Tropico - On This Day

Politics in video games are most often presented through two extremes: either it is deadly serious or it is stereotypically comic. This second group includes the series of strategy games Tropico, which appeared in the PC version on the European market on this very day 20 years ago.

Tropico put us in the boots of El Presidente, the dictator and supreme leader of a fictional Caribbean state during the Cold War. Through various intrigues, we had to retain power in that banana republic, and this often meant oppressing our population and seducing tourists, all to avoid rebellion and coup.

El Presidente was the avatar of the player himself, but the list of dictators also included real actors such as Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. The political factions in the Tropics included communists, militarists, capitalists, and others, and we were able to manipulate all of them through laws and the construction of facilities on the islands.

In 2001, Tropico was a refreshment in its genre and achieved millions in sales, mostly in the European market, where it came from. It got one expansion called Paradise Island, and since 2008 it has continued to live under a new developer and has experienced four sequels, appearing on consoles as well. It is currently the most current sixth part of the series, available for PC and all consoles.