Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! It’s Slanted Fish, popping in with the latest.

First, the Poptropica Creators released a new video introducing “6 Cool Side Characters” from Poptropica Worlds! Check it out:

And the six cool cats to be featured are…

Captain Scuttlebutt, who lets you spin the daily wheel on Home Island
Ranger Rick, who’s pretty attached to his bottle of glue 😉
Hazel and Beatrice, the elderly ladies stuck in Crispin Cave — although I don’t think “Be-a-trees” is the conventional pronunciation, Poptropica’s Beatrice is probably unique enough to go for it if she wanted. 🐝🌲
Maynard, also known as Weird Barn Dude
Charlie, who really loves her cat Whiskers
Iris Ray, whose color-changing clothes make her not so much a creeper who hangs around in front of your house all the time, but who adds to the cool factor

Those are some pretty solid choices, although, hey—Hazel and Bea-trees are two characters, not one! Anyway, who else would you add to the list?

That’s not all: it looks like our mystery narrator (who may also be the mystery blogger, and who we’ve been calling Gentle Lion which is his character’s name in the videos) has a new name: Dave. Take a look at the video description:

Well, it’s good to finally be introduced, Dave!

It also looks like Dave (or Gentle Lion if you prefer Pop names) will be doing more videos for the YouTube channel, along with Stephanie, since both have recently been pretty active on there. (And doing pretty well, I might add!)

The Creators’ Blog has been all back to Captain Crawfish lately. Captain Crawfish also confirmed with the PHB over Twitter DM that he’s “running this stuff for the time being.” Not sure how long that will be, but Poptropica’s recent tweets have been on top of their game lately, so this seems like a pretty good arrangement!

Over on Poptropica Original’s Home Island, there’s an ad for The LEGO Batman Movie! (It’s been out for months, but still, it’s a good one.) Head inside the Batcave and talk to Batman to help him stop the Joker.

Your task is to help build three Batmobiles, and you’ll be given 20 seconds to complete each one. Simply drag each piece to where it belongs, noting the shape of each part as you hover over them until you find the one that matches.

When you’ve successfully built all three vehicles, you’ll win some prizes! The Batmobile Builder assembles a LEGO Batmobile on your screen when you press space bar, and the Batarang is a handheld bat boomerang you can throw (by pressing space bar). You’ll need to de-activate one to use the other, since both require space bar actions.

Finally, this is our last call for you to enter our Halloween Costume Contest! You can enter as many times as you like in two categories, Pop Original and Worlds. The contest closes on Monday, October 30 and we’ll be revealing the winners on Halloween.

We’re also still taking art (of all forms) for Community Creations! This month’s theme is Halloween, and as usual, you have up until the end of the month to enter.

Need a little inspiration for both? Check out our list of ASGs for Poptropica Original for tons of cool costume parts. We keep adding new ones, so keep checking back!

Plus, for those of you in the know, Stranger Things—an amazing Netflix drama—released their second season this week. What does this have to do with Poptropica? Well, check out our Pop-over post for Stranger Things to find out! 👻

Stay sp00py, Poptropicans!

<・)))><<

My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Gentle Fang

October 21, 2017October 20, 2017 Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Gentle Fang, who stopped playing Poptropica for a while because she felt too old for it, but returned to it for the challenge and fun she’d missed. See below for how to send in your MPIP!

mpip gentlefang

Hey everyone! I am Gentle Fang (a brilliant oxymoron of a name). I wrote a guest post back in February with a little island history, and decided to return and do a My Place in Poptropica post for fun. Enjoy!

2012 | Introduction

In 2012, I was in second grade, and was seven years old. I always loved to visit FunBrain.com, and in the website’s games there were constantly Poptropica advertisements. The characters in the pictures I saw looked pretty cool to me, so I asked my mom if I could play.

She agreed to set up an account for me to use, although I was not allowed membership to the game. Upon entering, I clicked the first island I saw: Zomberry. I was frightened by the purple zombies back then, but now I see them as nothing to be afraid of. Since I was scared, I quickly exited out of the game. Sadly, I have no idea what my old username was.

2015 | Different school, different kids

When I was in fifth grade, I moved to a new school for the seventh time in my life. I had come from a school where I was very well-liked by the students and was very close to them, so when I moved, I expected it to be just the same as the last school. However, I turned out to be very wrong.

I met lots of kids who were very different from what I was used to (in a good way), and most of them didn’t like any of the same things I did. I got very shy around these kids, and so I had no one to be around when school was over. The work was also kind of boring to me because the curriculum at my new school was behind on what it had been at my old school, so much of it was review for me.

It was out of boredom that I went back onto FunBrain one night, and once again, I saw the Poptropica ads. I thought back to second grade and the scary Zomberry zombies, and was hesitant to join. However, I decided to do it again anyway, because I figured much could have changed as I got older.

I found that I loved the game, and tried to complete islands on my own, which was a huge challenge. I had fun changing my character’s outfits and making her hair bright turquoise. I chatted in the common rooms and even copied down some questions from the chats to ask to kids at school.

I got a very positive reaction, and found that many people who I thought were so different from me were actually quite similar. I made a few friends who I am still close to today, including my friends Isabella and Caroline. I found out that plenty of kids played Poptropica, and one even showed me the PHB, so completing islands wouldn’t be so hard anymore.

It was also on Poptropica that I discovered how much I love theater, especially musical theater. I watched as Gentle Fang cried off of the stage on Reality TV Island and how she would sweat nervously in Game Show Island, and I myself became very good at acting out the very same emotions my character acted out. After fifth grade, I joined the drama club at school, which helped me to get a ton of friends.

2016 | A break from an obsession (and forming some new ones)

In 2016, I entered middle school. I LOVED IT, to say the least. I felt like I had a lot more independence, but also felt I was “too old” for some things.

For one, I felt that it was time I abandoned the pink decorations on all of my stuff and replaced it with boring old zebra stripes. I also developed a new obsession of listening to Hamilton over and over again. And, more relevant to this story, I came to think that Poptropica was too babyish for the eleven-year-old that I was and not worth my time anymore, so I stopped playing.

2017 | Why’d I ever stop?

This year, I felt I was lacking a challenge, some sort of game that would test my logic and reasoning. I realized what I was actually missing was Poptropica. I missed the challenges the islands presented to me, and I missed the fun social interactions that resulted from it. I realized that the only thing I was actually “too old” for was my own brain.

So, I decided to give myself a mental refresh, in which I realized it was dumb to get rid of things I loved so much just because I was getting older. I quickly went back to Poptropica, replaying all of the old islands and laughing at some friends’ outfit choices for their characters.

I went back to Gentle Fang and took her for a long shopping trip in the store. I had tons of fun, and I am working on my Poptropica Worlds account now. While my newer obsession of Hamilton songs continue to play in the background, I am so happy to have gone back to my older obsession of a game that brought me great joy.

Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story!

If you haven’t already, we invite you to send in your own. Please include your username and a minimum of 500 words, typed with good spelling and grammar, and divided into labeled sections. If you send in your story, we will continue to post new community MPIPs!

~the Poptropica Help Blog

24 Carrot Island, Crisis Caverns Island, Livestreams, Social Media

Speedrun through 24 Carrot, slow down for Home Island, and don’t forget the Antlers

October 15, 2017December 1, 2017 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! Slanted Fish here with the latest report on what’s popping.

Poptropica has released a new video, and this one’s pretty unique compared to the others: it’s a speedrun of 24 Carrot Island, which shows you how to complete the island in approximately 4 minutes! It’s pretty impressive, so check it out:

The narrator’s voice is not one we’ve heard before, but it sounds like it could be a teenager, or at least someone young but not childlike as in the trailer video. This video uses some visual clips from the trailer, and I think the new voice fits the vibe pretty well. The narration packs a fair bit of humor in its quick walkthrough, only stopping once for a hilariously deep breath. I’d like to see more videos like this! What do you think?

That’s not the only new video this week — we’ve also got another livestream (#4) from Creator Stephanie! Catch the archived video below:

This episode aired October 13 (Friday). (Speaking of Friday the 13th, check out this Creators’ Blog post highlighting some superstitiously-unlucky Poptropica moments for the occasion. It’s good to see Captain Crawfish blogging again!)

Anyway, back to the video with Stephanie. The first minute is just silence before Stephanie realizes she’s on air, and then it’s off to Home Island again! As with the last livestream, she picks up on decorating her house, this time adding membership furniture like the beach themed windows along with her non-member items.

Before placing the furniture in her home, she takes a candy break — not jellybeans this time, but candy from her recent travels to Colombia! Then she starts placing her decor around the house, starting with beach windows and then carefully thinking through where to put her clock, fireplace, rocket lamp and more. Plus, she’s taking names for the suit of armor guarding the house — got any suggestions?

Just as she signs off, we can catch a quick glimpse of the recording program she’s using: Gameshow 2. So there you have that, in case you were wondering!

Stephanie will be livestreaming Poptropica Worlds every week for the foreseeable future. They could be any day of the week, but stay tuned for the next one!

In other news, the Elk Antlers on Crisis Caverns Island have moved! Though they used to be in Crispin Cave, they are no longer there — instead, you’ll now find them on top of Ye Old Cabin and Mine. Why they changed this is a mystery, but perhaps it makes a little more sense in the story as a location for pranksters to place the item.

You can see this update in action in this video by Young Hippo. Thanks also to Green Cheetah for the update and a screenshot!

As you may notice if you try it out for yourself, or if you complete any other item on your quest log, a side note will now appear beside your quest log to mark the completion of an item on the list! Pretty neat new feature to let you know when you’re making some progress. But that’s not the only thing that’s new about the quest log…

Now, when you progress to a new point, a notification will also pop up beside the quest log to give a little nudge for what you’re supposed to do or think about next. You may have noticed it in the 24 Carrot video above, which gives pointers like this one:

Cool, huh?

By the way, here’s your chance to write for the PHB: We’re working on a guide for the new mini-game Dr. Hare’s Revenge and would appreciate any help! Send us your writing and/or pictures to [email protected].

Anyway, what do you think of the new quest log updates, livestream, and speedrun video? What would you like to see the Creators do next for Poptropica? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!

<・)))><<

My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Crazy Peppers

October 14, 2017October 14, 2017 Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Crazy Peppers, who was introduced to Pop by his brother’s friend and hasn’t stopped the obsession since. See below for how to send in your MPIP!

mpip crazypeppers

2013–2015 | My Brother’s Friend

The event that began my road to Poptropica was my older brother moving into a new school. His first friend was a middle-schooler named Moises. (Moises is in high school now.) One day, Moises came over to our place and showed me a computer game called Poptropica. Little did I know that it would be the start of an obsession — an obsession that hasn’t died out (yet).

My first account Yellow Ghost, which was created by my brother. We beat so many islands together — with the help of the Poptropica Help Blog, of course. (After all, who doesn’t look up a little help?)

For the next couple of years, Poptropica was the one and only computer game I played. I watched many islands come out over the time I played: Galactic Hot Dogs, Mystery of the Map, Timmy Failure, Escape From Pelican Rock, and finally, Monkey Wrench. Then, Poptropica stopped coming out with islands.

2016 | Let’s Take a (Long) Break

One day in 2016, I just stopped playing for some reason. I don’t know why, because I hadn’t forgotten my username and password. Poptropica didn’t release any new islands after Monkey Wrench, so that may have contributed to it.

After a while, Poptropica was completely out of my mind. For a long time, it just didn’t occur to my mind to keep playing.

Early 2017 | The Return… to a new World

One day in early 2017, a thought came in to my head: “Remember that old game Poptropica? I should check it out again. A lot of stuff might have changed!”

As it turns out, not that much had changed — that is, until the release of Worlds.

Up until the the release of the new game, I had never heard of it. I guess I hadn’t been keeping up with the news. Anyway, once it was out, I immediately imported my Poptropica Original account.

I played around with it but decided I didn’t like it that much. I liked the houses though. I’ve beat all the islands in Worlds (so far).

August 2017 | Membership

In August, my parents agreed to get me a one-month membership. I LOVED it! I went on Poptropica Original and beat most of the membership islands (except Great Pumpkin Island, because I couldn’t get past the piano part). I played most of the bonus quests, and got all of the members-only store items. When my membership ended, I was pretty sad, but I had fun with it.

Looking to the present

Well, that’s it for now, but I sure hope the Poptropica Creators come up with more soon! My username is intinavia2 if anybody wants to friend me, and I’d like to give a special thanks to the PHB for letting me post on their site.

Stay safe out there, Poptropica fans.

Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story!

~the Poptropica Help Blog

24 Carrot Island, Clubhouse, Dr. Hare's Revenge

Dr. Hare’s Revenge, minus the Hare, plus bouncy beds

October 6, 2017December 1, 2017 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! Big news in the Poptropica sphere this week…

…if you’re a member, that is. But even if you aren’t, don’t worry — you’ll get to play this update soon. So what’s up? Well, Dr. Hare is back (kind of) in a new mini-game called Dr. Hare’s Revenge! Check out the sweet animated video promo:

In this game, which you can find on your map in Poptropica Worlds, Dr. Hare (who you may remember from 24 Carrot Island) has set a series of challenges for you: find your way around each maze full of tricks and traps, collecting all the carrots before time runs out. There are four zones of 10 levels each, which gives you plenty of gameplay and scenery to be entertained with.

Check out this full playthrough video from the PHB’s very own Brave Tomato:

Since this is currently still in beta, members who play this game during this early access period get to take a survey after completing Zone 1, in which you can give your feedback to the Poptropica Creators! They want to know what you think, so be sure to fill it out if you can! This style of gameplay is definitely following a different direction than a typical Poptropica island, yet it is a common mobile gaming trend with its simple objective and ascending level difficulties — but what do you think of it?

Also, if you’re playing this on a mobile phone or tablet, you also get to try out a whole new control scheme. With it, you can move around using an on-screen joystick and jump button. Again, the Creators want to know your thoughts on this!

worlds joystick — picture credit: Yujo_Jacy_the_Jumpy_Coyotekans, who has a ridiculously high coin count…

The game itself is pretty exciting, but there is one thing worth pointing out: despite the name, Dr. Hare himself doesn’t make an appearance, instead letting his rabbot droids run the show! It looks like Poptropica has pulled another Dr. Hare’s Secret Lab — but at least Dr. Hare’s Revenge is quite a bit more interesting.

When you’ve completed Dr. Hare’s Revenge, you’ll win 500 coins and a cool trophy of Dr. Hare’s head for your house! Plus, you can always replay levels to beat your high scores and see where you’re at on the leaderboards.

On a comparatively less exciting note, but an exciting one all the same, there’s been an update to house decor: you can now stand on your furniture (the ones that make sense to do so, anyway — and yes, this one applies to everyone)! Jumping on beds will even make your character bounce with a satisfying springing sound.