Ah, there’s nothing quite like being dictator of your own island. Of course, it’s not as easy as it sounds. Do you build a church or a clinic? Housing or a high school? Rest assured whichever decision you make someone is going to be mad and run off into the forest to become a rebel. Hope you remembered to build up your army (which is going to lower the people’s sense of liberty, so more rebels).

Oh and what do you know, the volcano is erupting and you haven’t even recovered entirely from last year’s drought and string of tornados.

Tropico 4 is much like its predecessors and, while not the most recent release of the game, is currently my favorite version of it.

The player has the option of playing through a series of missions set during the Cold War. Players better balance the relations between the Soviet Union and the United States, otherwise they’ll find yourself in trouble. The U.N. is always meddling in your affairs as well, and other foreign interest will have an effect on your island as well depending on how you treat them and how you run your island. (For instance, the Middle East won’t be thrilled about any oil exports coming from your island.)

To help you balance these fickle relationships, both with those entities outside and inside your island, you can have a council that helps you manage certain aspects of your island. A defense minister, an education minister, a minister of foreign affairs and others are all extremely helpful for managing (and manipulating) the politics of your island.

The player can also play a round with no missions, but simply build up their island to an urban paradise. You can build a space program, a nuclear program, car factories and just about anything else you can think of.

Of course, your island doesn’t have to be a paradise, ruling with an iron fist is also an option. Building up the military and enabling conscription is bound to send many of your citizens off to join the rebels, but hey, fighting them off can be a lot of fun.

If as a kid you ever enjoyed building LEGO cities, or have enjoyed SimCity games, you’ll enjoy Tropico 4. The combination of political manipulation and city management in Tropico 4 is what makes this game so great and definitely worth playing.