An open-world racing game where you explore the map and complete multiple objectives and take on races? No, it’s not that Nintendo Switch 2 launch title. It’s Wheel World, a cozy open-world cycling game from Messhof, the developer of Nidhogg, and published by Annapurna Interactive. In it, you take on the role of Kat, a competitive cycler who, along with her ghostly companion Skully, race against time to save the world. You’ll customize your bike, compete in dozens of races, and just catch a good vibe with the incredible soundtrack along the way.

Wheel World may be open-world, but it isn’t by any means a massive game, an observation I make with the utmost complimentary inflection. In the current age of countless AAA, massive open-world RPGs that demand literally hundreds of hours, this five to six hour experience is extremely welcome. And even though it’s a bite-size experience in comparison, the world is busy and filled with things to do. I’d even go so far as to say that it has a better open world than a certain other big racing game that released this summer. They truly aren’t the same type of game, but Mario Kart World’s Free Roam mode could learn a thing or three from Wheel World.

It’s Wheely Immersive

The titular world of wheels here is broken up into two sections, the first being a more realistic quaint countryside, while the back half of the game is a more desolate, post-apocalyptic underground environment. Either area sports a variety of activities to find and complete. You can find boxes of bike parts scattered around, find loose currency, hidden jumps, fast travel points cleverly called Portal Potties, and, most importantly, find races to compete in.

The races are easily the best, and most fun, part of Wheel World. Each one is classified by a difficulty rating, either easy, medium, or hard. You’ll face off against other NPC racers on tracks of different lengths, terrain, and with certain obstacles. Each race comes with a set of challenges to complete to earn more Rep, such as coming in first, beating the course time record, and collecting all three letters of KAT.

These are all pseudo-optional, and the game highly encourages you to find all of the races and complete the challenges to earn Rep. Rep is used to challenge better racers to advance the story. For example, you need a total of 20 Rep to challenge the racers who have the parts to the Legendary bike. Once you beat them, you’ll earn a Legendary bike part or two, and the next challenger requires more Rep, so and so forth.

Nothing But Good Vibes

Luckily, the races are extremely fun and satisfying, thanks to the incredible soundtrack with music by Italians Do It Better. The electric synth vibes fit well with the free flowing cycling gameplay, and I highly encourage you to play this game with some good headphones – you won’t be disappointed. However, while exploring the map and checking off boxes, I consider this a “podcast game”. The music and sound design during these parts is serviceable, so I’d catch up on a podcast in the background to help the time go by. But you’re truly doing yourself a disservice by not fully immersing yourself in the music when you start up an actual race.

Good, But Shallow, Customization

Wheel World does offer a bit of customization to boot. I mentioned earlier you can find and earn bike parts from races. You can also visit various shops around the world that sell them. Each part affects a certain stat like handling and power, and some even have perks like recharging your boost. I’m no cycling expert, but it became apparent early on which stats to prioritize over others, how to build out your bike depending on a specific race’s difficulty, and how to adjust for different terrain.

I do, however, really wish there was an option to transmogrify your bike parts, since a good build might mix and match and look ugly. I apply this sentiment to Kat, as well. Being able to equip her with different aesthetic options would have been a nice addition to flesh out the experience and give me a sense of individuality. Taking it even further, allowing us to create our own bespoke character instead of being locked into a named protagonist would have been a welcome inclusion.

I Want to Ride My Bicycle

Of course, you play through the whole game on a bike. I played Wheel World on Steam with a PS5 controller. There’s a bit of a learning curve in the opening moments of the game, but after getting a few races under my belt I felt confident in knowing how the bike mechanics work. In a race, you’ll hold R2 to pedal the bike, building up acceleration at the expense of losing a bit of control when taking sharp turns. Unlike a car racing game where you’ll lose acceleration the moment your finger lifts off of the button, Kat will continue at a good speed once you do so.

Like real-life cycling, you should stop pedaling when taking turns to round them much more smoothly. This helps with balance and control, and will mean the difference between taking first or crashing into a tree. You can also drift around turns by holding the brake button, so knowing when to release pedaling and brake, along with the correct amount of turning, is crucial to victory.

Some Glaring Issues

In terms of performance, the Wheel World runs smooth enough at a stable framerate. In the back half of the game, however, is where the performance severely dipped. I had a handful of crashes, clipping into the environment, my controller inputs wouldn’t read (this is rare), and sometimes the music wouldn’t play during a race. One frustrating issue is during hard races. Courses can be packed fairly tight, so bumping into rival racers is likely. When you do, you’ll sort of get glued onto them and the character models get melded into one freaky abomination that funks with the controls. This happened way too often, and would even happen towards the end of a race I was about to win. Luckily, you can just pause and restart seamlessly, but this is an issue I truly hope the developers address sooner rather than later.

The most egregious bug is automatically losing the race when you leave the designated course area. Of course, this is a design decision that makes a ton of sense when it works. But there were a handful of times where I’d take a turn well within the course boundaries and still get the prompt on screen, losing the race seconds later. No thank you.

Verdict

Wheel World is a cozy open-world cycling game that truly respects your time, clocking in at around six hours for completion. Despite a small amount of glaring performance issues and bugs, the racing mechanics feel smooth and intuitive. Competing in races is extremely fun and challenging, and the soundtrack is one of the best of the year. Rushing downhill and weaving around trees to take first kept me coming back for more races even when I was ready to roll credits. Its world is bustling and there’s plenty to do, genuinely offering a much better experience than Mario Kart World’s Free Roam. If you’re in the market for a shorter experience with well-designed systems and immaculate vibes, Wheel World is for you.

Score: 8/10

Wheel World releases worldwide today, July 23 on PS5, Xbox Series X/ S, and PC via Steam. Reviewed on Steam with a review code provided by the publisher.