Rating: 
Summary: cheap fun...
Review: For cheap thrills, Tropico is a good game. By now, it can be bought in most stores for around $10. While the premise of being the dictator of your own island is an intruiging one, there are a couple of quirks that keep the game from really living up to its promises. Asassinate a rival political candidate to ensure your victory in the upcoming election and another person instantly steps up to run against you. Kill the new candidate and another volunteers! Don't they get the hint?! The game is too short. You can only rule for a maximum of 70 years. (Isn't Castro going on year 115?) On the more difficult settings, it is almost impossible to make any cool progress in this amount of time. Freighters arrive to buy exports only a few times a year and large buildings take forever to build (especially if they are built away from the center of your town, like airports and hotels) For the price of a cheap dinner out or a few video rentals, Tropico delivers some enjoyable and silly gameplay.
Rating: 
Summary: Can't get enough of it...
Review: I'm a big fan of Sim-type games where you control a city or group of sim "people". Among my favorites are Rollar Coaster Tycoon, SimGolf, The Sims, and SimCity 3000. PLEASE add Tropico to the list... I just can't get enough of this game. The idea of ruling an island and figuring out how to be a successful leader is great.
There are all types of people, events, buildings, and problems that need your attention in this game. You can adjust the difficutly to suit your needs. I tried over and over again to keep winning the island elections in hopes of successfully building my first airport and the many tourist attractions. Phew! Hard work...but I finally did it. This game is fun, challenging, and hilarious! It's easy to pick up this game cheap these days! I definitely recommend it for the $10 price tag! You should also spend a couple extra bucks for the Paradise Island add-on. I can't WAIT for Tropico 2[.]
Rating:
Summary: Telemundo buys SimCity3000 engine, but renders sims better
Review: Not listed above, it does run on winXP. People pointing rifles at your capital building is kinda wrong. Hot keys do a virus like take over of the machine after you are done, forcing a reboot (i.e., 'r' brings up the run menu). Otherwise this spanish sim is more fun that the first SimCity. Earth grid and weather look exactly like SimCity3000. When you start there are no easly levels, but there is one Moderate so it is kind'a a pain to figure out who needs what. And eventually you grow to hate your people, so I'm giving it a 3 for that. But it is a good step forward in Sim graphics and humor.
Rating:
Summary: Funny premise. Serious strategy.
Review: I look around the local gaming store, and I spot "Tropico- the Carribean dictatorship simulator." Looks pretty funny, but there's no way it's going to stand up to repeated playing, right? I mean, it's just a Sim in a clown's clothing, right? $40 for a gag game... I'm not paying it. Absolutely not. This thing will be down to 20 bucks in no time.
6 months later, this little "gag" has resisted the price decay one would expect for a simple gag game. My curiosity has grown to the point that I'm actually willing to shell out 40 bucks to check the game out.
So I pop Tropico into the CD tray. Holy cow! Look at all the options! You set the rent for appartments, the cover charge for pubs, and the salary for every job on the island. Buildings don't magically appear- You actually have to wait as your construction workers turn yellowish translucent images of buildings into reality, often taking months or even years to finish. The depth is astounding.
The music is far from being a joke, and rivals just about any game music out there today. Instead of having some video game composer pump out an hour of cheesy music with a tinge of latin cliches, they contracted the real thing. "Latin Music Specialists," the people responsible for Tropico's music, made a real gem of a soundtrack that fits perfectly into the whole Tropico experience. The music is content to stay in the background, but is certainly not unappreciated. It's perfect for the atmosphere of a tropical paradise.
If you want something that's different, but in a good way, I would recommend Tropico. Only be ready to learn by doing- the Tutorial is no help in the strategy department: it's more concerned with the mechanics of map rotation.
Rating:
Summary: I'm now ready for my own island
Review: A friend introduced me to Tropico about 5 months ago and I really haven't been able to stop playing or thinking about game strategy since. As sad as this may sound, this game has become such a part of my thinking that aspects of the game regularly find their way into my daily conversation. In fact after a visit to the Big Island on Hawaii, which although isn't a Carribean nation run by a dictator, has much of the same feel -- I found myself analyzing the tourist trade there to see if I was missing anything. There are quite a few quirks in the game and as some people said a lot of clicking. You do really have to study the nuances of how the game works. It's not too hard to pinpoint people and have them killed or bribed like someone else said, all you need to do is to pause the game. I have noticed at times that Tropico decides to boot me out of the game and I believe this is a video card issue (nVidia TNT2) or maybe something to do with Window's '98. I've tried the game on the same machine and Window's XP and haven't had any problems. Aside from some strange quirks I have to say Tropico has been one of a most enjoyable games I have ever played period. The music is extremely catchy and really sets the mood. The subject matter is excellent, especially after playing one of several different real life dictators in the game. On a special note, the expansion pack to this game is supposedly coming out in January 2002 and I absolutely cannot wait. Needless to say, I need to get out more.
Rating:
Summary: cool game
Review: Tropico is a fun game. After playing the rather large demo (180 megs) which contains the tutorial, I decided to buy it. The install was easy, tho contains no options (such as full or partial install) and took up about 870 megs. Gameplay is simple with a fairly well designed control bar. The graphics are first rate but once your island grows as you build more stuff and more people come in on boats it will get choppy on slower machines. I highly recommend a 3D card. I use a GeForce2 w/64 megs on a PIII 500 and it runs almost flawlessly with the graphics turned all the way up. The only time it slows down is when I rotate camera angles. I use smooth unit animation and even when zoomed out you can stil see the people walking around. It's awesome! Overall it's a good game and is addicting. There are tonnes of options, buildings to choose from, and various difficulty levels to accomodate all types of players as well as a new expansion pack "Paradise Island". I esp. like the "sandbox" mode which gives you unlimited money and no political concerns. If you are a die-hard sim fan and just want to build a cool island, this mode is for you. Definitely check this game out!
Rating: 
Summary: Very fun sim, yet lacks some important bells and whistles.
Review: Tropico: Imagine a sim in which you play a 3rd world island dictator that places you in a large presidential palace where you govern the native inhabitants, immigrants who come to your country looking for work, tourists looking for that perfect beach vacation, political regimes wanting to be your friend, building an economic empire all while making sure you avoid a coup. In an obvious tongue and cheek version of playing Fidel Castro governing Cuba from the early 50's to present day and beyond, I am totally amazed at the depth of your decision making progress. While the graphics are very strong, and the music soundtrack will have you humming for hours to a latin/salsa beat, you will want to play this game over and over (especially the random map generator and setting winning conditions) in figuring out the best way to manage your island. The game, at its most basic core, is modeled after a very sophisticated economic engine. Depending on what you pay your inhabitants at their jobs, the placement of certain money generating industries, the level of housing quality, what you can provide as entertainment, religion, schooling, healthcare is incredible. The placement of buildings on terrain, elevation, and proximity to other structures is very critical! Also staffing those buildings and making your people happy while also maintaining a good relationship with capitalists (USA) and communists (USSR) is just as important. You also have to be very wary about weather conditions and pollution. Again, you will be amazed at the level of depth this economic engine runs. The characters are very amusing to watch, and their thoughts will help you make other decisions. But I guarantee you will always be questioning yourself. Was placing the church here a good idea, or should I have put the cabaret closer to the tourist area. Should I have planted coffee or corn on this plot of land, or should I start a timber industry and raise goats instead? Very serious. The most fun I had so far was quelling a coup where a few of my soldiers betrayed me (I guess they weren't to happy) and fled to the hills, only to come and try to storm my palace later. My loyalists then began a gun battle downtown sending the native and the tourists running. There is not enough space in this review to tell you about all the myriad of building and characters available. But one really neat and realistic feature is the creation of your dictator. Before starting the game you need to set attributes to your character and depending on what you set people, industry, tourists, foreign powers will react differently. In addition, YOU MUST chose 2 faults, whether you are a womanizer, boozer, have tourits syndrome, compulsive gambler. etc....These also affect how the world reacts to you, so you will never play the same game twice!! Okay, now the downsides: 1) The manual is vague in areas and you will want a better description on how things interact. 2) The manual has a few blatant errors. Pictures do not match text. 2) Some buildings, not all, cannot be rotated (this is truly unacceptable with today sims), 3) Your peoples explanations on how they are feeling are vague at times and there is no immediate feedback on decisions which can prove to be difficult for new players, and finally 4) There is already a patch 1.01 available for download at the main website POPTOP.com. But don't let these few minor annoyances detract you this game. It has a great educational value and humor to it. The graphics and music are amazing, and the re-playability factor is high. Now bulldoze that shack, build an apartment building for the masses, grow some pineapple, and build that hotel on the beach!
Rating:
Summary: Tropico well worth the visit
Review: I hesitated on buying Tropico for several weeks, since I felt I was badly burned by my last game purchase, Black and White. Now, I wish I hadn't hesitated. Tropico is a really fun game that is both reasonably intuitive (at least at the basic level) and extremely fun. The graphics are beautiful and your sychophantic aide adds just the right amount of dry humor. (For instance, if you click on a dying citizen, he will say something like "Adios, muchachos." and if you get ousted from your island "I guess the people just don't recognize your genius, El Presidente." If you read your citizens minds like the good faschist dictator you are, they will think of things like "What this island really needs is a good train simulator.", which is a reference to PopTop's last hit Railroad Tycoon II.) Anyway, the game has charm. There are some minor quirks (i.e. even with the patch the airport takes forever to build. By the time you are ready for it it is probably too late to start building it. Also, some buildings can't be rotated and it would be nice to be able to name the various regions of the island yourself.) But overall it is a very fun and addictive game. If you think you might like this game you probably will. I fully anticpate that it will carry me through till Civ 3 is released.
Rating:
Summary: Just Like Home...
Review: I love it. As a native of Puerto Rico, I saw many places and Individuals from my childhood in this game. The man who did the graphics most be a Hispanic or spends most of the time in the tropics. The male farmer looks like my grandfather! Even the Denim shirt that he always used! There are papaya and banana trees on my mother's house that are just like the ones in the game. So I play it all the time. It's is worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT TROPICO
Review: All I have to say about Tropico is: What a fun game! What fallen human being hasn't wanted to be a tin-pot dictator? If W can get himself appointed President of the United States, then surely each of us should get at least one tiny Caribbean Island. This game features wonderful replay value, an awesome sound track and the best narrator around. Presidente...this is truly a fun game! From poor rural beginnings to your hopeful retirement with a massive Swiss bank account, Tropico is a blast. I highly recommend Tropico. There is almost no learning curve involved. Instead there are hours and hours of guaranteed fun.
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