Vocal members of our community have long since written off ngmoco as a lost freemium cause, leaving us hardcore gamers in the dust as they move on to greener (and more casual) free to play pastures. The Rolando series seemed poised to become the Super Mario of the iOS platform when the original Rolando [99¢] hit in in late 2008. In July of 2009, Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid [99¢] was released, and is better than the original in every way imaginable.

Unfortunately, even though Rolando 3 was announced, poor sales of Rolando 2 combined with the wildly successful freemium-powered Eliminate [Free] seemed to be all ngmoco needed to seemingly give up on the Rolando franchise.

Check out the trailer to see what Rolando 2 is all about:

With a 99¢ price drop and a Retina Display update, I recommend everyone download Rolando 2, and you might as well snag Rolando while you’re at it. Put simply, Rolando 2 is a fantastic iOS platformer that intelligently utilizes both touch and tilt to create one of the first “iOS-only experiences." It looks great with the new graphics, and the gameplay still stands on its own today. While we’re incredibly excited that some of our favorite games are getting some entirely unexpected Retina Display treatment, it’s still dreadfully disappointing that there hasn’t yet been (and from where we’re sitting likely won’t be) a Rolando 3.