Wheel World review

For a low-stakes unfastened satellite cycling game, Wheel World has a batch of lore. You aftermath up successful the wood and observe a tone called Skully, a shade who offers the subordinate a rusty motorcycle and instantly ejects truthful overmuch phantasy jargon and frontloaded backstory that I started to deliberation it was an intentional joke. Thank Cog (the deity of cycling) that this loredumping is not habitual. The remainder of the crippled plays retired arsenic a chill and happy-hearted racer successful a tiny but well-crafted satellite of rolling vineyards, bumpy forests, and honking metropolis streets. It's a abbreviated tour, lasting lone astir 5 hours, but it's 5 hours nicely pedalled.

Your quest is to find the bicycle thieves who ran disconnected with Skully's magical motorcycle parts - his chaotic wheels and arcane handlebars. There are heavy cosmic consequences if you can't get those back, we're told, but chiefly it's an excuse to spell exploring the tiny unfastened satellite of twisting roads successful hunt of racing events. There are a batch of colourful people on the way, and immoderate dialog becomes overmuch much relaxed and digestible than the archetypal blast of motorcycle mythology. Bystanders chat idly astir motorcycle parts oregon section disturbances, each with copious bicycle slang. You'll skid up adjacent to gangs of cyclists and trash speech to footwear disconnected a race, battling vino connoisseurs done rows of grapes and firm income teams done concern wastelands.

The racing itself feels sleek and balanced, with a consciousness of coursing value to the bike, particularly connected wide turns. Ride down different cyclist to participate their slipstream and velocity up, portion besides handily charging your magical boost bar. A batch of tracks see sneaky off-trail shortcuts, oregon ramps that you tin bunny hop disconnected with a flick of the joystick, and though determination are nary flashy tricks here, getting immoderate aerial oregon narrowly avoiding cars and trucks volition besides complaint up your boost. Crash and you're plopped backmost connected people with a refreshingly accelerated reset.

Getting into those slipstreams is utile for climbing positions, but it's besides important to cognize erstwhile you're storming up - a rival tin easy usage the aforesaid maneuver connected you. I usually ended up strategically redeeming my boost for the last sprint. Which I judge is what existent athlete-level cyclists do, erstwhile they are not engaged taking steroids.

Skully the shade does each the talking connected your rider's behalf. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun / Annapurna Interactive

You're rewarded with "rep", a thumbs-uppy currency that you'll request to accrue to look the boss-level rivals who person stolen your shade buddy's magic parts. A cocksure brew guzzler successful 1 municipality mightiness lone necessitate 12 rep earlier he'll judge your challenge, but the moustachioed champ successful the large metropolis needs 40 rep, and a last brag volition request overmuch more. In the meantime, you marque bash with parts won done modular races oregon recovered successful glittering boxes sprinkled passim the land, arsenic if dumped successful a ditch and marked delivered by Evri drivers.

These parts change your bike's stats. Increasing "Power" gives you a amended uphill pushing speed, for example, portion "Aero" makes your thrust much dynamic connected the downhill. I recovered myself min-maxing successful an effort to get an all-rounder bike, conscionable due to the fact that I can't beryllium arsed changing parts retired for each race. That's an enactment for anyone who cares capable astir elevation maps, oregon wants to summation their "Handling" stat specifically for a contention that's each twisty turns. But I recovered it truthful speedy to spell from contention to contention that it was amended to person 1 coagulated jack-of-all-gears. Racing games are astir travel state, astir staying successful motion, and these kinds of arcadey unfastened worlders successful peculiar are often champion enjoyed with arsenic fewer trips into the paper arsenic possible.

You tin swap retired the drivetrain, handlebars, wheels, seat, frame, and fork. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun / Annapurna Interactive

So aye. It ticks a batch of boxes for what I similar successful a racer. Its cartoony, cel-shaded presumption besides brings to caput the agleam skating of Olli Olli World. It's silly and comic without trying excessively hard. Take Portal John, for example, a feline who's invented a accelerated question strategy utilizing portapotties to harness the mystical and unsafe "sewer of spirits". You're not expected to messiness with that, he's told. "Yeah, good I'm an entrepreneur," helium says, hammering a toilet. "I'm into disruption."

It helps that each this colour is accompanied by an upbeat and hopeful soundtrack of mellow synth by Portland grounds statement Italians Do It Better. It's nigh intolerable to consciousness stressed playing this game. Last week everyone successful games media was celebrating the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 remake arsenic a large euphony find device. I spot you and rise you Wheel World's soundtrack.

However, with that supremely chill demanour comes a noticeable deficiency of existent challenge. A well-balanced rhythm and immoderate cautious cornering volition triumph you fundamentally each race, hard moments usually lone presented by colliding into randomly passing postulation connected an important bend, oregon getting donked by a rival arsenic you pass. The game's sometimes-shonky physics tin besides pb to a fewer upsets (or enactment successful your favour, arsenic rivals bounce into the entity oregon thrust vertically up a partition similar a zoomies-afflicted calico up the sitting country curtains).

Barring that, it's not a pugnacious happening to beat, and you'll rack up the rep and coupons needed to scope the extremity faster than a yellowish jacketed French roadster. This mightiness enactment a fewer self-flagellists disconnected but specified brevity doesn't fuss me. There's plentifulness of country successful my beingness for a racing crippled you tin seashore done with each the friction of a summertime breeze. I gnashed my teeth capable connected JDM: Japanese Drift Master past period - a racing crippled that was bully for its ain pugnacious reasons, but listen, I merit an casual win.

Oh look I got it. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun / Annapurna Interactive

The motorcycle bonkers among you mightiness much accurately comparison it to the Descenders series, oregon Lonely Mountains: Downhill. Go ahead, I haven't played capable of those to know. I find it much amusive to deliberation of Wheel World alongside 2023's indie roadworthy travel crippled Season: A Letter To The Future, which had you bicycling astir a tiny but elaborate satellite successful a akin vein. But portion Season was an emotive communicative astir representation and alteration fixed wheels and a camera, Wheel World is acold much bubblegum and genre-loyal.

The representation is comparatively small, but that's progressively however I similar my unfastened worlds. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun / Annapurna Interactive

Some of the game's plan adjacent veers adjacent to Ubisoftian - you activate peculiar shrines to uncover the map, small icons presenting themselves promptly for waypointing and cleaning up, aft which you tin peddle disconnected towards 1 to statesman a "side gig" for a firm drone (discover 5 hidden jumps, etc). But past it redeems itself successful different ways: you can, for instance, initiate immoderate races by cycling up down a rider and simply dinging your doorbell astatine them, which reminds maine of the postulation airy wheel-spinning of Burnout Paradise. If Burnout Paradise were a cel-shaded onshore of pushbikes and affable ghosts alternatively of - ugh - DJ Atomika.

It's a acold outcry from Messhof's erstwhile works - the incomparable Nidhogg remains 1 of the champion warring games of each time. And I'll admit it feels a spot weird to acceptable Wheel World's saccharine and yet harmless roamaround racing adjacent to the snarling vigor and electro fury of the fencing worm and its serpentine sequel. But that redefining of workplace benignant feels inevitable erstwhile it expands beyond its origins - Messhof utilized to beryllium a moniker for solo developer Mark Essen, but is present the sanction of his broader indie workplace made up of galore Messhoffers. If you're going successful expecting thing akin to Nidhogg successful tone, vibe, and surreality, you'll lone find hint amounts. But if you spell successful with a bosom unfastened to easygoing races and bully music, Wheel World volition rapidly seashore you through.