Slanted Fish

What makes a Poptropica island?

August 27, 2019August 25, 2019 Slanted Fish

This is a guest post by Bony Bones, who’s examining just what exactly makes a Poptropica adventure count as an “island.” The following is his opinion only. Enjoy!

Hello Poptropicans, this is Bony Bones. I’ve frequented this blog, reading, commenting, and occasionally guest posting, so you might’ve seen me around.

Today I’m popping in to discuss exactly what makes an island, an island. There has been some debate over whether certain quests should be granted full-island status or just be labeled as mini-quests.

The islands/quests that I believe are up for debate are: Legendary Swords, Snagglemast, Realms, Monkey Wrench, Haunted House, Home, the Blimp Adventure, and each individual episode of the episodic adventures. Here are my reasons for why I believe an island is, or is not, an island:

1) It’s on the map

One of the most recognizable traits that a quest is an island is that it is accessible from the Poptropica island map. Being able to travel somewhere with your blimp, and not via store card, menu button, etc., certainly classifies an island as a full adventure. All of the aforementioned islands have been on the map at one point, besides Blimp Adventure.

2) You earn a medallion

As reminded by Jim Probably of Reality TV: Wild Safari, earning a medallion is “a Poptropica thing.” It’s the cherry on top of the island cake. This knocks off Snagglemast, Haunted House, and the Home Island as full islands, and it would have knocked off Legendary Swords if a medallion hadn’t been added recently.

3) It has a complete and recognizable story

Though every good story leaves loose-ends untied for good reason, it still must be a complete adventure to be considered a full island. I mainly included this attribute to recognize that, while you may get a medallion after each episode in an episodic adventure, each episode is a part of a greater whole.

4) The Creators recognize it as an island

For quite some time, until recently, there was a list of Poptropica islands on the Poptropica.com home page. This was a good place to determine what was an island, which included everything from Early Poptropica to Monkey Wrench.

5) It’s less game, more plot

Even if an island does have a recognizable story, as I mentioned earlier, it must be more story-oriented than game-oriented. In the case of Legendary Swords, because the quest originated as an “action-quest” (basically a fancy way to say it was a little bit more than just a mini-quest), and therefore it does not have an island-style story.

The “game” aspects, with the health bar, the choice of weapons, and the waves of bad guys to fight, stand out more than the plot.

6) It must be located on the planet of Poptropica

Though there are some islands, such as Astro Knights and Lunar Colony, that take place on other planets (or moons) — and others, such as Super Villain and Time Tangled, that take place within Poptropica, but within dreams or another time period, the beginning of every island’s story must begin on Poptropica itself. As we saw from islands like Lunar Colony, Poptropica is a planet made up of various islands.

Therefore, with these attributes in mind, there are 47 fully-fledged islands, from Early Poptropica to Reality TV: Wild Safari, including Monkey Wrench but not including any of the others mentioned at the beginning of this post.

I hope this helped clear up any confusion about what really counts as an island. Feel free to comment any attributes that you think should be added to this list or any quests that you feel are up for debate.

Thanks for letting me pop in (I really need to learn some new pop puns). See you guys around!

—Bony Bones

Hope you enjoyed this Pop Petition guest post by Bony Bones! If you did, be sure to check out his other PHB guest post, “Pop It, Lock It”!

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. You can find some tips and guidelines on our page on how to Write for the PHB, and share blog posts on the PHC.

📰 If you have an idea for a PHB post, send it in! ✨

Member Gifts, Poptropolis Games Island, Reality TV: Wild Safari Island, Realms

Pole vault your way to a vault of Poptanium

August 25, 2019January 9, 2021 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, it’s Slanted Fish popping in with what’s new. In this post, we’ve got the latest island no longer in beta, a Poptropolis Games fix, and a Realms highlight. Let’s get to it!

First, there’s Reality TV: Wild Safari Island, which was released last month on CoolMathGames as a beta for all players, including non-members. It’s now officially on the map on Poptropica.com, but currently only open to members (even on CoolMathGames).

Whether or not you’ve had the chance to play it yet, you can check out what the PHB team thought of it over on our Reality TV: Wild Safari Island Review, and look forward to the island being officially released for all soon!

The Pop Creators also recently announced that they fixed a bug on the pole vault game on Poptropolis Games Island. Now you can actually, you know, vault the pole. Hooray!

And Blue Tooth really rocks that little baby shark beanie well, don’t you think? 🦈 (That hat was one of the July member gifts, by the way.)

Blue Tooth also recently highlighted a Realm on Poptropica’s social media. Once you enter through the Realms portal on Home Island, Smart Bones’ “Labyrinth” can be accessed via the code 9rw56.

Though there is Poptanium to be found along the way, be warned: the Realm is more labyrinthine challenges than Poptanium vault. Still, if you like a good platforming struggle, this place is worth checking out. (If you prefer the Poptanium, though, we feature some good vaults in our Realms Guide.)

While it’s nice to see Realms featured by Poptropica, which hasn’t happened in a while, I can’t help but wonder whatever happened to the Look of the Week series and the yet-to-be-realized Clubhouse of the Week. Hmmm? 😛

That’s all for the latest in Poptropica! Share your thoughts in the comments, and keep it awesome, Poptropicans. ✌️

~/🐠

Blast from the Past

2012 Rewind: You’ve Got a Friend in Me

August 20, 2019February 13, 2024 Slanted Fish

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.

Managing mischief on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

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.

Competing for a high score on Wimpy Boardwalk’s “Thunder Volt”

Competing for a high score on Wimpy Boardwalk’s “Thunder Volt”

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!

In 2012, the site had another makeover, using the “Lifestyle” theme.

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.

While you’re here, sign the yearbook by commenting? ✏️

Blast from the Past

2011 Rewind: Toys & Prizes? We’re Game

August 13, 2019February 13, 2024 Slanted Fish

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.

2011 was like Poptropica heaven. This was a time of peak popularity for the fandom, and plenty was popping!

Poptropicans had some fun times hanging out on our Poptropica Help Chat (PHC) server, particularly during the PHB Author Night sessions we introduced. Plus, we had plenty of reasons to party, what with events like the PHB celebrating 5 million views in May, the countdown to Shrink Ray Island’s release in June, and the PHB’s third birthday in July!

A big new thing was pre-island mini-quests, which were created to promote an island before its release. Back in January, Wild West Island was the first to get one: a little horse-lassoing game called Round’Em Up! Every day, you could play for a new prize, like the color-changing Wunder Tonic.

In March, Wimpy Wonderland Island debuted on Poptropica, which was pretty significant since Jeff Kinney, the author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, is the founder of Poptropica! (Another fun fact: Before the first Wimpy Kid book was even in print, it could be read online on Funbrain, a website that also promoted Poptropica from its beginning.)

Each island came with its own map, where you could hover over an area to see its name. The PHB would put together fully labeled versions like this.

Other games and islands released this year were: Prepare for Impact! for Red Dragon Island, DC Diner for Mystery Train Island, Money Ladder for Game Show Island, and Spook Central for Ghost Story Island.

Money Ladder, the preview game for Game Show Island

But the general consensus as to the most exciting mini-quest was not a pre-island game. Instead, it was an out-of-this-world (literally, you leave Poptropica for a distant planet) experience filled with mysterious robots and sword fights: Legendary Swords, released on the momentous date of 11/11/11 (November 11, 2011).

A small but helpful feature was also introduced: the pause button. This allowed you to freeze time on Poptropica, which was good for lingering on dialogue or scanning the scenery just a little (or a lot) longer.

Poptropica also released a wide selection of toys, each with a special code that would give your in-game character a bonus item! There were three-inch and six-inch figures, plushies, and even a big ol’ inflatable blimp.

And that’s not all the Poptropica merch. The first ever Poptropica book, The Poptropica Guide, made its debut in October 2011. Poptropica even had a few scavenger hunts from the book to unlock prizes in-game — but of course, the book’s got nothing on the PHB, where we have guides for all the islands that have been released since then… and plenty more!

To round off the year, Ghost Story Island came and gave us a spooky yet sentimental story, making it the 23rd island. Poptropica had released an impressive 7 islands in 2011 — their most yet, and that’s not even counting all the mini-games! Poptropica was really on a roll with this year!

You’ve reached the end of the 2011 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.

While you’re here, sign the yearbook by commenting? ✏

Blast from the Past

2010 Rewind: Crazy for Crawfish

August 6, 2019February 13, 2024 Slanted Fish

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.

Wish you could’ve been in 2010! But we’ve got you covered with a flashback to what Poptropica was like back in those days, which former Creator Mitch Krpata would later call the peak of Poptropica’s popularity.

It might be hard to imagine these days with all these updates that seem to be geared toward the privileged few, but believe it or not, membership didn’t always plague Poptropica. Even when it was first released in January of 2010, membership status offered some nice perks like early island access and free store costumes — but free players had plenty to enjoy, too.

Membership wasn’t the only thing players had been itching to discover. Reality TV Island, two years in the making and much delayed, finally arrived in early access for members in February. (Nearly a decade later, it would appear that a sequel is on its way!)

Over on the Creators’ Blog, we started hearing more from Captain Crawfish, whereas before there were several Creator aliases taking turns on the blog. (We had plenty of fun trying to guess and track down who was who, too. Dr. Hare, aka Jordan Leary, may have called us “12-year-old stalkers”…)

Anyway, with that came a new PHB inside joke in which we’d write about nomming the Captain in our update posts, and he even seemed to catch on!

We continued enjoying tons of sneak peeks from the Creators — here’s a sketch of what later became Apollo’s temple on Mythology Island. It was released in April and players consider it to be one of the best islands!

The PHB community was growing, too, and we thought it was time for a couple of upgrades. We got our own custom web domain, poptropicahelp.net, to reflect our Poptropica Help network that encompassed the blog, chat, and forum. And we also changed our site theme to something more blue — more Poptropica.

Even back then, collecting advertisement items was a popular pastime on Poptropica. Here’s a peek at a cool and colorful Magic Paintbrush special ability item from a Ramona and Beezus ad!

The Creators were also busy adding tons of fun new items to the store, like fireworks, robot suits, and various flavors of good old PopGum.

In November, the Creators launched a big feature that got players hopping on Poptropica daily. The Daily Pop featured comics, games, creator clips (stories from Creators), and best of all: a new sneak peek every weekday. In fact, we’ve got a whole Daily Pop Sneak Peek Archive here on the blog.

Here’s what the menu looked like once the Daily Pop was added:

Also, in addition to RTV and Mythology, 2010 saw several more islands added to the map: Skullduggery (known in its early stages as Pirate Trade Island), Steamworks, Great Pumpkin, and for members, Cryptids closed out the year, bringing Poptropica’s total to 16 islands — 6 from 2010 alone!

A succession of sneak peeks of the Hub on Steamworks Island.

That concludes the 2010 page of the Poptropica Yearbook. We hope it brought a nostalgic look to a booming time! Browse the rest of the collection over at the Poptropica Yearbook, accessible from our Pop Plus tab.

While you’re here, sign the yearbook by commenting? ✏️