American Girl: Courtney’s Island bringing gimmicks from ’86 😎⚡️

Yo, check out the new island, Poptropicans!

Now that I’ve got your attention, let’s take a closer look at the new spot on the map: it’s American Girl: Courtney’s Island. This massive ad is just about as ambitious as the first American Girl adventure from earlier this year, Joss’s Island. Let’s go!

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When you land on the island, you’ll find yourself at the Orange Valley Mall, which looks like a cross between the exterior of the convention center on PoptropiCon Island and the interior of the Twin Palms Mall on Night Watch Island. It’s 1986 and you’re in a teen’s wide world.

Courtney will tell you there are video games you can play (two) and 8 free prizes to collect. Like the other American Girl doll characters, she isn’t Poptropican-ized, but there are some Poptropican NPCs to be found here on this island. You can learn more about Courtney the basic ’80s girl™ with a passion for video games through two videos in the Cinema: a “Courtney 1986” music video and a “Meet Courtney” intro.

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Heading left of the Cinema, you’ll find Smiley’s Arcade, where you can play a game called Crystal Starshooter (also the name of Courtney’s invented video game hero). It’s basically like the Poptropica single-player arcade game Blaster Attack, where you maneuver through space and press space bar to shoot at spaceships.

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Hop to the upper level of the mall and you’ll come across small stores like The Book Shelf, where you can pick up an 80s Comic Book. When holding it, press space bar to have your Poptropican shout out some ’80s slang, complete with bold colors and spiky speech bubbles. Gnarly!

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Right of the bookstore, there’s a record store called Tunes, where you can pick up a free 80s Walkman. Tap the space bar and you’ll hear a segment from the “Courtney 1986” bop!

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Next to Tunes is Valerie’s, which offers two-in-one 80s Outfits. With frizzy hair, sunglasses, a denim jacket and more, you can mix and match styles. Plus, you can wear Courtney’s pet guinea pig on your head with the Parsley Head Rider just beside the shop!

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Jumping past the elevator, check out the pizza at Slices, where you can grab a cootie catcher. If you click the “Make Yours” button on the item card, you can even find Poptropica’s instructions on folding your own cootie catcher IRL. All it takes is a sheet of paper!

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Dropping back down to the first floor, look for D’Amico’s Electronics. Inside, you can get a game console to play Bot Breaker! It’s basically a game of Pong, where you move your bot (which you can pick from three styles) left and right to bounce a ball on the screen, with the aim of knocking the other bots and clearing the screen to get to the next stage. You can pick up the occasional drops of green batteries to regain lives.

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Fun fact: A sideways version of this game mechanic also appeared in the Web Browser Cafe on Counterfeit Island.

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Finally, rounding off the tour, let’s visit the American Girl Place at the center of the island. But first, don’t forget to claim your very own Care Bear Follower! Inside the AG Place, you can learn more about the dolls (including Joss), play with the Colorizer of the Radiance Salon, and fix up your own pink milkshake (handheld) at Super Scoops.

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That’s all for this totally tubular terrain throwing it back to four decades ago! What do you think of Courtney’s Island? Do you vibe with the ’80s, or are you ready for Poptropica to get back to the modern age of the 2020’s? Give us your bombdiggity best in the comments!

~🐠