Simply put: Rolando is charming, entertaining, and really, really fun. It's a game where you can tell that the developers (Hand Circus, published by ngmoco) have poured their hearts and souls into crafting a rich experience, that's built from the ground up. What's more, it's exclusive to the iPhone. If ngmoco publish more gems like this one, the platform is in good hands.

In Rolandoland, you are known as the omnipresent deity Finger. Rolandos will talk to you and ask for your help in pressing buttons, moving lifts, flipping switches and firing catapults. They have no abilities of their own, except moving (tilt controlled), and jumping (a finger swipe upward) - and so they rely on your power to interact with their environment. You can look around with two fingers, and you also have the ability to move anything yellow - such as switches and mechanisms. This makes for some fantastic gameplay - no longer do you press a button to activate a bridge, you pencil it in as if by magic. Aside from the regular Rolandos, you have the commando Rolandos, who have the ability of sticking to walls, defying gravity, and the Royal Rolandos - the King who is in a state of perpetual sleep, and the Prince, who will roll constantly, even if it leads to his doom. You cannot control any of the Royal characters, so your best bet is to wedge them in between two of your Rolandos to stop them falling into a pit of sludge.

The primary goal is to save all your Rolandos by rolling them into the exit - once you do this you can move onto the next stage. There's also a couple of secondary achievements - collecting all the diamonds will net you a badge, as will beating the level within a certain time limit. For some levels, you need not save all the Rolandos to complete the challenge time - which is good, considering that controlling upwards of three Rolandos at once (which is perfectly possible within the game) can get a little tricky. All your achievements are listed within the game so that you know what's left to do. You'll find yourself playing each level at least twice (there's 36 of them), once to save all your rotund characters and collect the diamonds in one go, and the second to see if you can beat the clock.

What's most engaging about Rolando is the sheer amount of things you can do in the game. None of the elements in any of the levels are overused, which makes the game feel fresh - in addition to the platforming puzzle aspect of the game, there are a few bonus stages where you roll the King around in a tilt controlled maze, avoiding enemies and collecting diamonds - there's also a level where it's just you and the Prince - like an obstacle course. We wish these sections were given a few more levels of course - but the variety they bring to the game is definitely worth a mention. Even the credits screen is interactive.

The presentation in Rolando is gorgeous. An unfolding storybook showcases the game's four areas in popup fashion, with a path being marked out when you get further along in the game. Levels are beautiful, with attractive backgrounds and level specific objects, and the music is unique and funky. The game is compatible with playing your own, but why bother when the soundtrack here is solid? Rolandos have their own chirps when jumping, or being selected - you'll even get a group jump sound when you've got multiple Rolandos selected at once. Another great little detail; when you're interrupted, the app's icon is badged with the number of active Rolandos in your game. This is especially useful if you forgot you had a game in progress.

In all, this is an extremely well polished and fun game. Hand Circus have outdone themselves in producing one of the best iPhone games to date. We can all hope that the future will bring even better games.

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