Tra-la-la, Ye Olde Shop has docked on Home Island!

Hey Poptropicans! Look what showed up on Home Island on Poptropica Worlds…

A pirate ship! No, wait, it’s just the exterior of a new building that’s decorated like a ship – and a small tower with a blimp weathervane. And according to the sign, it’s Ye Olde Shop! Which, really, just brings up the clothing shop panel. But now it has a physical building on Worlds, so that’s pretty neat. There was going to be new clothing, but…

Earlier today, the promised 10th birthday costume (which came on Friday for Pop Original) finally made its way to Worlds, but the excitement was short-lived. The costume soon encountered glitches like backwards-facing caps, disappearing heads for those wearing it, and downwards-facing fireworks.

Not too long later, the costume was deleted from Worlds. Hopefully it’ll be back soon – we’ll let you know when it returns.

Although new clothing on Worlds is still a work in progress, you can still pick up something new for your avatar on Poptropica Original!

On Pop Original’s Home Island, there’s an ad for Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (coming to DVD and Blu-ray), and inside the building is a common room, so you can meet and battle with other players. A “don’t touch” button, when touched, will bring up an animation of Captain Underpants zooming on your screen. If you go all the way to the end, you can costumize a red spotted billowing cape for your avatar.

Back to Worlds: you can also find the Captain Underpants Movie ad on your TV screen inside your house, but no prizes.

It’s interesting to note that when it comes to updates for Pop Original and Worlds, Original continues to get better (or faster) ones. For the 10th birthday costume, Pop Original got the update right on time, but we’re still waiting for the one on Worlds to be ready. For recent ads such as the Captain Underpants one, the offering on Pop Original is more complex and interesting than what appears on Worlds.

It seems like the Creators are still figuring things out with building on Unity, which is the engine Worlds runs on. Pop Original continues to be more familiar, hence the quality updates we’ve been used to over the years continuing to appear in-game without a hitch.

Considering that the Creators are willing to update Pop Original with them when they had originally said they wouldn’t be updating it, it seems the issue is not that they don’t want to keep up with these cool ad buildings, but rather that it’s taking time to figure out how to do it on Worlds. After all, on Worlds, they still aren’t ready for multiplayer functions like a common room, and even adding a new costume is proving to be a struggle.

Still, because the big reason Poptropica decided it needed to create Worlds was to adapt to new technologies, it looks like this is just the way things are for now, and it’s something we should keep remembering. For our part, let’s keep trying to enjoy both Poptropicas, knowing the Creators are still striving to make them fun for all.

Well, that’s all for now! Enjoy the New Olde Shop and the Captain Underpants cape! And, if you missed the events of this past weekend, be sure to check out our party recap and birthday news post below. Keep on poppin’ on, Poptropicans. 😉

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