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Article first published as Is Angry Birds Becoming the Law & Order of the App World? on Blogcritics. Doink-Doink . You know those familiar two notes that could only mean that  Law & Order was on that night. Faster than you can say "criminal intent", the  Law & Order  franchise branched out to include four additional series, three of which are still in production today. Although the original series concluded in 2010, the legacy lives on, and similar series (most notably  CSI ) have also dabbled in multiple productions. Is there an equivalent to this spin off effect in the App World? Look no further than those  Angry Birds  from Rovio.

11/12 UPDATE: Although one is always happy to see additional levels (45 in total) via an update, the folks behind the addictive Angry Birds are close to disenfranchising their fans by overloading the game with ads. I could live with a few of the ads, and the occasional video, but the placement (now in the upper right corner) and frequency (every single level for a longer period of time) have spurred numerous comments and 1-star ratings on the market. We'll see if Rovio addresses this in an update or else it'll have to worry more about Angry Fans than Birds. Review/Original Post: I first heard of Angry Birds through one of Conan O'Brien's promos . Admittedly, I was not that interested in a game for the iPad at the time, and I wasn't willing to plunk down $4.99 for the app. However, when word got around that there was a free full version available on the Android Market, I quickly downloaded, installed, and have not looked back since. Here are some happy thoughts ...