CityVille goes mobile with the launch of CityVille Express

While CityVille Hometown offers a completely separate CityVille experience on your mobile devices, there's currently no real way to "play" your Facebook version of CityVille while on the go (that is, unless you're using paid apps like iSwifter or the equivalent thereof on your iPad). In comes Zynga with a solution: CityVille Express. Similar to FarmVille Express, CityVille Express is an incredibly streamlined version of your city, that only allows you to complete certain activities, like harvesting crops or collecting from businesses, but not play the entire game that you're used to.

If you're trying to access CityVille Express on iOS, and tap on a link within your Facebook app, this might show you an error, rather than redirecting to the CityVille Express program itself (ah, the joys of new products). When using FarmVille Express, this is the quickest way to get in, but unfortunately, you may be forced to go the manual route here. The link to access CityVille Express is: http://m.city.zynga.com/express (clicking on this on a regular computer simply redirects you to the full game).

Once there, you'll be able to view your messages, send and receive gifts to/from friends and even add neighbors. Say you're ready to ask your friends to send you some items for goals - you can ask for those too, by clicking on the Ask for a Gift button and then viewing a long list of items that you need for goals. You'll then be able to choose which specific friends to ask for those items, just like you would in the main game.

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Scrolling down the page, you'll be able to harvest crops, plow over withered ones and plant new crops by choosing your desired crop from the store and then tapping once for each plot that you'd like to plant, up to the amount of plots you actually have in your city. The best part? None of that requires energy.UPDATE: Apparently, the lack of energy usage when tending crops was a bug, as that has been fixed. It now does cost energy to tend your crops in CityVille Express.

Where energy does come into play (you'll see the energy bar at the top of the screen) is in collecting from Businesses. Just as with the main game, you'll be able to collect from your ready Businesses, using one energy per Business, and can then use Goods to resupply them. Of course, depending on the number of Businesses you have in your city, this could actually turn into a lengthier process than if you had just logged into the game. Still, if you're waiting at the doctor's office, on your lunch break at work or even standing in line at the grocery store and need that CityVille fix, you can now have just that.

Are you excited about CityVille Express? What other Zynga games would you like to see given the "Express" treatment? Sound off in the comments.