One of my all-time favorite computer games is Sid Meier’s Civilization for MS-DOS released in 1991. It is a turn-based strategy game whose goal is to advance your civilization enough to either conquer the other computer-controlled civilizations or to build a space ship to reach Alpha Centuri first.

Publisher 2K just released a version of this classic game for Windows Phone 7.5. Civilization Revolution is priced at $2.99.

The game looks and feels familiar to anyone who has played some version of Civilization. The game is still as much fun and addictive as its PC-based ancestor. There are, however, a couple of things that bother me and might concern other people too.

1. The graphics have a somewhat water-color look that makes object look fuzzy.
2. Map-based games need a lot of visual scanning to figure out what is going on. Phone screen are, in general, too small to see even medium sized maps.
3. The first generation HTC Surround (upgraded to “Mango”) does not have quite enough processing power for the game. A rotating hourglass appears between each turn cycle. This, as you might guess, slows down game play. However, this hourglass delay is less than 20 seconds.

Disclosure: Microsoft provide the game free of charge for this review.