Pop 5: Most Detestable Updates

This post originally appeared on Clawtropica as Pop 7: Poptropica’s Most Hated Updates. The PHB version has been made into a Pop 5, and we encourage you to see the original post for the last two items. This list represents only the opinions of the author, Purple Claw.

Poptropica is a really interesting game, to say at least. Although it’s got an awesome community of fans, we’re sometimes left hoping for better. So let’s take a look at some of the most hated updates in Poptropica’s history!

Keep in mind that I don’t necessarily hate all these updates myself (hate is a really strong word, after all), but they are disliked by a majority of Poptropica fans.

#5: THE HOME ISLAND MOVIE THEATER

When the Movie Theater first showed up, everyone was super pumped about what would be inside… but when it got released, everyone absolutely hated it.

The design of the building and the rich man outside the building talking about it made it look like it was going to be AMAZING, but it was… um… how do I put this up nicely… a pile of crap (I failed at being nice, oops).

Sorry, Poptropica, but if you want to appeal to the younger kids, you’ll have to try better than putting nursery rhymes and other cringe-y videos for kids under the age of 4. And think of all the older kids who were completely turned off by the juvenile videos!

Most disappointingly, these videos weren’t even made by Poptropica. Considering Poptropica’s animation and artistic quality, I’m sure they could’ve made a series of videos much better than what we got in the theater.

#4: THE REMOVAL OF IN-ISLAND MAPS

Remember the in-island maps? No no, not the Islands Map that brings you to different islands; that still exists. I’m talking about the maps that could be found in each classic island. If you’re not aware, they were removed in 2015! Like, why would you wanna remove a really useful tool anyway? That doesn’t make any sense.

I mean, I get that some islands and pretty easy and you can complete them without a map (like Shark Tooth or 24 Carrot), but there are also some pretty difficult islands where you can easily get lost (such as Vampire’s Curse or Cryptids). Maybe they didn’t want to continue making them for newer islands (they stopped when SUIs came out) but they still could’ve kept the old ones.

By the way, if you really need a map, you can visit the PHB’s map page. There’s a map for every Poptropica original island, and we even made a few of our own for SUIs which didn’t come with their own maps.

#3: MEMBERSHIP

Membership, which is paid subscription for extra benefits, is a way to keep Poptropica alive with financial support. Like it or not, it’s not going anywhere. It was first released in 2010, but a large population of players still prefer to play for free.

While membership does not affect actually playing through an island (that is, if you’re not playing a members-only island), a lot of other things require membership.

Membership has its own pros and cons. First of all, without the financial support that membership brings in, we wouldn’t have Poptropica or Pop Worlds. Poptropica needs to make money to pay its talented creators to keep making cool things.

While membership doesn’t interfere too much on Poptropica Original, it unfortunately took a turn for the worse with some recent updates on Poptropica Worlds. You can read more about it in this PHB analysis or this Clawtropica rant.

#2: SOUND-UPDATED ISLANDS (SUIs)

Sound Updated Island aren’t considered that bad anymore. I mean, who doesn’t love Jeff Heim’s music? But when SUIs first came out, they were SUPER glitchy. Even now, they sometimes still are.

SUIs started with the announcement for Beta Carotene, where members got to beta test the SUI version of 24 Carrot Island. Since it was a beta test, it was almost guaranteed there would be some bugs.

However, when SUIs OFFICIALLY came out, they were still super glitchy. Some people hated SUIs but kept playing Poptropica. Others, however, were so disappointed that they quit the game altogether.

Fortunately, Sound Updated Islands have since improved and are now less glitchy, but most people still prefer classics over SUIs, including me. Even though I myself was never really affected by the SUIs’ initial glitchiness, since I started playing Poptropica in 2014 (a year after SUIs were introduced), I still prefer classic islands anyway.

#1: MAKING SEVEN SPONSORED ISLANDS MEMBERS ONLY

I don’t know what got into the Creators, but this idea was a major blow. You think I’m exaggerating, but I’m not. The idea of making 7 Islands members-only was hated so much, that it was voted “Worst Poptropica Update” in the Poppies Awards… twice!

I was really mad when that happened, since I hadn’t had the chance to beat one of those islands (Red Dragon Island) before it was locked to non-members.

Fortunately, the Creators made some amends by releasing one of the islands back to everyone during their March Madness contest, and I was able to play Red Dragon since that was the winning island.

You can also get the island medallions through the glitching tool iPop, but it’s not quite the same as actually playing the island. Besides, not everyone knows about glitching.

Making non-members play a new island a month later was one thing, but making seven islands members-only was a bit TOO mean, don’t you think?

---

Some of these updates may have ruined the whole game experience for some Poptropica players, but nothing’s perfect. At least Poptropica hasn’t flopped as badly as Club Penguin, which notoriously shut down to create a worser, mobile-only version of the game. (And Disney, if you ever buy Poptropica, I’m going to murder your CEO in your sleep.) Though Poptropica had its bad moments, it’s also been pretty awesome overall (and isn’t that why we’re still here?).

Anyway, thanks for reading this list! It took me a while to make, and if you enjoyed it, please show your support by checking out the original post and commenting below!

That’s PC, signing out ‘til my next post!

🐾 Purple Claw 🐾
🌊