So, as we reported multiple times before, the island-governing simulator game Tropico – which was first made available on iOS for iPads – has finally arrived on iPhones, and you are probably wondering: Is it worth playing? The short answer is, yes. The quality of the game, and of this port in particular, is simply outstanding.
If you have not heard of Tropico before, it is a long-running simulator franchise in which the players takes on the role of the governor of a tropical island. The series is highly-praised for its great construction and management mechanics, with a nice little bit of politics added into the mix.
Now, one great thing about developer Feral Interactive is that it doesn’t simply port a game to another platform. Instead, the studio actually understands the differences between different control systems and always makes several tweaks to optimize its products.
With the iPhone port of Tropico, for example, the interfaces have been changed to be more suitable to the smaller screen. You’ll have an action bar containing various icons for different tasks at the bottom of your screen. This means you can easily access basically everything you need. Think of it as a desk with all the tools that you can just pick up and use at any time.
Another thing that people are often skeptical about when it comes to mobile ports of originally PC games is that the experience is watered down to fit the portable platform. You can rest easy, as there is no such thing here. This is still Tropico at its fullest. There will still be tons of text that you must read through to make hard decisions, plenty of needs and wants from your people that you must address, as well as various threats to your nation that you must be very careful while navigating.
As you start a new game, you will be presented with a basic and an in-depth tutorial. You are highly recommended to go through them both to get an idea of how the game works. The game features two different modes including a campaign in which you play you play through 15 different maps with various tasks and challenges and a Sandbox mode where you can generate your own island and basically do whatever you feel like.
One thing about Tropico that has always appealed to gamers is the audio. From voice acting to music, everything is top-notch. The only flaw with the game as it is currently is that some objects are a bit too small to tap on, especially on devices with smaller screens such as the iPhone 7. The pause or fast forward buttons are prime examples of this. Still, they work perfectly fine on larger devices, so that’s something you should take into consideration.
Overall, Tropico on iOS, both the iPad and iPhone versions, are high-quality titles that you should not miss out on. While the controls on the iPhone 7 or similar devices might be a bit finicky due to the smaller buttons, the game is an absolute wonder on an Ipad or bigger phones such as iPhone 7 Plus. Feral Interactive did a wonderful job of capturing what makes the entire franchise so fun to begin with. This is precisely what a mobile port should be. Rather than simply taking a PC or console game and slapping a virtual joystick on it, the studio truly put a lot of effort in reworking the interface to make it suitable to the touchscreen yet still retain the accessibility and precision on PC. Again, just be sure to pay close attention to the tutorials. They are extremely helpful if you are not familiar with the Tropico games.