Rovio has made a killing selling Angry Birds games and pretty much any type of branded merchandise you can imagine, but they haven't done so hot with games that don't feature angry birds or little green pigs.

Today the company announced a new publishing initiative, called Rovio Stars, which will see Rovio publishing 3rd party titles that they think have the potential to be the next Angry Birds without having to actually dump the time and resources into making their own 1st party games. Think Chillingo, but more Finnish.

It makes total sense, and with the kind of money and established fan base that Rovio has they can provide an opportunity for good games to stand out that might otherwise get buried in the App Store.

While I'm not super surprised to see Rovio moving into publishing, the most exciting part about this news is that the first two Rovio Stars games are both ones we've previewed in the past, were pretty excited for, and then haven't heard much about since.

First up is Nitrome's Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage, a clever-looking physics puzzler we first spotted last December. I know, I know, physics puzzlers. But Icebreaker looked pretty unique in that it had you manipulating and slicing apart different parts of the environment in order to get your little viking dude to its goal. It also didn't hurt that Icebreaker had a top-notch visual style and great sound work. Here's a new Rovio Stars-approved trailer for Icebreaker which looks pretty similar to the first trailer but comes with much more gruff voiceover.

Following Icebreaker, the next Rovio Stars game is set to be Tiny Thief by 5 Ants. You might remember us gushing over Tiny Thief back at GDC last year, which feels like ages ago. Not long after that some new screens popped up and it looked like everything was go for launch in the months that followed. It sort of seemed to fall off the map, though, so I'm extremely happy to see it resurface under Rovio Stars.

Tiny Thief is a puzzle game at its heart, and sees you controlling a tiny thief as you use stealth and ingenuity to successfully steal stuff in a vibrant, cutesy little universe. The really impressive part about Tiny Thief is the level of interactive elements in the game's environments. You can interact with practically anything, and doing so can have a wide variety of results, meaning there's never just one clearcut path through each level. Here's the original trailer again, newly branded by Rovio Stars, so you can get an idea of Tiny Thief in action.

Both Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage and Tiny Thief are said to be coming "soon" so be sure to add both to your TouchArcade [Free] app Watch List if you didn't do so previously and we'll be sure to update you with any more news, like pricing or a specific release date. Also, if you're a developer interested in applying for the Rovio Stars program you can do so on the Rovio website.

It'll be interesting to see how this whole Rovio Stars thing pans out, but at the very least I'm super excited to see two games I had thought went the way of the dodo resurface with new life.

Over the coming weeks, you'll see a lot of "hey, this game has received iPhone 5 wide-screen support" posts. It's the nature of the beast, a byproduct of a yearly release cycle that developers need to keep up with as enthusiasts like us ditch their older, slower phones in favor of The Hot New Thing.

Most of the new, super-anticipated games coming down the pipes will see support at launch. In fact, most of the games on our radar have already thrown out images of their games running in 16:9. It's exciting stuff if you've got an iPhone 5 and a burning desire to see more games in widescreen.

If you're wondering what your soon-to-be favorites apps will look like in 16:9, we've got your back. Below, we've rounded up some of the most exciting games we could find that'll roll out with iPhone 5 support and have included images because pictures are a heck of a lot more exciting than words.

Real Racing 3

On Apple devices, Real Racing games sorta do the same thing that the Gran Turismo or Forza franchises do for the PlayStation or Xbox. They're showpieces that demonstrate the power of the Next Big Thing. As such, we don't expect Real Racing 3 to disappoint in the tech department. It'll show off the wider, awesomer screen of the iPhone 5 and dazzle with shaders, lighting and that kind of stuff.

We've seen the next Real Racing a couple of times. Most recently, we caught it at the iPhone 5 event, where that screenshot was released and details about the game's exciting asynchronous multiplayer-slash-ghost mode were released.

Real Racing 3 is due out later this year.

Year Walk

Year Walk is the next game from Beat Sneak Bandit creator Simogo. Due to hit later this winter, it's billed as a "2D adventure about folklore, strange creatures, and a bit of the occult." Judging by the game's trailer, it's something of a horror game, which is a tantalizing creative direction for any touch-based title.

Year Walk also looks superb, and it'll take advantage of the wider iPhone 5 screen, as you can see from the image above. As we've covered before, in the game, you'll be able to interact with all the world's creatures and objects, via a first-person perspective. This taller screen should make Year Walk pop, considering.

Coaster Crazy

It's been too long since we've seen a game about roller coasters, so we're totally into Coaster Crazy, the next title from Frontier Developments. In the game, you'll be tasked with building roller coasters in an effort to appease your theme park's enthusiasts. We hear the game's finger-tracing mechanic for building is going to be sharp, and it'll be an iPhone 5-ready game when it hits later this winter.

Another neat thing? Apparently, Frontier is working on a multiplayer component that'll let people download each other's tracks. We can't wait until you can get hands-on with our upcoming TouchArcade Ride of Doom (TM).

Tiny Thief

Tiny Thief was the pleasant surprise that came from our visit to GDC this year. In the game, you play as the world's tiniest thief and are charged with stealing various items like, say, diamonds, and other treasures. Since the thief doesn't have the means to physically protect himself, he has to hide in wardrobes and barrels and create catastrophic distractions that play out a little like a Rube Goldberg construct.

Thief was originally envisioned as an iPad title, but it is coming to iPhone and iPhone 5. In the iPhone version, you'll be able to zoom into the environment to see the action in a closer viewing angle, creator 5 Ants tells us.

Tiny Thief is coming soon.

Hatchi 2

Portable Pixels' virtual pet simulation game, Hatchi, was great. Its super lo-fi look in combination with its simplistic feeding, bathing, and evolution mechanics definitely got us thinking about our days spent with a Tamagotchi, and how much better a game like that is served on a portable device that can do stuff like, say, make a phone call. Or text the pizza man.

Well, Hatchi is going through a bit of a transformation itself. Portable Pixels is in the middle of creating a fully realized sequel that won't lean so heavily on nostalgia. As you've seen in the images, the next Hatchi, which will be iPhone 5-ready, will have actual visuals and, we're guessing, some much more complex mechanics.

No word on release just yet, but it's probably safe to assume "soon-ish."

Wimp

We're stoked about Flexile Studios Wimp. Starring a cutesy character wrapped in a ball of ooze, it's a physics-based puzzle platformer that appears to take puzzles seriously, as indicated in its teaser trailer. In the game, you'll move around boxes and play with weight, stick to surfaces, and even get lit on fire -- you know, all the normal puzzle game stuff.

While all that stuff is cool, we're more stoked about Wimp's iPhone 5 support. Most of these kinds of games will get locked into 4:3 forever for creative reasons, as creators want to control absolutely everything players can see and do. But Wimp will come out of gate with widescreen, and seems like it'll use the screen area quite well. We'll see for sure when it hits later this month.

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iPhone 5's taller screen opens up a lot of possibilities for games coming down the pipe, as the increased real estate can provide more room for virtual buttons and more room for outstanding visuals and technical wizardry. We'll keep you in the loop as creators debut support, and chances are that we'll add a few more games to this list as the day goes on.

Have fun with the new iPhone, eh? And look forward to the future.

Behind the scenes, 5 Ants' astoundingly gorgeous point-and-click stealth and adventure hybrid continues to grow from what we saw at GDC this year. In a recent conversation with us, a rep from the new Barcelona-based studio revealed three new levels, each of which is zanier than the last. Below, you can view what we saw: a camp, a candy store, and a robot.

On paper these things definitely don't go together and we're thinking that's kind of the point. 5 Ants is embracing and expanding on the charm and absurdity of Tiny Thief, and these things are starting to get expressed in more than just character and scenario design. We couldn't be more pumped after viewing these, but there's still a wait ahead of us. Tiny Thief isn't scheduled to hit iPad until later this summer.

It's hard not to gush about Tiny Thief. Earlier this morning at GDC in San Francisco, 5 Ants, a freshly assembled studio based in Barcelona, gave us a quick peek at its initial title, which merges stealth with traditional point-and-click. Simply put, it's gorgeous, and has the kind of mechanical pop that we all want for The Next Big Thing.

As the game's titular Tiny Thief, your job is to steal treasures like diamonds without betraying your presence. Thief can hide in wardrobes and crates, hang on chandeliers or banners, and even sneak into bed next to a sleeping sheriff's wife. This is all in the name of avoiding conflict, of course. Thief is the world's smallest burglar; he doesn't have the means to defend himself.

In addition to hiding, Thief can also freely use items around his immediate environment to accomplish his goals. In one level, for example, Thief needs to use a cuckoo clock to wake a sleeping feline and its owners long enough for him to sneak closer to his goal. These solutions are never readily apparent, as each level boasts a number of interactive items, and the game logic keeps the utility of them rather fuzzy.

In our short demo, we were impressed by the sheer amount of interactive objects in the levels, as well as the hand-drawn visuals. This thing is dripping with cutesy, as you'll see in the trailer below:

Tiny Thief is split into five themed chapters, all of which have five levels. This kind of structure in particular is intriguing: Tiny Thief relies on a lot of trial-and-error as you try to find the right combination of actions and hiding, but its instanced action seems to keeps the puzzles small and, you, as a result, focused and not annoyed.

Game is due out in the next three months. We'll be following this one pretty closely as it hurdles towards release. Stay tuned.