The majority of the expansion's additions involve tourism: There are more types of hotels and attractions and even more types of tourists. Tropico: Paradise Island adds a number of welcome new features to the original. And it was the first management game in which a certain subset of your population would never fully support you simply because you could choose to play as a fascist pop singer with a predilection for drink. Tropico had personality, charm, and a robust system of simulated individuals that could be coddled, terrorized, and manipulated in a variety of ways. You not only had to preside over a Caribbean island, but you also had to deal with vastly opposing factions within your populace.
It took the familiar city-management-simulation genre and infused it with a great premise and an interesting political element. Tropico was one of the best strategy games last year.