Year: 2019

Web Development

Poptropica’s official island tour pages revamped

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, it’s Slanted Fish here with a discovery! Poptropica’s been quietly working on revamping their island tour pages, and it looks like they may even be modeling them after the PHB’s Island Guides.

There’s Blue Tooth’s character, so presumably she’s the one writing these.

These revamped pages aren’t yet visibly linked anywhere on Poptropica’s website, but you can hop on over to poptropica.com/island-tour/ and click around the sidebar links to get to each one. Here’s a sampling of one of the pages: Monster Carnival Island.

Poptropica’s new “Island Guide” pages share a fair bit of similarity with the PHB’s Island Guides in regards to layout and content, but there are some differences too, such as the photo gallery at the bottom and the fact that the written parts aren’t a complete walkthrough, but more like an extended description without any big spoilers.

(Side note: Poptropica has made official written walkthroughs before, distributed via an old mobile app called Poptropica: Tips & Tricks, which used to charge 99 cents (US) per individual walkthrough. As you might guess, with guides like the PHB’s available for free online, the app wasn’t too popular.)

Some of Poptropica’s new island tour pages also contain little segments labeled “POPTROPICA TIP” and “Did You Know” (trivia). They also link to fun downloads (like wallpapers) near the bottom of their pages, while the PHB puts these near the top and calls them “Island Extras.” Features that Poptropica’s guides share in common with the PHB’s are the inclusion of video walkthroughs, screenshots of gameplay, and the official synopsis.

Most of the islands that are currently left in the game (that is, the SUI/sound-updated islands, since many others had disappeared this summer) have gotten their island tour page revamped. Reality TV’s (Wild Safari) is marked as coming soon in the sidebar, and the sponsored islands (Galactic Hot Dogs and Timmy Failure) still have yet to get their pages revamped. Curiously, Snagglemast Island is simply referred to here as “Tutorial Island.”

Anyway, I’ll leave you to explore the new island tour pages. What do you think of the revamps? Share your thoughts in the comments!

See you around, Poptropicans~ ✌️

Home Island, Store

It’s whimsical wizardry on Home Island and in the Pop Store! ✨

LJ

Salutations, Poptropicans! It’s Lucky Joker here and today I bring some exciting new updates!

First, Home Island has received its routine seasonal makeover — continuing with the night theme of October, but a bit more toned down this time.

There’s a darker, almost gloomier ambience with the overcast sky, however, with the bright, colorful leaves and wizarding tidbits all around to contrast, everything just balances out evenly. I really like it — especially the free wands booth (and yes, he will give you a free wand)!

The store has received an update for this month too! A few new costumes that fall in with the whole wizard theme have been added along with a multitude of returning classics. Here is the current stock below:

Costumes

New costumes: Student Wizard, Apprentice Wizard, Dark Wizard (members only), Wicked Wizard

Followers/Powers/Pranks

New tricks: Magic Cloud Rider, Levitation Spell, Spark Shower

Welp, that’s it for now. What do you think of the wizarding world of Home Island and store items?

Thank you all for reading, have a magical day, and I’ll talk to you guys in the next one. Pop on!

– Lucky Joker 🍀

YouTubers

YouTubers & Pop: thanks for the carrot yanks 🥕

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! Slanted Fish here, bringing you the latest batch of fascinating takes on Poptropica from various YouTubers. Let’s watch! 📹

First up, in a heartwarming, nostalgic thank-you video letter addressed to the Pop Creators, bchili pays tribute to the legacy of Poptropica and all the fun times it brought to her childhood and those of our generation. She talks about how the game stands out for the stories it tells and reminisces about various moments in the game. Thanks for the throwbacks, bchili!

Next, we have a Poptropica review from a first-time adult player, Billiam. (The Poptropica part starts about 40 seconds into the video, and you may also want to jump to the 2:58 mark to skip the ad.) His verdict for the game: surprisingly fun (though the platforming struggles are real!). Discovering clues to advance in island missions drives the player’s interest, he explains, and it’s this storytelling aspect that makes Pop stand out from other Flash games.

And finally, here’s a comically strange short clip from Jaynautic, a 16-year-old who got dolled up like Dr. Hare. While wandering around a suburban neighborhood looking for carrots to steal, he finds one in particular that looks decidedly not like a carrot… see for yourself!

If you enjoyed these videos, check out some of our other posts where we highlight YouTubers playing Poptropica:

Thanks for watching, hit that subscribe button, and we’ll see you next time!

Advertisements, Member Gifts, Membership

Turkey boy, Frozen decor & more!

Gentle Dolphin

Hello, everyone! Gentle Dolphin here with a delicious helping of Poptropica news! Let’s begin today’s story with a warm appetizer before we get to the main course, which is strangely frozen. Hmm…

On the Creators’ Blog, there is a post reminding players that the November member gifts are here! Members will definitely be thankful for this month’s gifts, which certainly fit the Thanksgiving theme: a wearable Turkey Head, a rideable Turkey Rider, and a fireable Gravy Blaster!

Nov_memb_billboard

If you’re an active member, these items will be automatically added to your inventory upon logging into Poptropica this month. If you’re not a member, do not fear. The post also mentions that a shop update will be coming very soon, so keep an eye out for that!

Now that we have finished our Thanksgiving appetizer, it’s time to move on to the main dish. A lot of us expected Poptropica to make promotions for “Frozen 2”. What we didn’t expect, however, is how much they would end up promoting it. Strap yourselves in, folks! It’s going to be a long ride!

Let’s start things simple with a basic island ad. While you are visiting various islands, you’ll come across a Frozen 2 ad block. Watch the short trailer to get your very own Olaf Follower! Now you can explore all of Poptropica with everyone’s favorite talking snowman (just don’t go somewhere too hot, though).

After your adventures with Olaf, you may be in the mood to decorate your clubhouse. Although there are no new furniture items in the store, you will find seven new posters in your clubhouse inventory (six for “Frozen 2”, and one for “Polly Pocket”)! Here is what they look like on the club wall:Frozen2_Posters

As if prizes and posters weren’t enough, the Poptropica team went above and beyond with what is possibly their biggest in-game advertisement this year. Frozen fever must have spread to the cosmos, because the Blast-Off Arcade has been given a “Frozen 2” makeover!

Instead of flying to an intergalactic planet, you will now wander into a scenic autumn forest. You can climb the trees and bounce on leaves as a majestic orchestra plays in the background. Here’s a look at the updated common room in its entirety. Pretty cool, eh?Frozen2_CommonRoom

It’s clear that Poptropica is going all out to promote “Frozen 2”. At this rate, they may as well dedicate an entire island to the film! Anyway, what do you think of this month’s member gifts? Do you plan on seeing “Frozen 2” in theaters, and how do you feel about all of these advertisements for it? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Thank you for reading, and have a good day!

—Gentle Dolphin🐬

Wallpapers

*screaming* Halloween on your screen! 🍌👨🏼‍✈️🦄🎃

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! Slanted Fish here, bringing you all-new Poptropica digital wallpapers worth screaming about. (Okay, maybe not literally screaming. But certainly something to warrant a blog post!)

Supposedly, if you visited Poptropica.com on Halloween night, you would have seen something different. A spooky Halloween wallpaper greeted you on the homepage, filled with fearful trick-or-treaters with a backdrop showing a sinister cast of werewolf, vampire, and ghost, all eyes aglow.

2560 x 1440

While I didn’t catch this sight myself, a post from Instagram user 0ne_izzsix shows that it did make it to the front page. What’s more, the Creators have kindly shared the image with us on the official blog, even formatting it for multiple computer and phone screen sizes for wallpapering purposes.

You can also click the following links to open up and download the image in whichever size fits your device screen:

Pretty cool treat for Halloween! It’s been a while since they’ve done something like this, but the Creators have been known to create some sweet Poptropica digital wallpaper downloads in the past. Seems like this was a team effort, as the Creators’ blog post mentions “one of the artists who worked on it.”

But now that it’s November, the spooky screen is gone—and has been replaced by another new screen!

Anyone hopping onto the site will now be faced with a different illustrated foe: the five-headed Hydra from Mythology Island. A warrior can be seen flying in from the skies on a winged horse, sword ready to chop off some heads. However, the Creators haven’t made this art available for download (yet).

If you fancy some stylish Poptropica wallpapers, though, we’ve got a collection of classic ones for you right here.

Anyway, it’s cool to see Poptropica changing things up a little on the main page. Here on the PHB, we celebrated Halloween by announcing the winners of our Halloween Costume Contest Eleven along with a showcase of delightful runner-ups and even a collection of PHB staffers’ costumes.

And we followed that up with a new batch of Community Creations, sharing Poptropica fan artists’ takes on the popular “Inktober” art prompts. There’s been some ink-credible work as always, and we’re already looking forward to the next round of fan art with our current theme: Steampunk.

Thanks for popping by, Poptropicans! ✌️

🍌👨🏼‍✈️🦄🎃