Monster Carnival’s Place in Island History

(¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.-> Hi Gs, <-.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯)

The Monster Carnival is coming back to town — but is it as great as we remember it? Did it fulfill our dreams? Follow me on my Monster Carnival Island Review! 😀 Psst! If you are looking for the Monster Carnival Island Guide, it’s out now!

First of all, wanna notify all you peezles that I didn’t release Poptropican Portraits last week because of the MCI excitement. I’ll post them sometime this week. c;

The Costumizer is finally operational on all the SUIs! Hallelujah! (Credit to Tech Wizard)

Also, I’m slowly updating the Monster Carnival Files to the current information, so check back to the category daily for more. 🙂 And now back to the scheduled programming. 😛

Story

The story is continual and develops as you play through it. First, the carnival is coming to town that very day, but it isn’t ready to open! You have to solve multiple problems for the carnies in order to get it into tip top, big top shape. 😛 There are three stages to the environment — daytime, evening, and night. In the evening, you learn that all of the booths are shams, and you have to fool the carnies. And as the plot thickens, and the night grows closer… well, I’m considering that “Spoiler Material”. You can see what happens next in the Spoilers tab of the review.

There is one thing that I really have to mention, and it’s not quite a spoiler. Most everyone, member and non-member, can tell that Ringmaster Raven is the bad guy. 😛 Anyway, he has a lot of potential to be a classic villain, and… they really didn’t do much with him. Sure, he has a sad backstory, and he is pretty evil, but they didn’t expand him enough to be a really great villain. He could have been the best… he still is good, but not as good as he could have been.

Gameplay

One word: smooth. This island runs so much better than Mocktropica, and other than a couple minor glitches, it was a straight shooter when you’re talking about gameplay.

Although it’s not as gag filled as Mocktropica, there still are little things to giggle at, as well as many subtle messages that we have yet to decipher. Islands have evolved into something new, with a lot more attention to detail — the replayability has gone up tremendously. Running gags are part of the islands, and you will only get the gags if you replay the island. Also, there are so many moments where characters say something like, “After all these years, the carnival is finally coming back to town!”, which are golden. 😛

Some say it was too easy — Monster Carnival was planned to be the fourth island before being deleted, and islands back then were not very hard. They probably made it easy because it was going to be the fourth island — why not make it like was the fourth island? It just makes it feel like you are playing a classic Pop game, which is a great thing. You also need to keep in mind that Poptropica is a kids game. The islands these days have really become rocket scientist studies, and that’s not really a good thing for young kids.

Visuals

I’m talking the backgrounds, the animations, and everything that makes up the island that you can see. This island is one of the best when it comes to visuals. The backgrounds are so detailed, and everything about the environment is perfect. The transformation from day to night is so nicely and subtly done, with little things changing as the sun goes down. You may not catch everything at once, but gradually, the environment seems more and more evil as the day goes on. And that is really amazing. There’s nothing really more to add to it.

There are some islands where they make lots of quality animation (E.G. Ghost Story Island), and this is one of them. Something you may not know about me is that I am a huge animation geek. The animation was very nicely done. I enjoyed it. 🙂

Some people are saying that Poptropica is running out of characters, but this island proves them wrong. The variety of colorful characters and clothes are just overwhelming. In fact, I made a little combination of the best male clothing from the island, that is nearly completely customizable for nonmembers! You can find it in my closet @ “puterpop”. 😉

Soundtrack

This soundtrack is… well… I would be lying if I said it wasn’t AMAZING, AWESOME, AND APPROPRIATELY CREEPY! The soundtrack is very extensive, and fitting as well. What else can I say? Jeff Heim is a genius. 😛 My favorite track from the island was the Carnival Theme at Dusk. What was yours?

Monster Carnival’s soundtrack is the best one yet. As I said above, it’s very extensive (many different tracks), and it really shows what Jeff Heim can do. I’m excited to hear more of his work! 😀

You can listen to the full soundtrack on our Behind the Scenes page! 😀 A trip there will definitely be worth your while.

Spoilers!

The reason why I could only tell you half of the story up there is because the rest of it is spoilers. If you don’t want to know, skip this section of the review! 😛

After you solve the last problem for a carnie, all of the carnies disappear mysteriously into the woods. You go and check it out. When you finally find them, they all get hypnotized and turned into monsters by a mysterious cloaked person. When you return to the carnival, everything has been monsterized! From the carnies, to the music, to the scary Ferris Wheel face — and you have to get to the bottom of it! Ringmaster Raven sends you on a quest, and while you are completing it for him, you find multiple old newspapers. Read them below —

If you didn’t gather the story from above, here it is: the carnival had come to town before, this time with a strange attraction — the Bird Boy. He is the only Poptropican to have a nose. When the carnival leaves, Bird Boy is forgotten, and left at the town. No one wants him. Then, a fire burns down an auto repair store, Honest Gabes! The supposed culprit is found– Bird Boy. There is evidence that someone else did it, but the towns people wants him to leave. They drive him out of the village.

Bird Boy, as you may have guessed, is Ringmaster Raven. His plan is to hypnotize the whole town in order to get revenge. And, well, you have to stop him.

Bonus Quest

This quest is surprising, since all of the islands up until now have released their bonus quests the day that the island is released to all. The story goes like this;

Dr. Dan has gone missing in the woods, and you have to go find him. When you do find him, he runs away. When you finally catch up, he reveals his secret — he’s a monster too! He is scared that the townspeople will drive him away like they did with Ringmaster Raven. In all reality, the townspeople actually want him to stay, as he has been a great help to them — during their illnesses, and supplying many things. Good story, put across nicely.

What I’m really frustrated about is the prize you win after you complete the quest. He gives you the potion that turned him into a monster. When you use it, you turn into a monster! But the annoying part is that the costume is temporary, and it leaves after you go to the next screen. You can’t even save it to your costume closet. I give this bonus quest only 3 stars.

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I still can’t believe that MCI is now on the map… but I give this island only 3 stars out of 5… WHY?

I tried to be optimistic in the review above, but if I’m really honest — this island disappoints me. I liked the island, but… I just have mixed feelings about it. 😦

On one hand, the island has many great things about it — the backgrounds, the story, and the music– but on the other hand, there are many things that are missing.

Ringmaster Raven is not focused on enough, and neither are the monsters. All they do is bat at you when you get close, and you can easily jump over them. It’s like they focused too much on the glamor and special effects to be able to expand the island more in character development, etc.

I enjoyed the island, but it did not meet my expectation. Below is a list of minor things that need to be done to the island that will make it incredibly better:

• Boss Battle music. They kept the music from the attraction (Mirror Maze) for the battle, and it’s sorta lame.
• Make the monsters do something. They need to chase you for longer periods of time.
• Make the Chemical X costume from the Bonus Quest able to be saved to your closet.

That said, what do you think of the island? Tell me in the poll below. 🙂 And Non-members, what do you think about the island after reading my review? Tell me in the comments. 🙂