Download this: Alto is back and better than ever in 'Alto's Odyssey'

One of the best iPhone games finally has the sequel we've been waiting for.

Alto's Odyssey, the long-awaited sequel to Alto's Adventure, hit the App Store this week, three years after the original became one of our favorite games of 2015.

With a three-year wait, expectations for Alto's Odyssey were extremely high, but we can now say the $4.99 iOS game was worth the wait.

The games strikes the perfect balance of maintaining everything that was great about the original, while adding enough new elements you don't feel like you're just rehashing the same game with new graphics.

The core dynamics are the same: you race through levels (this time on sand instead of snow) while completing increasingly difficult challenges with a rotating cast of characters. But there are new tricks to master (like wall rides, seen below) and new obstacles play on (hot air balloons and ancient ruins).

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Also different: the game has a beautiful new soundtrack (play with headphones -- you won't regret it) that changes as you go through each level. Likewise, each level's scenery also changes the more you ride: you'll move from sand dunes to ancient ruins as day turns into night and back into day (if you can stay alive long enough, that it).

Best of all, Alto avoids the intrusive ads and freemium gimmicks so many other games rely on so you can concentrate on just playing, which is what you'll want to do anyway.