Mars Rally Championship, a free browser rally game, is listed first on this page because it is ours; it is a 3D rover on Mars with no upgrades. On merit, the closest games like Hill Climb Racing are Fingersoft's own: Hill Climb Racing 2 adds real-time multiplayer and a track editor, and Hill Climb Racing Lite runs free in a browser. After those, Rovercraft has you build a rover for hills on other planets, Earn to Die 2 swaps hills for a zombie road trip with upgrades, and Drive Mad is a free physics puzzle in a tab.
In-game screenshot: the rover noses up a steep slope in Stage 4's summit section, seen side-on.
What makes Hill Climb Racing fun?
Most lists of alternatives sort by app-store tag. It is more useful to ask what the original does and rate every pick on the same four parts.
The first is two-pedal physics. Per Wikipedia you only have gas and brake, and in mid-air the same pedals rotate the vehicle to control the landing angle. The second is fuel: you drive Bill Newton as far as possible without running out of fuel or hitting his head, and cans of gas or batteries sit at fixed points. The third is coins. Stunts and flips earn them, and you spend them on upgrades or to unlock stages and vehicles, from a monster truck to a moon lander and Santa's sleigh. The fourth is the setting: the App Store listing has Bill chasing the highest hills up on the moon, so low gravity is part of the identity.
Method: facts about other games come from their app store, Steam or developer pages, checked on 7 November 2026, and where a page does not say something, this post says "not confirmed". Last checked: November 2026.
Games like Hill Climb Racing, compared
Mars Rally Championship is first because it is ours; the rest are ranked by how much of Hill Climb Racing they keep. The table covers the same columns for every game, and "not confirmed" means the store or developer page does not say.
| Game | View | Fuel or energy | Upgrades | Low gravity | Platforms | Price (7 Nov 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mars Rally Championship Play | 3D | 90 kWh battery, refilled by regen braking | None: cosmetics only | Mars, 0.38 g | Browser: desktop, Chromebook, phone in landscape | Free |
| Hill Climb Racing 2 | 2D side-on | Not confirmed | Tuning parts, Mythic parts, skins | Not confirmed | iOS, Android | Free with in-app purchases |
| Hill Climb Racing Lite | 2D side-on | Fuel canisters and batteries | Coins for vehicles and upgrades | Moon world | Browser (Poki, YouTube Playables in four countries) | Free |
| Hill Climb Racing | 2D side-on | Fuel cans and batteries; empty tank ends the run | Coins for upgrades, stages, vehicles | Moon stage | iOS, Android (Windows release in 2013) | Free with in-app purchases |
| Rovercraft | 2D side-on | Fuel can run out | Build the rover: jet engines, reactors, wheels | 14 planets (gravity per planet not confirmed) | iOS, Android | Free with in-app purchases |
| Earn to Die 2 | 2D side-scrolling | Not confirmed | 10 vehicles; armour, roof guns, boosters | No | Windows, Mac (Steam); Android, iOS | $4.99 on Steam; free with ads and in-app purchases on Android |
| Drive Mad | 2D side-on | No | Not confirmed | Zero-gravity levels | Browser (Poki), Android, iOS | Free |
Read it by the four parts. The Fingersoft games keep all of them where their pages speak. Rovercraft keeps fuel, upgrades and the off-world setting. Earn to Die 2 keeps upgrades. Drive Mad keeps the balance and drops fuel and coins. Ours keeps the hills and the low gravity and drops upgrades and fuel pickups.
Mars Rally Championship: a 3D hill climb on Mars
Our game, listed first for that reason. This is Mars Rally Championship's own site; everything below it is ranked by how much of Hill Climb Racing it keeps. It is a free 3D rally game that runs in the browser with no download, no install and no account, on a desktop, a Chromebook or a phone held in landscape. You drive one 3,000 kg all-wheel-drive rover across Martian terrain against a clock, not an empty tank.
The hills are real. Stage 4, Down the Mountain, starts at 175 m, rides the summit (gate 4 at 192 m is the highest point) and falls 124 m in 850 m between gate 8 and gate 16, finishing 134 m below the summit. Gates 12 to 14 are 16, 16 and 18 m wide, the narrowest anywhere in the game. Drive it from Stage 4. Stage 1, The Eight, climbs 40 m over its first four gates to a 105 m summit; try it from Stage 1.
Steepness behaves like a physics problem. At full throttle the rover climbs about 38 degrees on regolith, a traction limit, never motor power. A stopped rover holds about 40 degrees on regolith, 44 on hardpack and 30 on polygon ground, and slides beyond that.
Gravity is 3.72 m/s², 0.38 g, so jumps hang; the game counts airtime with FIRST FLIGHT at 3 seconds and LOW GRAVITY at 30 seconds in total (more in how high you can jump on Mars). The controls are not the two-pedal scheme: you steer with keys, a touch track or a controller.
Energy replaces fuel. The rover has a 90 kWh battery, and regenerative braking up to 150 kW puts charge back, the only free way to slow down. Power derates below 15 percent charge, and storm boards drain the battery 50 percent faster. There are no cans to collect. Braking downhill is both a speed and an energy decision, which is as close to Hill Climb Racing's fuel anxiety as this game gets.
In-game screenshot: off the throttle on Stage 4's descent, the HUD reads -3 kW: regen is putting charge back into the battery.
Crashes cost something: damage is energy-based across chassis, suspension, motor and battery, and T puts you back at the last gate cleared, upright, with the clock running.
What it does badly: no upgrade makes the rover faster or better at climbing, because progression is XP, credits and crates of cosmetics in the garage. There are no coins on the road, no fuel cans and no endless distance runs. There is one rover and four stages, the view is a 3D chase or helmet camera rather than the side-on one-thumb game, and phones work in landscape only. If you love the upgrade loop, this is the wrong game.
Play free — no downloadHill Climb Racing 2: the sequel with multiplayer
Hill Climb Racing 2 (2016) suits "Hill Climb Racing with other people". The App Store lists it as free with in-app purchases, with real-time online racing, ranked cups, racing teams, global leaderboards, Adventure Mode and weekly events. Its built-in Track Editor lets you design and share player-made tracks. Upgrades come as tuning parts, including Mythic Tuning Parts, and skins.
The store pages do not say how fuel works in the sequel or whether it has low-gravity stages, so those cells stay "not confirmed". It runs on iOS and Android.
Hill Climb Racing Lite: the original in a browser
Hill Climb Racing Lite is Fingersoft's own browser version, the answer to "Hill Climb Racing online". Fingersoft describes the classic experience with select vehicles and tracks, on Poki globally and on YouTube Playables in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, published in 2024.
Poki shows what carries over: worlds including the Moon, fuel canisters and batteries, and coins for better vehicles and upgrades. On mobile you tap the right side for gas and the left for brake, and in the air the same controls rotate the vehicle. The limit is "select": it is trimmed. It also appears in our browser off-road game list.
Hill Climb Racing, the original, and its Moon
The original is a 2012 game from Finnish studio Fingersoft, created by Toni Fingerroos. Wikipedia gives Android on 22 September 2012, iOS on 8 November 2012 and Windows on 21 October 2013; whether the Windows version is still sold is not confirmed. The App Store lists it as free with in-app purchases. The Moon is the clearest low-gravity nod, and the vehicles include a moon lander. Fingersoft's page lists three ways to play: the original on Google Play and the App Store, Hill Climb Racing+ on Apple Arcade, and the Lite version in a browser. See Fingersoft's own listing; most lists skip it.
Rovercraft: build a rover for other planets
Rovercraft matches "rover on distant hills" most literally. The App Store calls it an arcade journey on the hills of distant planets, on a rover constructed by you, with jet engines, reactors and super-wheels, and 14 planets to race on. You can run out of fuel, lose wheels, or tear the pilot's space suit. It is free with in-app purchases on the App Store and Google Play. We could not confirm whether the planets differ in gravity, or a working browser version, so treat it as a phone game.
Earn to Die 2: upgrades and a road full of zombies
Earn to Die 2 keeps the upgrade loop and swaps the physics puzzle for a road trip. Steam calls it a 2D side-scrolling driving and upgrade game through a zombie apocalypse: 10 vehicles including a sports car, police car and ice cream van, upgrades such as armored frames, roof-mounted guns and boosters, destructible vehicles that auto-repair after each drive, and a Missions Mode. Toffee Games and Not Doppler released it on 5 May 2016 for Windows and Mac at $4.99. The Google Play version contains ads and in-app purchases. Neither page describes fuel, and there is no low gravity.
Drive Mad: balance as a puzzle, free in a tab
Drive Mad is the cleanest browser pick for the physics half. Poki calls it a physics-based car game, "from simple jumps to zero gravity and everything in between", where driving steady matters more than speed. The car tilts forward when you accelerate and backward when you brake, and you use that to control your angle mid-air and on slopes. The first 10 to 15 levels teach balance. It is free on Poki, Google Play and the App Store; we could not confirm a level count or upgrades.
Want the bike version? Trials-style games
If you like the balancing and not the car, the next family over is bikes on obstacle courses. We cover those in games like Trials, so this page does not add a separate entry.
Which game like Hill Climb Racing should you play?
For a phone and friends, play Hill Climb Racing 2. For a tab at school or work, play Hill Climb Racing Lite or Drive Mad. For space, try Rovercraft. For upgrades and chaos, play Earn to Die 2. For 3D and Mars with no upgrades, play Mars Rally Championship, whose hold angle depends on the surface and whose climb limit is set by grip.
Diagram: a stopped rover holds about 40° on regolith, 44° on hardpack and 30° on polygon ground; at full throttle it climbs about 38°.
It works on a phone in landscape with GAS, BRAKE and HANDBRAKE buttons and an analog steering track; see mobile browser racing games and low-gravity games.
Where to try this
- Drive Stage 4, Down the Mountain, the biggest descent in the game
- Free roam, a 2.5 km square at sunset with no timer
- Games like Trials, if you prefer bikes
- Low-gravity games, from the Moon to Mars
- Mobile browser racing games, for phones