Welcome to Wheel World, where cyclists are abundant and ready to race. Through chance or fate, Kat finds an abandoned and rusted bicycle near the sewers. This rusty and abandoned bike features a bicycle soul named Skully and has been stripped of its legendary parts. Reuniting Skully with he’s legendary parts might just save the world.
Kat and Skully have a mission to find and replace Skully’s rusty parts and restore him to his former glory so they can enter the Soul Sewer and make it to Mt Send. With the intrepid hero and her bike sorted, it was time to play – the first small island, which serves as a tutorial. To pass the local gang who were preventing access to the next island, I had to complete fetch quests and race some locals to earn enough rep to race the gang. Within this tutorial, I learned about the systems the game wanted me to utilise. These systems were easy to understand and were built upon throughout the game. First was mounting and dismounting from the bike, followed by manoeuvring, boosting, bunny hopping and general racing skills. With these basics out of the way, it was time to beat some locals in races to earn some rep.
Races allowed me to earn representation points, also known as rep points. These points can be earned by completing races, and additional points are earned by completing tasks within races. The tasks are to complete the race in the top three, win, beat Tom’s time, collect the letters K-A-T and win. Completing these tasks allowed me to earn at least four points per race and progress the story more quickly. The races are also ranked from easy to hard, and each has its own best time and member to beat, with the winner earning a bike part and the aforementioned rep. Each race was unique and is carried out in different sections of the overworld, with some overlapping areas for the bigger races. Some races were loops while others were point-to-point. When racing, Kat is pitted against several other riders who are useful for gaining boost and speed through drafting. Races are fun, challenging and the best way to earn upgrades. These upgrades are used to help Kat and Skully improve before earning the Legendary parts.
Parts for Kats’ bike can also be found across the world, and are sometimes hidden, so exploring is recommended and rewarded. Other parts can be purchased using in-game currency, which is earned by completing open-world tasks. These tasks include, but are not limited to, racing Lone Wolves, finding jumps, packages, secret paths, and much more. Where there are group races, there are also solo races called ‘Lone Wolf’ races. These Lone Wolf members can be found throughout the world and are identified with a blue flag on their bike. When seeing these members, a ring of the bell is all it takes to fire them up, then follow the highlighted course while racing to beat them to earn some coins.
Wheel World has a unique style, from its indie music to the world at large. I was quite impressed by the pixel styling of the world and even more amazed to learn that the art team procedurally generated it. For a full explanation, feel free to search for “Wheel World Art Style.” It was an interesting read and awesome to see AI, artists, and art used in concert. The world is designed in a unique pixel style with seemingly no edges between. As the background comes into focus, the details are cultivated and come to life. The music is a nice, mild tune that gains some more focus when racing. Melodic music transformed into encouraging indie pop tunes as I raced. It was awesome to listen to it while sprinting down a mountain facing a challenging foe.
This game was a great addition to my Steam Deck’s library and ran very well. I also play a decent amount on my PC I’ll note I did have one crash during my six-plus hours of play, but it wasn’t repeated. The art style stood out on the big screen, to my delight. While the Mouse and keyboard worked, the game is optimised more towards the controller.
I found the story in Wheel World compelling. Kat and Skully make a great team. The number of items and parts to be found in the game is great. The diverse range of gear is great too. Favourites included the hot dog bike and the paperboy bike, both of which made me chuckle, and it was fun to beat the pros with a comical bike.
(Review code provided to Explosion Network.
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