There is something rather lovely about a game that looks at the average household and asks, “What if this was enormous?” A desk becomes a racetrack, a shelf becomes a precarious highway, and a perfectly innocent piece of furniture suddenly looks like an obstacle designed by someone with a particularly cruel sense of humour. WheelMates, the charming two-player co-op adventure from Firevolt, takes that simple idea and builds an entire game around it, putting two tiny RC cars at the centre of a mysterious journey through a scientist’s home laboratory.
After an experiment goes wrong, Professor Everett Bloom sends out a call for help before mysteriously disappearing. Through special neuro headsets, two players take control of the miniature cars and head into the professor’s sprawling home to discover what happened. What follows is a mix of exploration, puzzle-solving, driving challenges, and plenty of moments when working together is absolutely essential. It is a wonderfully accessible premise, but beneath the bright presentation lies a game that understands exactly what makes cooperative adventures so much fun.
Small Cars, Big Adventure
The first thing that makes WheelMates work is its sense of scale. You are not exploring some vast fantasy kingdom or futuristic metropolis. You are driving tiny remote-controlled cars through a house, yet Firevolt turns the familiar into something surprisingly adventurous.
Once you are operating at toy-car scale, the world changes completely. Tables become platforms, shelves become routes, and clutter becomes something to navigate rather than simply ignore. The professor’s laboratory is particularly well suited to this approach, as there is always the feeling that something interesting might be hiding just beyond the obvious path.
That encourages you to look around rather than simply follow the most obvious route. The house gradually reveals new areas, hidden passages, and unexpected locations as you progress, and there is a satisfying sense that you are slowly learning how the entire place fits together.
It is a clever way of making exploration feel rewarding without needing a gigantic open world. WheelMates simply makes one house feel enormous.
Two Players, One Goal
This is very much a game built around cooperation. There is no pretending that your companion is merely tagging along while you do all the important work. Both players have their own RC car and need to contribute to solving the challenges placed in front of them.
That emphasis on teamwork is where much of the game’s personality comes from. You might need to coordinate your movements to reach a particular area, use one car to help the other, or work together to operate something neither vehicle could manage alone. Communication becomes just as important as driving ability, particularly when precision matters.
Of course, cooperative communication can become slightly less elegant once things go wrong. “Move forward” can quickly become “stop, stop, stop!” followed by “I meant the other way!” and then a spectacular tumble into whatever hazard happens to be nearby. Those moments are not failures of the game. They are exactly the sort of little disasters that make playing a co-op adventure with someone memorable.
There is a genuine pleasure in finally solving something that has been causing trouble for several minutes. You both know the success belongs to the pair of you, and that makes the achievement feel more satisfying than simply finding the solution on your own.
Driving At Toy Car Scale
Driving is deliberately central to the experience. These are RC cars, so movement feels very different from controlling a conventional character. You need to consider positioning, momentum and the environment around you, particularly when the route ahead becomes more complicated.
Drifting across a desk or racing along a shelf sounds wonderfully simple, but the miniature scale makes every journey feel like an expedition. A gap that would be completely insignificant to a normal-sized vehicle suddenly becomes a serious obstacle. Getting from one side of a room to another can therefore become a surprisingly involved task.
The game also understands that driving should be fun rather than simply functional. There is a playful quality to throwing the cars around the environment, and when something goes wrong, the resulting chaos can be almost as entertaining as getting it right.
That balance is important because WheelMates is not attempting to become a serious driving simulator. The cars exist to facilitate exploration and cooperation, and the driving mechanics support those goals rather than overwhelming them.
The Professor Left More Than A Mystery
As the adventure progresses, your cars gain new abilities that dramatically expand where you can go. Magnetic wheels let you move beyond the usual limitations of the floor, while the swing rope opens up gaps and routes that were previously inaccessible.
Then things get even more interesting with upgrades such as the magnetic grabber and paint gun. These aren’t simply cosmetic additions or abilities thrown into the game for the sake of having more gadgets. They give you new ways to interact with the environment and, importantly, create fresh opportunities for the two players to work together.
This progression gives the house a satisfying sense of discovery. A room you thought you understood can suddenly look completely different once you have a new ability. A previously inaccessible corner might contain a secret, a new route, or something useful for customising your car.
It also gives you a reason to pay attention. The temptation in an exploration game is sometimes to rush towards the next objective, but WheelMates rewards players who stop and have a proper look around.
Hunting For Secrets
Exploration is one of the game’s quieter pleasures. Not everything exists simply to get you from one puzzle to the next, and hidden routes and secrets are tucked away throughout the professor’s home.
The miniature perspective makes searching particularly enjoyable, as you naturally start thinking about the environment differently. Is there a gap beneath that piece of furniture? Can the car reach that shelf? Is there another way around the obstacle?
The answers become increasingly interesting as new equipment becomes available. What initially looks like decoration can later become part of a route, while familiar locations can take on an entirely new purpose.
There are also customisation parts to discover, giving you an additional reason to explore every corner. Being able to change the appearance of your little car is hardly the most important part of the adventure, but it adds a pleasant personal touch and gives exploration another small reward.
Friendly Competition
For a game so focused on cooperation, WheelMates has a surprisingly welcome competitive streak. Mini-games are scattered throughout the house, allowing both players to put their driving skills to the test against each other.
It is a smart addition because co-op games can sometimes become too serious about working together. Here, you can take a break from solving the latest puzzle and find out which of you is the better driver.
These mini-games also have the potential to produce the sort of friendly rivalry that makes local multiplayer so enjoyable. One moment you are carefully helping each other across a difficult section, and the next you are trying to beat your friend’s score. It is a small feature, but one that gives the game a little extra character. Not every moment needs to be about saving Professor Bloom.
A Proper Co Op Experience
One of the most appealing aspects of WheelMates is how seriously Firevolt has taken its two-player focus. The game supports both online co-op and local split-screen, so you can experience the adventure together whether your partner is sitting beside you or playing from somewhere else.
The inclusion of Friend’s Pass is particularly welcome. Only one person needs to own the game for the other player to join the full adventure, which removes one of the biggest barriers in dedicated co-op games. It is the sort of feature that encourages people to play the game together rather than simply discussing whether they should buy it.
That makes WheelMates feel like a game designed around the social experience rather than one that happens to have multiplayer. The entire concept works better with two people, and Firevolt has clearly built the game around that philosophy.
A House Full Of Character
Visually, the miniature perspective does much of the heavy lifting. Everyday surroundings become interesting simply because you are seeing them from such a different viewpoint, and the contrast between tiny cars and oversized household objects gives the game an appealing sense of scale.
There is also something inherently charming about RC cars zipping around a scientist’s home. They feel like toys, yet the environments around them suggest something much bigger and stranger is happening. That contrast works particularly well with the mystery surrounding Professor Bloom and his experiments.
The presentation never needs to take itself too seriously. WheelMates has a playful personality, and that is exactly what you want from a game that can turn a coffee table into a dangerous expedition.
Solving The Mystery Together
The story is there to give your exploration a sense of purpose. Professor Bloom’s disappearance provides the initial hook, while the strange experiments and increasingly unusual areas of his home encourage you to keep looking for answers.
I particularly like how the mystery fits naturally into the gameplay. You are not simply completing puzzles because the game tells you to. You are exploring to understand what happened, and each newly discovered room gives you another piece of the bigger picture.
It is not trying to compete with the most elaborate narrative adventures around, nor does it need to. WheelMates is at its strongest when the story gives context to what you are actually doing.
The Verdict
WheelMates is an easy game to like. Its premise of turning a scientist’s house into an enormous playground for two tiny RC cars is charming from the outset, but it is the commitment to genuine cooperation that gives the adventure its real personality.
Firevolt has built the game around the idea that two players should genuinely need one another. The puzzles encourage communication, the new car abilities open up fresh possibilities, and the expanding house keeps exploration interesting. Throw in hidden routes, customisation parts and competitive mini-games, and there is enough variety to stop the experience from becoming nothing more than a straightforward puzzle journey.
The driving can take some getting used to, particularly when precision is required, but that is also part of the appeal. You are controlling miniature vehicles in an oversized environment, and a little bit of chaos is almost inevitable. Sometimes you will pull off the perfect manoeuvre, while other times you will spectacularly drive straight into trouble and have to laugh about it.
Most importantly, WheelMates feels like a game made for sharing. The inclusion of online co-op, local split-screen and Friend’s Pass makes it particularly easy to recommend to anyone looking for something they can experience with a friend, partner or family member. It understands that cooperative gaming is at its best when the game gives you reasons to talk, laugh, experiment and occasionally blame each other.
There may not be anything particularly revolutionary about driving tiny cars through a house, but WheelMates does not need to reinvent the wheel. It simply takes a fun idea, builds its entire adventure around cooperation and gives players a surprisingly large world to explore from a very small perspective.
