The world is in danger. The ancient cycling spirits hold the key to salvation, but their legendary bicycle parts have been scattered through the world. A skilled young cyclist, Kat, is recruited to help find the parts and restore the world's balance.
Wheel World is a game with a odd setup and storyline. It's basically a bicycle racing game in an open world where you are guided to objectives by a sentient floating skull (as you do). The use of the supernatural plot to explain why you're taking part in a lot of cycling races is unconventional, but interesting. Would Forza Horizon be improved if there was a metaplot explaining you're working for the God of Drivers in order to save the world by winning races? Probably. It certainly gives Wheel World a unique flair even if it's weird.
The game is set in a moderately-sized open world divided into zones which you can cycle across. You have to defeat several "boss" cyclists in order to claim their legendary parts, but you can only challenge the bosses once you have built up enough Rep to do so. You gain Rep by winning races, finding collectibles and pulling off tricks. You can also upgrade your bike to be faster, more durable, better at cornering or capable of faster acceleration (but not all at the same time), which makes winning races and building rep easier.
The game has a gorgeous, somewhat cel-shaded art style that is always very entertaining to cycle through (and refreshingly undemanding on hardware). The controls are pretty responsive, and the different upgrades make your bike handle convincingly differently. This isn't a hardcore bike physics simulator, so there aren't tons of complicated things to understand about the upgrades and physics (the game is fairly forgiving on things like crashes), and you can wing it to an extent. You also don't need to do every race, or get 100% on every race, to get enough Rep to challenge the bosses.
There is no reason not to do that though. Going for a completionist, 100% approach to the game will only take you around 12 hours. Speed-running the main story path will take around half that. The completionist approach, where you have to find hidden words on each race course, will also take you to more corners of the map than just running through the essential races as fast as possible.
The worldbuilding is interesting, though thin: this is a world where cars exist, but the bicycle is still king, and people are revered for their cycling skills over all other forms of achievement. The first land you visit is all beautiful countryside, verdant fields, picturesque villages and one sizeable-but-pleasant town. A later city you visit is polluted, messy and squalid, a hint of what will come to the whole land unless you prevail. I would say the later city is a less interesting location, with twistier, tighter courses that are not as fun to explore, and a general downer vibe at odds with the sunny opening. It's not a major problem - this is still a fairly short game - but it does slightly mar the experience. The final section is also odd, taking place in a very large area but where there's not much to do, making it feel like the developers ran out of time.
Still, it's hard to argue with the game. Wheel World (****) is short and focused, has a great art style, a nice soundtrack, is relatively chill and overcoming weaknesses to win the races is fun. The game is relatively cheap, doesn't outstay its welcome and is genuinely amusing in places. A recommended palate cleanser between longer games. The game available now for PC, PS5 and Xbox X/S.
