Feral Interactive says Tropico 3: Gold Edition for the Mac will be released in January 2012. Developed by Haemimont Games and published by Kalypso Media for Windows, Tropico 3: Gold Edition is a re-imagining of the construction and management simulation Tropico.

Here’s how the game is described: “Tropico 3: Gold Edition is a combination of strategic city-builder and humorous political simulator that invites players to reign as El Presidente, dictator of the resource-rich Caribbean nation of Tropico. To govern is to choose, and as players build their island’s infrastructure, manage the economy and keep competing factions on side, they will have plenty of opportunity to find out whether they prefer to rule with a velvet glove or an iron fist.

“To maintain their grip on power, players will need to create a cult of personality around El Presidente, composing his silver-tongued speeches, manipulating the media and building monuments in his honor. El Presidente’s character will determine the way he is regarded by the people, and whether he is inclined to run Tropico as a vacation paradise, a police state, an industrial metropolis, or all three!

“Each of the 15 missions in Tropico 3: Gold Edition’s campaign mode challenges players to develop a single island, each with its own victory conditions, within a set time frame. Tropico 3: Gold Edition includes the Absolute Power expansion pack, which contains a completely new 10-mission campaign, additional islands and the ability to issue ‘Megalomania’ edicts such as ‘Print Money’.”

Tropico 3 will be available for pre-order at Feral’s online store beginning in early January. When released, it will be available online for direct download from a variety of digital partner sites worldwide including the Mac App Store. A mini-site dedicated to the game is available now at http://www.feralinteractive.com/tropico3 . Tropico 3 for the Mac will retail in North America for US$34.99.

Minimum system requirements call for a 2.0GHz Intel Mac with at least 2GB RAM, 256 MB or better graphics card, and Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later. The game doesn’t support Intel GMA integrated video chipsets, but does run on GeForce 9400M graphics cards or better.