob, I was a little apprehensive at my own ability to distinguish between the feel of riding with one part or another, but I quickly found a build that clicked perfectly with my riding style (extremely high Handling so I could navigate curves without sending myself into a wall, to be exact). 

You’ll unlock new parts through winning races, finding shipping boxes with spare parts scattered around the world, and by buying them from vendors. Most parts belong to a set and they vary from basic to high performance to meme-worthy. The hot dog frame is my favorite. I wound up unlocking so many customization options through game progression alone that I rarely even bought any from vendors. This is a 4-6 hour game but you could easily spend upwards of that just collecting parts and trying out new combos.

A breakaway racing experience

My favorite part of Wheel World hands down was racing, which is good because winning races is your primary method of progression. Tracks are categorized into circuits or point-to-point routes, and labeled by difficulty. I loved that no matter the objective, whether you’re just trying to place in a race or trying to beat a specific NPC, there’s always a pack of riders to contend with. I found the process of jockeying for a prime position going around a curve or bursting through the crowd during a straightaway both electrifying and not overly challenging. With the right build, even the toughest tracks felt surmountable and I rarely had to replay a race. By part way through most races I was often able to let go of the tension and enjoy flying through the beautiful cel-shaded landscapes of Wheel World at top speed.

Without spoiling anything, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a dramatic turn that the game takes later on in the story progression. While distinct in their terrain and overall vibes, most of the regions within the game offer up the same cycling experience: smooth, intuitive, but with their own twists and challenges. The environment does, however, change during the game’s progression in such a way that I found myself suddenly encountering the pitfalls I had initially anticipated.

Wheel World Trailer

The environmental shift that brings along new frustrations all makes sense narratively. But after really delighting in how seamlessly I could connect wheels to the road, and rework my build to meet the challenges of the terrain, it was a disappointment to suddenly feel so effortful. Rather than focusing on how best to approach the terrain and layout of a track, races suddenly revolved around this clumsy and cumbersome process of avoiding unexpected and semi-randomly placed obstacles in the path.

I got jostled and derailed and outright crashed more times in a single race than I had in the entire rest of the game up to that point. I also discovered that the barrier to progression was suddenly much higher. So not only did I struggle far more in each race than I had up to that point, I also had to suddenly do much better in each race in order to move forward. As much as I can recognize that this experience isn’t out of place for the story, it did feel inconsistent with what the rest of the game was trying to achieve. 

All in all, Wheel World brought me a delightful cycling experience that I’ve always dreamed of, but have never quite lived out in the physical world. The environments are beautiful, tactile and viscerally fun to navigate. I can’t wait to hear my cyclist friends’ impressions of the game and in particular of the bike customization, which I found to be both fascinating and genuinely impactful to the core experience of riding. My only wish is that the entire game could have reflected its best and brightest moments.

Emily was provided with a review key of Wheel World by popagenda

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No Small Games is an indie game recap and review podcast brought to you by hosts Kate and Emily! They became friends while streaming on Twitch and bonded over their love of indie video games. In each episode of No Small Games, the two will discuss an indie game they both played independently. They’ll compare their experiences: the good, the bad, their most memorable moments of their playthroughs.

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