Wheel World

Wheel World was provided by Annapurna Interactive for review. Thank you!

Cycling games are pretty few and far between, while you've got more "sporty" games like The Descenders, Wheel World instead focuses its aim on more traditional cycling, with a few twists, of course.

In Wheel World, you take on the role of Kat, who, along with a spirit in the form of a skull, must embark on a quest to upgrade a rusty bike into a "legendary" one. But to get there, Kat must earn enough reputation and upgrade their bike to take on increasingly experienced cyclists in races. Thus begins Wheel World's gameplay loop.

It's not a long game, and you can fully play through the "story" in just a few short hours. You can explore the map to find free parts, complete optional challenges to earn "coupons" which you can spend on buying parts, and then upgrade your bike's stats so you can take on races, which, would you believe it, gives you more parts!

Wheel World is all about upgrading your bike, and not everything is a straight upgrade, either. You might get a new frame that increases your "power" but lowers your handling. More power is great for rural racing, where top speed is the key, but if you're racing in the city, you'll want something that can handle those tight turns, so modifying your bike between races is key to success.

You are constantly upgrading and refitting parts on your bike in Wheel World, which is a great feeling for a while, but it does begin to wear thin. So it's probably a good thing that, as I said at the beginning, the game is shorter. Sure, you will be doing races, some planned, others impromptu, with cyclists you find out on the streets, but there isn't a lot of variety in the game.

The whole time you are playing Wheel World, you are working towards your goal; there isn't much "side content" to go at here, besides some basic challenges you're likely to complete when just playing through the races anyway. Even the leaderboards for the game appear to only work with Steam friends, not globally, and there is no multiplayer component, so the replayability value is close to zero once you've played through the game.

Fortunately, the riding mechanics themselves are simple and feel good, with just an accelerate and brake button, alongside the ability to boost and bunny hop. Beyond that, it's down to player skill and choosing the right bike parts to win your races. You must pay attention to get around these courses, and for the few hours the game lasts, it is a good time.

Visually, the game is quite striking, with a pretty unique art style that works well, although it leans on the basics. There isn't much sound in the game, but it does capture the sound of cycling, allowing you to hear the sound of your tyres on various terrains. This brings back some childhood memories of when I used to cycle often. The music also gives an almost retro 1980s vibe to the game.

I encountered some issues in the game, however. A couple of times when racing, my bike sort of "fused" with another racer's bike, resulting in us being stuck together and unable to continue the race properly. I also had some weird physics reactions to hitting certain objects in the game, such as being thrown up in the air when hitting a wall once.

Wheel World isn't a full priced title, so it's up to you whether you're prepared to pay the price for what is realistically going to be little more than 5 hours of playtime, and you're unlikely ever to go back and play this one again, but the 5 hours you do have will be a pretty fun time.

Wheel World - Steam Deck Performance

Wheel World supports 1280x800 resolution and is perfect for playing on a controller, so we don't have any concerns there.

Performance is a bit more troublesome. The game seems to be pretty CPU-intensive, which harms its performance on the Steam Deck; therefore, we should limit the FPS to 30 using the in-game Framerate Limit option.

Because the issue is CPU-based, lowering graphical settings doesn't offer much benefit, so I recommend that you play the game at Medium. Check the image below for the exact options I used.

With these settings, most of the game will run at 30 FPS; however, the big city on the map will get frame drops, particularly during races. Expect frequent drops into the mid-20s during city races, occasionally stuttering down to around 20 FPS. The game is still playable, but you might have a harder time while racing in the city.

Power draw for the most part is about 12-16W, but can go up to 19W in intense situations. Temperatures are around 55-60 °C. You should expect to get around 3.5 hours of battery life from a Steam Deck OLED and around 2.5 hours from a Steam Deck LCD.

Accessibility:

Wheel World has no accessibility options. No dialogue is subtitled.

Conclusion:

Wheel World is a fun time, but it might have been the framework for something grander. It's a solid foundation, and ultimately, it will be down to each player to decide how much the game is worth, but at the MSRP of $20, it falls right between the line where I would have to seriously consider whether or not the 5-hour playtime justifies the price tag.

As for Steam Deck support, Wheel World isn't the best. It's playable, but performance issues have plagued the game since early playtests and still do, so don't expect to maintain 30 FPS the entire time, no matter what settings you try.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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