Lego Hill Climb Adventures is a charming, simplified Trials

I played three video games in college: Halo 3 with my friends, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter with my roommate and her dad, and Trials HD by myself. I have since opened my horizons to the possibilities of other video games. And when I want to feel nostalgic, there are plenty of games that give me the feeling of playing the multiplayer shooters of my youth — but nothing but Trials itself has ever compared. (Eventually, Trials Evolution set that bar even higher.) This week, I read a story on Pocket Tactics: “This iPhone Lego game is perfect for fans of Ubisoft’s Trials series.”

That game, which is actually available for free on iOS and Android devices, is Lego Hill Climb Adventures. Released at the end of May, Lego Hill Climb Adventures is a Lego version of the classic physics-based racing game Hill Climb Adventures, another game that’s been compared to Trials — but with cars. I never hit it off with Hill Climb Adventures, but the Lego reskin was too charming not to try. It’s not Trials, but it does give me a similar thrill in playing it. I can’t put it down.

There are a bunch of Lego cars to unlock and race through the adorable worlds, picking up new blueprints and meeting Minifigs as you go. You aren’t necessarily building your own Lego car, but there are a bunch of ways to customize the existing options. My favorite part about the aesthetic is the sound design: There’s just something so satisfying about the click of a Lego brick. (And something even more satisfying about ramming your car through a wall of Legos.)

Lego Hill Climb Adventures is a much more chill iteration of the physics racing game genre, so don’t come into it expecting a Trials HD difficulty level. But it does have levels that require knowing exactly when to swipe or tap your phone screen. Each of the different vehicles has a different feel, too, so there’s always something to mess around with. The majority of the levels require you to race or complete a course with obstacles like jumps, steep hills, or stuff to destroy. The game’s energy system — bottles of milk — means you can’t play these endlessly, though, unless you pay up or grind the exploration modes, which are basically the same courses but with no real objective besides gaining coins, levels, milk bottles, and bricks.

The monetization system is the biggest bummer of Lego Hill Climb Adventures, but it is a free mobile game. It’s entirely possible to play most of it without spending a cent, but you will have to grind. The thing is, though, that grinding is still fun — and there are plenty of ways to switch up the vehicle to create more variety.