This post is part of our Poptropica Yearbook series. If you missed the intro, check it out on the 2007 Rewind and browse the collection here.
Let’s delve into 2012! Bring a friend, or make some new ones, and we’ll enjoy these memories together.
One of the most exciting and long-awaited features came to Poptropica in April of 2012: Friends! Finally, the top-right icon with two faces side-by-side that had been sitting uselessly on every Poptropican’s screen now had a purpose: discovering more about our Poptropican friends and showing off our own island medallion stats and personalities! We enjoyed these profiles for seven good long years before Poptropica redid them in 2019.
Tribes were one of the personality features we could display on our profiles, which came with tribe common rooms and teams to root for on Poptropolis Games Island, which had just surfaced from the sea.
Tons of islands were released in 2012. In addition to Poptropolis Games, there came S.O.S., Vampire’s Curse, Twisted Thicket, Wimpy Boardwalk, Lunar Colony, Super Villain (the 30th island!), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Zomberry — nine new islands total, perhaps the peak of Pop’s production.
It was also the end of the previous year’s era of prequel mini-games, but the beginning of a new island tradition: members-only bonus quests at the end.
Plus, Poptropica expanded their book line, releasing two novels based on the plots of popular islands, a coloring book, and a Mad Libs! And that wasn’t all: they also released a Nintendo DS game called Poptropica Adventures.
Over on the PHB, we changed our site theme again, sticking with blue for Poptropica. We also had a banger of a party celebrating the blog’s 4th birthday and a rare account giveaway to commemorate reaching 7 million hits!
Toward the end of the year, Poptropica reported an earthquake affecting Poptropolis Games Island. For a while there, we weren’t sure of its fate…
You’ve reached the end of the 2012 page of the Poptropica Yearbook! Stay tuned for the next chapter, and to view the entire collection, check out the Poptropica Yearbook in our Pop Plus collection.
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My general thoughts:
TRIBE COMMON ROOMS EXISTED?!?!? :O
What were they even thinking when making the Lunar Colony bonus quest? I mean heck, what was up with those weird alien members only costumes? (*sigh*, Studying a rocky desert like the moon is kind of boring to begin with. But I digress)
What would’ve happen if I stayed at Poptropolis Games until it sunk?
An old PHB post by Shaggy Tornado offers anecdotal evidence that you could still access Poptropolis Games during the sunken period if you saved your game there before it sank. 🙂
(Also, geologists might say that the lunar surface rocks. 😉 )
For real though, they could’ve done something more with the Lunar Colony bonus quest other than just deciphering a language. It would honestly be really cool if we could just go into that alien dimension place with her and stuff. But, this just feels like some mini game you would find in an average quest, kind of like using the decoder in Spy island.
That would be pretty cool. 🌚
Oh yeah, this was around the time that I found my main look too.
Man, seems like 2012 was just yesterday…
I have a question: do tribes even exist anymore? Now the Poptropilis Games are gone and there is a new friends page…
Poptropolis Games is still here — it was re-released as a sound-updated island in 2013. That means you can still pick a tribe, but the tribe common rooms aren’t around anymore because of the change in the friends format.