Tropico

"Funneling Public Fundings to your Personal Pocket is a Hoot!"

Reviewer's Notes:
Though at first sight, though many people would like to pass Tropico off as a SIMCITY clone, I would like to explain a few things why I believe that this game deserves a special mention as one of the most memorable games that I've ever had played.

At first sight, you can notice that Tropico is similar to Simcity in the fact that you are the omnipotent leader of your empire. Instead of a city in SimCity, you are the leader of a small island in the Carribean (If you don't have any ideas, assume that it was Cuba).

Now the game play is similar because you are supposed to build up a bustling empire in that island - and the similarity ends there.

The interesting part about Tropico, is that there are many ways to achieve that goal. You could make it a tourist paradise and sucker lots of Yanqui (I think that means Spanish for Yankees) out of their GreenBacks, or you could alternatively make it an economic powerhouse by agriculture or industry. An additional interesting part of the game is that every decade or so, your population will occassionally call for an election. If you're doing bad, it is likely that you get voted out of office - but hey there are numerous tricks that you can use to turn the tide. A few examples include a generous Tax Cut (Bush Jr. used this in making the population like him more during the war against terrorism), and festivals (e.g. Mardi Gras) which can quickly sway the population's favor to your side. If things get ugly, an easier way would just refuse the election, and let your arm forces declare a martial law, so that you can stay in power. What ever way you choose, there are consequences, and its interesting in how all of this balance out.

On a funny sidenote, you can also channel funding from Financial Institutes or Construction Costs and put them in your own pockets. It is called corruption, though it has no significant impact on the game, its interesting to see how much money you can stuff in your pocket during your reign.

Coupled with the already excellent game, Tropico comes with an excellent soundtrack. The soundtrack was the best selling game soundtrack in 2001, and it has a good reason to be. The music has captured the essence of a Carribean setting with songs ranging from rhythmatic Sassa to Festive Cubain music written by artist Daniel Indart.

This game is a great buy, and certainly one that can keep you hooked on for hours and hours building the island of your dreams either on free play mode, or as one of the numerous scenarios available.

Game Idea - 9/10
Though dismissed as a SimCity wannabe, this game adds alot to the city building simulation genre with its old bnnana republic style of humor making it a unique game on its own rights.

Game Balance and Mechanics 7/10
The game Tropico requires extensive planning more than SimCity due to the many facets in the Island republic. Its hard to balance all the needs of your people, and at times get down right irritating with all the factors. If things get back, the easiest way is declare martial law, and put your army and police enforce - and lets hope they are well paid so they don't turn against you ;)

Graphics - 7/10
Some interesting sprites of buildings and people going by and around your island. It really gets beautiful when we create an island resort and get tourist greenbakcs from the Yanqui's, or gets ugly if we invest alot on industries. Not state of the art graphics, but suites this game very well.

Music/Sound Effect - 10/10
Great Soundtrack written by Daniel Indart that grabs the essence of your bannana republic well.

Replayability - 9/10
Most City sims are highly replayable when we try to create new city plans when the last plan fails. This game also includes alot of scenarios which makes it very interesting.

Overall - 8/10
Good entertaining game, that would satisfy alot of city-building simulation fans with its multi facet population, and with a quick dash of banana republic humor - making this one enjoyable title worthy of mention :)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/07/04