The wind in your face. The clunk of a gear change. The chill in your skull-haunted handlebars. All sensations that are, presumably, enjoyed by cyclists worldwide, and can be felt for yourself in the game behind door number ten: Wheel World!
God, I needed Wheel World. Not in the sense that I yearned for an open-world bicycle game, specifically. But for several reasons, July 2025 was a tricky month in a tricky year, and Messhof’s light, bright racer proved to be an unexpectedly powerful mood unguent.
This game does not have a mean bone in its body. Sorry, frame. What it does have is a charming weirdness – your opponents are posses of farmers, businessmen, baristas, and robots, while your own bike is possessed by a disembodied yet otherwise convivial skull – as well a steadfast commitment to giving you a nice time. And a nice time you shall have, wheeling through splendid autumnal forests and sunny coastlines while a cannily selected soundtrack of synth tunes beep-boop in the background. Stop to challenge an eclectic gang of fellow riders, and even the trash talk is peppered with sidewinking bike puns, Messhof writers giggling audibly behind the screen.
Once you’ve aced a few of these races, you may get the sense that Wheel World is perhaps a little too keen to grease up potential friction sources. Most events are winnable simply by not crashing, and because victories ensure a healthy supply of new parts to customise your bike’s specs, I never felt driven to engage with the wider hunt for new forks and seats that the map may have had in mind for me.
Again, though, it’s all in service of keeping things cheerful, and bombing around in first place can deliver purely tactile pleasures anyway. There’s something in the weight of the turns and the rising whir of an accelerating chain that makes the handling a consistent joy, even when you’re piloting a carelessly cobbled-together Frankencycle.
It’s a nice time, basically. And, for all the fantastical elements, an effective ambassador for real-life cycling; I don’t partake currently, but Wheel World’s influence has had me thumbing through the Brompton catalogue on multiple occasions. Only outmatched, each time, by the knowledge that I live in London, and would be flattened immediately.