Wheel World Is A Gorgeous Bike Racer That Could Use A Tune-Up
Get ready for a bumpy ride.
Riding a bike is both a great and terrible way to get around. The thrill of tearing down streets and trails with the wind whipping around you just about makes up for sweating through all your clothes as bugs dive-bomb your face. There aren’t many games that try to capture the feeling of biking, at least compared to how many emulate driving, but a new release makes an admirable attempt without quite hitting the highs and lows of the real thing.
Wheel World makes a great first impression. Just watch the trailer, with its wonderful cel-shaded art and hype-building soundtrack, and try not to get excited. Those remain some of the best elements of Wheel World, giving it a sense of life and character that more realistic bike racing games tend to lack. Its art in particular, which builds the world with large blocks of flat color, makes the world gorgeous and keeps everything ahead of you distinct as you race at top speed.
And racing is primarily what you’ll be doing. The game takes the same approach as Forza Horizon or Mario Kart World, situating its tracks in a larger open world that you’re free to explore at your leisure. The tracks aren’t separate from the rest of the world, though, so you might find yourself climbing a tough hill to reach the start of a race, then rushing straight back down it to the finish line.
Since tracks are scattered around the world, they’re as diverse as the terrain itself, and perhaps the greatest strength of Wheel World’s races is just how different from one another they feel. You’ll take part in straight-shot downhill races, curving climbs up rugged cliffs, high-speed sprints on circular tracks, and tricky routes through winding city streets clogged by cars. Each race is distinct, with some testing sheer power and others demanding split-second reactions to avoid obstacles and handle difficult corners.
The variety of Wheel World’s races are one of its biggest strengths.
You can customize your bike between races, changing out parts with ones you win, buy, or find in the world. Every part contributes to your power, downhill speed, handling, and grip, which makes you more stable and collision-resistant. Retooling your bike to match the track and terrain you’re facing can give you a significant advantage in races, and make it more enjoyable to cruise around the world. You can also ignore all of that and just try to make the coolest or weirdest bike you can, like one with giant eyeballs for wheels and a driftwood frame.
Going for aesthetics might be a good idea if you’re looking for a challenge. Despite all the variety in races, one constant is that they’re incredibly easy to beat. I’m not a racing game pro by any stretch of the imagination, but I only had to repeat a handful of races to finish in first place. Your competitors just don’t pose much of a challenge, and I never felt like there was much strategy aside from looking for shortcuts.
Racing and open-world exploration are both fun but underwhelming.
Each race also lets you search out the letters K-A-T (your character’s name) for bonus Rep, which you need to unlock higher-level races, but outside of that, there’s not much to do. Despite all the land you can cover, the world feels empty. You’ll occasionally run into people selling parts, but otherwise, if an NPC doesn’t challenge you to a race, they’ll probably just throw off a corny quip using cringe-inducing bike lingo.
It can still be enjoyable to simply cruise through the world, where the art and music will sometimes sync up to create a sublime moment, like hitting a ramp and soaring over the gorgeous landscape as a song’s vocals kick in. But there’s not much to actually do, especially when you hit the halfway mark and transition from the serene hills of the initial map to a more industrial level that’s less interesting visually and a slog to navigate.
There’s still plenty to like about Wheel World, but more than any other critique, what keeps it from really working for me is that it just doesn’t feel like riding a bike. There’s none of the struggle of pedaling up a steep hill, none of the mixed joy and terror of speeding back down so fast that you couldn’t stop if you wanted to. Wheel World isn’t trying to be a simulation, but making the act of riding feel a little more mechanically similar to the real thing would go a long way toward setting it apart from car racing games. It’s a pleasant ride, but one that feels like it’s not quite in the right gear.
