Wheel World Review – An Open-World Wonder

Wheel World Review

Weird racing games are always an excellent time. Wheel World is no exception. You’re ripping around an idyllic world on a custom bicycle while chill music plays. The races are intense, you can tune up your ride, and there’s always something new to find. I just wish the whole game was a tiny bit longer. What’s here is pretty amazing, however.

Your quest begins when you encounter a rusted hulk of a bike possessed by an immortal spirit. Skully (the spirit in question) tasks you with completing the Great Shift, a ghostly ride through enchanted sewers that guides the dead to the afterlife. But you’ve gotta collect all the parts to re-assemble your legendary ride first. This means races, and tons of them.

Racing in Wheel World feels great. The controls are responsive and smooth, acceleration and braking are intuitive, and the boost mechanic is super satisfying. Races start pretty easy and steadily ramp up in difficulty. Better still, every race has a bunch of extra goals to keep things exciting. Victory brings you rep, which is the only currency in the game that means anything. I found myself repeating races over and again just to finish all those bonus goals. Customization is fun, sure, but maxing out every race was hopelessly compelling.

Racing Towards Perfection

In the beginning, finding custom parts is an awesome feeling. Watching your bike slowly get better is extremely cool. But there comes a critical tipping point, where none of the new parts seem worth the effort to swap them out. At that point, you’re just scooping up new parts out of habit. Maybe it’ll feel different for you, but getting those legendary parts sucked all the wind out of my customization sails. At that point, it was all about the racing experience.

The world you’re ripping around in is quite beautiful, in a minimal sort of way. The clean lines and sharp colors reinforce the vibes, which are real potent. More than the visuals, I found the soundtrack very effective at sucking you in. It’s a lot of unobtrusive electronic/synth beats, but they’re perfect for getting lost in as you ride. The music ramps up in intensity depending on the race being run, which I appreciate. Overall, the aesthetic is uniquely suited for just riding around without a particular goal. I could see myself spending multiple hours cruising around and collecting parts.

Endless Parts To Collect

I did not do this, however. Instead, I smashed through the campaign. Wheel World is a relatively short experience. Broadly speaking, I’m okay with this. Games that don’t wear out their welcome are hard to find these days. On the other hand, I would have loved a longer campaign. I had so much fun winning races and finding parts, that more content would’ve gone over well. Although even after wrapping up the main game, there was still a lot of content left. More dedicated racers could easily spend many hours getting every race absolutely perfect.

While it’s not as long as I would like, Wheel World is still an excellent time. The races are awesome, finding parts is fun, and riding around is a pretty chill time. Bike customization lost its shine for me earlier than I anticipated, but the races themselves never diminished even slightly. Depending on what you’re looking for, this short length (4-6 hours) could be just perfect for you. Regardless, you’ll have a great time in Wheel World while you’re here. Anyone looking for a chill, cool, slightly weird racing game would do well to check this one out.

***A Steam key was provided by the publisher***