We've been sort of Kairosoft crazy ever since they released their phenomenal game company simulation�Game Dev Story [$1.99/Lite] last year. Then, Kairosoft followed up that release here in the States with Hot Springs Story [$3.99/Lite], an even more refined simulation that let you manage and expand your own Japanese spa. Since then, Kairosoft has been releasing tons of differently themed simulations using their trademark character and style, but so far none of them have made it out of the Japanese App Store and into the US.

Back in April we took a look at one of those titles, which through our powers of mediocre translation we were calling Pocket School Story 2. It turns out that the game is actually called Pocket Academy [$3.99], and it has just gone live in the US App Store. Pocket Academy looks extremely similar to Hot Springs Story, except that you are creating a successful school from the ground up and managing all of the different aspects of it rather than a Japanese bath house.

We'll be putting Pocket Academy through its paces and come back with a full review soon, but since there are no doubt many of you who will buy a new Kairosoft game sight unseen (myself included) I figured that the decent thing to do would be to let you know of its availability and provide you with a link to the game. You can also check out the early impressions from gamers in our forums who have picked up the game, and we'll be back with more on Pocket Academy soon.

It's no secret that Rovio has been looking to turn Angry Birds into an … even bigger worldwide phenomenon than it already is. They've already got an impressive online store loaded with swag, as well as a pre-order page where you can get in line to order everything from lunch boxes to Angry birds sandals of all things. Normally I'd say, "Who the hell buys this stuff?" But, I've seen a ridiculous amount of people wearing Angry Birds shirts, and my neighbors' dogs' favorite toys are their full array of plush Angry Birds toys. Oh, and it probably doesn't hurt that these days Angry Birds is available on every platform under the sun, and it wouldn't surprise me if sometime next year I'll be able to play Angry Birds on my microwave.

A recent post on the Rovio blog provides some clues for the next step of Angry Birds world domination. David Maisel has joined the Rovio team with the mysterious title of "Special Advisor." I'm imagining this as a Game of Thrones-esque hand of the king kind of situation. Anyway, one of David's many claims to fame is transforming Marvel Entertainment from a comic book company desperate to remain relevant in the digital age to self-producing and self-financing massive summer blockbusters, turning existing comic franchises into multi-million dollar movie series and getting an entirely new generation interested in reading comics again.

Will Maisel be able to duplicate that success? It's hard to say. Rovio has recently raised $42m in investments to expand, and part of those expansion plans included acquiring Kombo, which is a leading Finnish animation studio. It seems that they've got all or most of the pieces of the puzzle to start pumping out Angry Birds TV shows, movies, or whatever else.

Now, I know how easy it is to just scoff and dismiss this news (all while simultaneously posting a comment to this story about how much you hate or "don't get" Angry Birds) but consider this� Angry Birds has single handedly turned a ridiculous amount of people onto gaming that otherwise never would have cared. Hell, I've seen this in my own family. My own father spent most of my life trying to get me to play less video games, and now courtesy of the iPad 2 I bought my parents plays "Pigs" (as he calls it) daily and has since branched out to similar casual games. I hear similar stories from friends all the time.

Love Angry Birds or hate it, it's fantastic to have something like this bringing this many more people into the world of gaming. If an Angry Birds movie is wildly successful, it will also serve to raise even more awareness to mobile gaming�

And that's never a bad thing.

Let's talk about Slice It! [$.99] for a second. Once the toast of the App Store, the hack and slash darling's initial sales flame has expired. That's how the App Store works, you know � it loves you when you're fast and lean, but then it distances itself once you get comfortable and put on a few pounds.

Fat and old as it might be, Com2US isn't giving up on old owners and the potential of new ones of Slice It. The low-cost app has just received a new update that adds a brand-spanking new mode of play called "Slice It: Quick." In a nutshell, it's a one-minute blitz of furious slashing. Every time you hack a new piece successfully, you'll gain three seconds. If you botch it, you'll lose three.

Think of it like an endurance mode, except faster.

Of course, the update is free and, more importantly, it's available now for the original app and the HD version of the iPad. Get on it, future psychopaths.

Take a nice long look at this teaser image, because it's all that we know right now:

(Click for this image in gloriously animated .gif form.)

This is courtesy of a tweet this morning, and it's really not that hard to speculate what Edge Extended might be about. It seems pretty obvious that Extended would be a continuation of Edge [$2.99], which is a fantastic puzzle-centric platformer. It would seem to me that they couldn't just simply release a new game that's the same as the old one with different levels, so it also wouldn't shock me to see some new gameplay elements included. What those are is anyone's guess.

As soon as more details leak out of Mobigame, we'll be on top of 'em.

Since NimbleBit's Tiny Tower [Free] launched last week, it has become their most successful game yet. As of this writing, the game has been downloaded 1,230,688 times and is seeing a surprisingly high 2.6% in-app purchase conversion rate which is nearly double that of their previous title, Pocket Frogs [Free]. Over 18 million sessions have been played with an average length of 9.3 minutes. In all, players have played just under 320 years of Tiny Tower.

Even though Tiny Tower has exceeded NimbleBit's expectations, not everything went as planned with its launch. Namely, an irritating crash bug that didn't appear in testing. This has since been fixed in an update that launched today, so if you've had crashing issues in Tiny Tower, download this update ASAP. Another update is also in the works that will apply some tweaks and address some other minor issues affecting a small number of players. Following that, it'll be full steam ahead on content updates to add things like additional floors, bitbook entries, and more.

The best thing about the iTunes family of storefronts is that it carries Sharon Stone's moody and moving flick "Last Dance." The second best thing, which is more relevant to our interests as a site on the Internet that deals with games, is the stunning amount of video game sales.

This week in particular has an awesome sale. Publisher Com2uS is slashing the prices of every single one of its offerings down to 99 cents. Get those wallets outs, dogs. It's time to put those debit and credit cards to good use. Let's take a look at the list:

• Chocolate Tycoon: $1.99 ?�$0.99
• Heavy Gunner 3D: $2.99 ?�$0.99
• Inotia 2: A Wanderer of Luone: $2.99 ?�$0.99
• Inotia 3: Children of Carnia: $4.99 ?�$0.99 [Universal]
• Tower Defense: Lost Earth: $2.99 ?�$0.99
• Third Blade: $2.99 ?�$0.99
• Trapped: Undead Infection: $1.99 ?�$0.99

Of course, a lot of Com2US stock is already being sold for pennies. Check it:

• Slice It!: $0.99
• Sniper vs. Sniper: Online: $0.99
• Caligo Chaser: $0.99
• World of Tunes: $0.99
• Zombie Runaway: $0.99
• Chronicles of Inotia: $0.99
• 9 Innings: Pro Baseball: $0.99

That's a lot of solid games going on the cheap. If you'd like a suggestion, I'd say you should jump ALL OVER Tower Defense. It's an awesome game with tons of levels, hours of play, and fun challenges. The most recent update also patched in some balance tweaks, which means that you can finally finish "Vulcan," AKA the impossible-level-that-I-poured-four-hours-into pre-patch. Of course, you can't go wrong with most of these at this price point, either.

Earlier this month at WWDC, we checked out an assortment of upcoming titles from Crescent Moon Games and their various partners. One of those titles was Topia, an interesting looking sim-style world creation game. It is being developed in conjunction with Glenn Corpes, creator of iOS racer Ground Effect [$1.99] and a former Bullfrog employee who worked on Peter Molyneux's classic strategy simulation Populous.

The Populous influence was apparent in that preview video, as in Topia you're given a colorful planet whose ground elevation can be manipulated and shaped using the touch screen. Exactly what type of game Topia will ultimately end up being is still being fleshed out, but so far we know that there will be various creatures who end up inhabiting your planet in great numbers, and a focal point will be to herd certain creatures together by using ground manipulation.

The world in the build of Topia that we saw at WWDC had tons of interesting characters running around, but they seemed to lack any sort of intelligence. That aspect of the game is starting to shape up as you can see in the following video with commentary from Josh Presseisen of Crescent Moon.

As you can see, Topia can display an impressive number of creatures onscreen at once, and the terrain manipulation and herding mechanics are definitely looking more fleshed out. The game is also quite beautiful, and based on the pedigree behind both Crescent Moon's and Glenn Corpes' previous work I feel pretty confident that whatever Topia turns out to be in the end will be something pretty interesting. You can head into our forums for discussion of the game and we'll keep our eyes on Topia as it continues to evolve during its development.