Back in 2023, Nidhogg developer Messhof unveiled its new game, a stylish racing game called Ghost Bike that sets players off on a quest to revive the the last of the Ghost Bikes, "magical couriers who rode between the world of the living and the world of the dead." Ghost Bike was re-revealed during today's Xbox showcase with a new title—Wheel World—and, sorry to say, a new, more distant release date: Instead of coming out this year as planned, it's now set for release in early 2025.
The new title reflects a shift in the game's narrative, which has changed to accommodate "a number of iterations in terms of gameplay and structure" since the game was first announced.
"At the point last year when it felt right to announce the project, we came up with the name Ghost Bike based on where the narrative was," Messhof's Mark Essen and Kristy Norindr explained on Steam. "It was a game about dying on a bike after being hit by a car and ending up in a cycling Valhalla.
"While it wasn’t directly based on real world ghost bikes (those white bikes memorializing cyclists killed by drivers), there was enough overlap to feel like the name was justified and the associations would be a positive one from both directions. But as things changed in the gameplay (to make it more fun to play), and thus the story (especially in tone) it fit less and less."
Wheel World as it stands now is "about the joy and freedom of living around bikes," they said. "Whether just to get around, exploring a new route through a familiar place, or just tinkering with them and finding your own happy medium between form and function."
Your mileage may vary on this front but frankly, that sounds a lot less interesting to me. Racing games are fine but come on, "cycling Valhalla" is a hook. But there's clearly still some weird stuff going on in Wheel World, and a heavy supernatural responsibility remains: You'll race, you'll explore, you'll customize your bike "with an endless array of parts," and, oh yes, you'll fulfill your destiny by performing The Great Shift ritual to save the world. So this is definitely not just about pumping pedals.
Messhof is well-known for the outstanding Nidhogg games, both of which we loved, but it's also noteworthy that Wheel World is being published by Annapurna Interactive, which famously imploded in September. Annapurna subsequently indicated that it was "focused on moving forward" with its Interactive division, and was still accepting pitches from developers as it hired replacement staff. Clearly the situation has stabilized at least enough to enable Annapurna Interactive to continue working on existing deals.
