I lean into every turn. I throw my whole body forward to pick up speed. I scurry out of the way to avoid other cyclists. But I’m not out racing on a real bike, because New York City summers are disgusting and to step outside is to be instantly damp. Instead, I’m playing Wheel World.
Messhof’s new bike-themed adventure game (formerly known as Ghost Bike) isn’t some sprawling open-world game. It doesn’t try to sell you on abundance, like Mario Kart World and its endless characters to choose from (though you know you’re just gonna be Cow). Instead, it offers a truncated experience focusing on a couple of core gameplay ideas — riding and racing — and executes them decidedly well over the course of its six-or-so hours of playtime. Its singular focus helps it narrow in on the true experience of enjoying a bike ride; the freedom, thrill, and even childhood nostalgia that churning pedals offers.
Image: Messhof/Annapurna Interactive
You play as Kat, a blank slate of a protagonist. She must ride, she must bike, she must soar, she must race; she seemingly knows no other existence as everything in Wheel World revolves around biking. Though the first character you meet is a ghostly daemon named Skully and there’s plenty of talk about spirits, Wheel World is actually pretty chill. Even its trash talk is tame, and its oddball characters are great for laughs. One random NPC I spoke to led a prayer to the great Cog. It’s weird, man, and it works.
Kat and Skully bike around the map, challenging teams of riders to races. They earn reputation from these races: one point of rep each for winning, placing in the top three, beating a challenge time, and being victorious while acquiring letters throughout the race, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater-style. High rep is needed to challenge Wheel World’s top dogs — see, Skully awoke with his legendary bike parts stolen, and the top bikers in the land each possess parts, which they’ll only acquiesce if Kat can defeat them in races.
It’s on.
Like a small town during a 10-year-old’s summer vacation, any path in Wheel World can become a racetrack.
Riding is very satisfying, and surprisingly deep. Each bike part — you’ll be able to mix and match parts you collect to your heart’s content — influences stats, like speed and handling. Because Kat’s bike is inhabited by a daemon, she has a special ghost-powered boost to give her an edge. You can also pick up speed by drafting — riding behind another cyclist’s draft and rolling with the wind. Some of the most adrenaline-pumping moments came when I’d use the lead racer’s draft to get ahead, only for them to leapfrog me in a battle for first. Good times.
Terrain also impacts the way your bike rides; racing around paved streets will have a different feel than across a gravel or dirt road. Staying on course is almost always the right idea as trudging through grass or dirt can easily slow Kat down. I lost precious time during a few races when I took a turn too wide and landed in the grass instead of continuing down a road, letting other racers have just enough time to zip past me. It’s exhilarating, especially when the finish line is so close and I had to bike like hell to place in the top three.
Races come in easy, medium, and hard difficulties, and after a few races, you should be able to nab first place in those easy ones quite handily. The hard ones live up to their name and can offer quite the challenge; on more than a few occasions I’d place sixth or worse (out of eight racers) on my first attempt and needed a few tries just to get top three. They range from point-to-point races to multi-lap circuits around various elevations.
While the majority of the couple dozen races are well executed, some prove more frustrating than fun. Racing in a city sounds great, but having to avoid cars and buses adds distracting elements to otherwise engaging competitions. The collision system is also a bit wonky at times, with some crashes wiping out Kat while she can pass through other objects unimpeded. Other competitors might be the biggest obstacle as bumping bikes on the road can sometimes send Kat spiraling off the course.
Image: Messhof/Annapurna Interactive
Those who really vibe with Wheel World will revel in trying to beat every race’s time and grab their “KAT” letters. There’s a bit of a difficulty spike towards the end of the game, with the hard races feeling more difficult than those that came before, and some bikers will love that challenge. Personally, I’m more than happy to just bike around and enjoy the colorful views. Wheel World’s soundtrack is full of synth-pop bops, and circling some open fields to good tunes relaxes me like a pleasant real-world drive with the stereo jamming would.
Wheel World’s greatest triumph might be how well it captures the freedom of the open road, the thrill of pedaling through a tree-lined forest path. Like a small town during a 10-year-old’s summer vacation, any path in Wheel World can become a racetrack. Any mound of dirt can be used for a bunny hop, and wooden ramps evoke the thrill of soaring through the air — and the exhilarating rush of a dangerous landing — that bike rides around the neighborhood did way back when. Except now you don’t have to worry about scrapes and bruises, just hand cramps from playing for too long.
Wheel World is available on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed on PS5 using a prerelease download code provided by Annapurna Interactive.
