TimeWasters  highlights many of the excellent, free Web-based/lightweight downloadable titles that you can dive into within the space of a lunch break. This week, Chris Gampat explores Galactic Colonization.

I’ve always had dreams of taking over the world through use of bacon, but Galactic Colonization (a very simple, extremely frustrating, and seriously addicting game) doesn’t allow for that. Instead,  it’s about spreading your civilization quickly, upgrading, and hoarding resources. Move fast, or you’ll end up at the bottom of the food chain.

The premise of the game is simple: you conquer other planets. It’s not really explained why you need to go to war, but you just need to do it. You can’t win through economic or social influence using the powers of Tiger Woods or Lindsey Lohan, you need to fight like Chuck Norris and Rambo, but with space suits and ships instead of AK-47s.

Galactic Colonization is essentially is a RTS game that looks more like the Star Trek games than Starcraft. Nonetheless, it’s still really awesome because of just how fast paced it becomes and just how extremely simple it really is to take over the universe if you plan strategically. That’s what makes this so great: that you need to think.  I can’t tell you how many times I sat panicking in front of my computer,  because I saw craft heading to coming into my homeworld and knew there was nothing I could do about it due to a defensive breakdown and not enough population.

It’s highly about strategy and moving fast. Be careful though, because each time you send ships to a planet, the departing planet loses half their population to being drafted into war, which leaves them open and vulnerable to invasion unless you can afford the correct defensive measures. This becomes harder in the later levels. As time progresses, the population goes up. The numbers on the planet represent the population.

There are numerous upgrades such as force fields, lasers, and new ships, which extends the gameplay. It’s a pity that you can’t save your progress. You can pause though, so don’t worry about shutting the game down at work.

The music isn’t anything special, so you can actually play this game with the sound off. However, when something major occurs (such as capturing or losing a planet) it announces the happening.

This game is highly recommended for everyone. Will a mobile version work out well? I don’t really think so. It would be a little hard to map out the controls unless the touchscreen was very sensitive. No matter, go try this game out for yourself and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

If you’re a developer and have a TimeWaster you’d like to submit for review, email ChrisGampat[at]gmail.com with the subject “TimeWasters Pitch.”