The player can perform stunts such as driving the vehicle into the air for a prolonged time or flipping it over to earn more coins, which after the race may be spent on upgrades or to unlock new stages and vehicles (including a monster truck, dirt bike, tank, and Santa's sleigh). Fuel is replenished by picking up gas canisters or batteries along the way. While in mid-air, pressing these pedals will instead cause the vehicle to rotate, allowing the player to control the angle with which they land. The objective of Hill Climb Racing is to drive as far through progressively difficult racing stages as possible while collecting coins, taking advantage of the non-realistic physics and using only two simple controls: the Gas and Brake pedals. The top-left portion of the screen comprises the fuel gauge and an inventory of coins and gems. Throughout this course, coins are spread in groups, with some of them accompanied by fuel and gems (as shown on the center-right). Gameplay Screenshot illustrating elevation as the main aspect of the game. Its success led to the creation of a sequel, Hill Climb Racing 2 in 2016, and in 2018, the Hill Climb Racing franchise became the second Finnish mobile game franchise after Rovio's Angry Birds to amass one billion downloads. Further praise went to the simplistic two-button controls and the freemium monetization model for its passive approach.
Critics tended to describe the graphics as being rudimentary at best or ugly at worst and sometimes panned the gameplay as unimpressive, but the former was overlooked when they lauded the physics. The game received generally somewhat favorable reviews. The player controls a driver across hilly terrains, collecting coins along the way and spending them on vehicular upgrades and on vehicles themselves while being watchful of the driver's head as well as the vehicle's fuel supply. It was originally created by Toni Fingerroos, Fingersoft's founder, and is the company's best-known product.
Hill Climb Racing is a 2012 2D physics-based racing video game released by the Finnish studio Fingersoft for Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, and Windows Phone.