As a reviewer, the mark of a good game is usually one you struggle to put down to write about, such is the case of Wheel World.

An open world cycle-sim, that takes cues from games like Assassin’s Creed, Tony Hawks, Trials, and even has an element of customisation to it when coupled with a stunning cel-shaded art style, Wheel World is a constant thrill-ride.

From the moment it drops you into its world and puts you behind the handlebars, to ringing your bell for the first time to activate a Bell Shrine and open up the map even wider, to kicking off a random challenge with a lone biker on the open tracks and getting your first legendary bike part, this game keeps giving moments of satisfaction.

Bombing down long hills at top speed, weaving past trucks, haystacks and leaping over ramps, whizzing past other cyclists, it just gives this incredible adrenaline rush that also has a suitable balance of chill that the Trials games rarely offer. Those are always a bit more stressful.

The main aim of the game is to gather four legendary pieces of your bike and unlock the sewer area of the map, but beyond that are plenty of things to discover. Like sidegigs, which give you various objectives like finding hidden jumps and winning races. These all earn you Rep, which is one of the game’s central currencies and what you’ll need to earn in order to open up the map even further and tackle more tricky races.

By completing sidegigs, you’ll also earn coupons which can be used to purchase parts from vendors, though there’s also lots of hidden parts to be found out in the wide world too in yellow crates. And as the game carefully points out to you early on, you should always switch parts carefully.

While one saddle might give you much greater power, it can also reduce your handling significantly. Your bike is broken down into the frame, wheels, saddle, fork, bars and train and you can mix-match it to your hearts content. On some occassions, though, it might be worth switching out to off-road wheels for more intense, muddy terrain during a race. Or you might want the speed and pace in order to keep up with other racers.

You’ll face all sorts of challenges and race in all sorts of ways, like whiz through a town with tight corners, or go head to head with oncoming traffic. The game grades race difficulty so you can get a sense of the challenge you’re up against, though I did often find some of the grading a bit off, as some ‘Hard’ races were actually infinitely easier than medium.

Essentially, though, races are never too taxing and the game offers just enough challenge, though one may argue it can be made quite a bit easier. This is partly because you can keep recharging your boost by just hanging back behind a cyclist and gaining from their drift. It’s funny because the races often remind me a bit of the Velodrome in the Olympics where the one racer hangs back and behind to gain in the momentum of the other and then it ends up being a bit of a sprint off at the finish line. Several races ends up that way for me in Wheel World.

Races also come with several objectives. Of course, finishing first and in the top 3 is up there, but you’re also challenged with beating a particular time, and in true Tony Hawks style, you can collect the letters KAT – the name of your character – for even more rep. Only when fulflling all of these can it really be considered finishing a race.

I adored playing the game and often found I just couldn’t stop, just losing hours and hours. And playing on PS5 made it even more of a treat with the DualSense as I fought back against the haptics while trying to bring my bike to a stop, and dinging my bell was both annoying and infinitely satisfying as I passed cars and cyclists by. It clearly fulfilled a deep need I had to be that annoying dinging cyclist who beeps you to get out of their way that I never have the courage to be in real life. DualSense actually made this a lot more fun for me.

But the game is also incredibly beautiful. The cel-shaded art style is actually dazzling and the attention to detail in the skies, the curling of the trees, the quirky animations of the characters and even the distance of colourful buildings, slowly rising up in the distance. This is a game of little details, with life moving along at its own pace and little things happening in the background, and it’s all so wonderfully saturated and vibrant.

It’s interesting, too, because it’s not always a game of music. It’ll play in certain races to add to the mood or when you reach certain part of the map, even hum very quietly in the background, never overriding or intrusive. This is a game that really seems to appreciate the quiet time, the sound of air, of traffic, birds, nature, wildlife and other cyclists. There’s a sort of poetry in that.

And the story is also surprisingly engaging and even moving at times, really setting the scene of a world and giving some sort of context to the zaniness of the premise – a floating skull with boosting abilities needs some explanation, I suppose. But it comes together surprisingly well and it gives you something to follow and pursue when you get a bit fed of taking on one random challenge after another.

It’s a game to suit all types, then. And you can wrap the story up fairly rapidly – within a few hours – but to actually see and do everything will take you a lot longer. That said, it’s also not too overwhelming either, certainly not a size and scale as recent Assassin’s Creed, but not something you’ll be done with in a day either. It feels just right as it never outstays its welcome but doesn’t lead you to feel short-changed.

And the content is all – mostly – quality. You’ll feel fairly appreciative of the ride and its various challenges, and being able to adapt your bike for the different conditions, as well as find the optimal approach to riding. Though I did feel the game padded itself out a bit by purposefully spreading things far and wide and placing them in obscure locations. This gets alleviated somewhat by the Portal Potties – great name – but these are more scarce than I’d have liked them to be.

I also would have really liked to have the option to customise my bike from the ‘Let’s Race’ menu when you’re taking a birds-eye look of the conditions. It’s not a dealbreaker as you can back out and go to the menus, but a button tap to adapt my bike to have firmer treads or even be able to create loadouts for every occassion might have been a nice inclusion. But these are very much ‘nice-to-haves’.

The one main negative I have is performance as this one definitely distorts, hiccups and breaks-up more than I expected on my PS5. There’s regular frame rate dips, some performance drops when transitioning between scenes and portalling around and sometimes if there’s a lot going on screen, there’s judders. For a game like this, where speed and timing is everything, that can be a bit jarring.

All that said, Wheel World is a blast. It’s a beautiful game, with a lovely arcade feel that never overly frustrates, can be fairly chill to glide through and gives you just enough to feel fulfilling while never overly outstaying its welcome.

Verdict

Wheel World gets a lot of things right and presents a very interesting, fulfilling take on an open world that is aesthetically pleasing, narratively intriguing and content rich. Despite suffering from some minor performance issues and a few QoL features that would have made it even greater, the DualSense really adds something to the experience on PS5 and I was constantly trying to better myself with every race and fulfil as many objectives as I could to maximise my time with the game. A real delight with a refreshing tone.

Wheel World is out now on PC, PS, and Xbox Game Pass.

Played on PlayStation 5

Code kindly provided by Annapurna for review purposes