HAVANA - A US-developed video game that lets players try to kill Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro sparked an angry reaction from Cuba on Wednesday, the latest charge in the long history of bitter US-Cuba ties.

"What the United States government did not achieve in more than 50 years, it now tries to do virtually," said a story on government-run website www.cubadebate.cu.

It said the game -- "Call of Duty: Black Ops" by California-based Activision Blizzard Inc -- glorified actual US attempts to kill Castro and "stimulates sociopathic attitudes" among American youth.

Cuba said the game attempts to legitimize murder and assassination in the name of entertainment.

"This new video game is doubly perverse," the Cubadebate article said. "On the one hand, it glorifies the illegal assassination attempts the United States government planned against the Cuban leader ... and on the other, it stimulates sociopathic attitudes in North American children and adolescents."

The game, some of which is set during the Cold War, sends players fighting their way through Russia, Vietnam and Cuba. While battling in the streets of Havana, they fire away at enemy combatants while in pursuit of Castro.

The game reflects reality, according to Cuban officials, because of what they say have been more than 600 attempts by the United States to kill Castro since he took power in a 1959 revolution and turned Cuba into a communist state.

The island is just 90 miles (145 km) south of Florida.

Despite the complaints, the latest game in the popular "Call of Duty" series by Activision is expected to be a big seller after its launch on Tuesday.

Castro, 84, led Cuba for 49 years before resigning the presidency due to health problems in 2008 and now mostly writes columns for Cuban press on international topics.

His younger brother, Raul Castro, succeeded him as president.