We have come to expect Annapurna Interactive to be a treasure trove of unusual games that are not driven by trends, but primarily by the taste and style of their creators. The latest hidden gem is Wheel World, a game where we communicate with ancient spirits of bicycle racing and collect legendary parts for our bike to save the world.
And that’s not surprising, because Messhof’s first work was Nidhogg, ‘an epic tug-of-war-style fencing simulator, complete with giant flying worms.’
The World Of Bicycles Operates Around The Clock
There have been far more bicycle games than you might think. And it’s not just the Pro Cycling Manager and Tour de France series released by Cyanide Studio — there were also ancient platformers, realistic first-person simulators, games about extreme descents and stunts, a courier simulator, and even a humorous app for a rock band’s music video (I’m talking about Teenage Blob: Paperperson). At the same time, the Cyanide series has recently been degenerating and stagnating.
Wheel World stands out because it is a story-driven game, which is rare in this genre. Obviously, bike racing is still the main focus here, but there is also a lot of dialogue, irony, and colourful characters. First, our main character, a girl named Kat, meets Scully, an ancient spirit of bike racing who looks like a talking skull.
In the titular Wheel World, everything revolves around bicycles — people tell stories about legendary velodromes from their dreams when they meet, huge statues of great cyclists stand in the squares, and all areas are divided between bicycle gangs.
There is even a cycling mythology. It is Scully, who lives inside a bicycle, who is responsible for transporting souls to the afterlife. However, now it is, to put it mildly, not easy for him to fulfil his duties — his legendary bike has been dismantled, leaving only the frame and wheels, and this threatens to upset the balance of the world.
Therefore, all hope now rests on us and Kat — she must collect the parts of Scully’s legendary bike, help him perform the Great Shift ritual (don’t even ask what that is) and save the world. In the process, we meet other spirits who, like Scully, are guardians of something very important and are worried about the upcoming ritual.
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The Race For Reputation
The legendary Scully’s bike has been dismantled for parts by local champions — the leaders of the coolest cycling teams. Accordingly, you have to defeat them in fair competition, and to do that, you’ll first have to participate in other races — this will allow you to earn reputation and get a chance to compete with the champions. To meet the first leader somewhere on the picturesque tracks outside the city, you need 20 reputation points, and the main champion in the downtown area closer to the end of the game is already worth a hundred.
During breaks, we ride around a fairly vast and attractive world, which I would gladly call open if it weren’t for one thing — we won’t be allowed into the central city until we put all the legendary parts on Scully’s bike.
From Mountain Biking To Velodrome
But most importantly, different bike gangs prefer different races — from classic road racing to extreme mountain biking and even circuit racing on the velodrome. When we compete with champions and legendary chains and frames for Scully are at stake, we need to win, but in other cases, it is enough to finish in the top three to earn reputation points.
Plus, we get bonuses if we break the track record or collect all the letters that spell out the name Kat along the way.
