Author: Slanted Fish

Hello! I'm Slanted Fish, the editor-in-chief and creator of the Poptropica Help Blog (PHB). I'm a writer, Hong Kong native, and Christ follower. My Poptropica username is slantedfish 🐠 Don't forget to be awesome!
PHB Specials

The Poptropica Island Eras Tour 🏝️🗺️✨

Slanted Fish

Poptropica has given us a lot of adventures to go on over the years, since the game first began in 2007. To celebrate the game’s legacy, in this post we’re going to go on a tour of its island eras! 🏝️

Compilation of islands on map by idk

This Poptropica Island Eras Tour, as some of you may have swiftly guessed, is inspired by another iconic Eras Tour — the 2023 concert tour of pop queen Taylor Swift, whose music career has also spanned a similar timeframe as Poptropica over the years. An enchanting connection! ✨

Speaking of Taylor, let’s kick this off with one of her hits! The PHB came out with “Backspace”, a parody on “Blank Space”, back in 2021 to petition for the return of old islands that have disappeared from the game since the end of Flash in 2020. Enjoy:

And now, let’s meet the Poptropica Island Eras…

The Classics (2007–2013)

Welcome to the beginning! The Classics are the earliest islands to have popped onto the map. These OG islands from 2007–2013 came with small screens and almost no sound. They were built with AS2, a Flash-based programming language, and are now only playable via Flashpoint.

Bonus Tracks — these mini-quests from the Classics era were not quite islands, and a couple were released on consoles besides the computer.

Episodic (2014–2015)

After years of solid standalone stories, Poptropica decided to shake things up by introducing episodic islands, breaking up an island’s story into a series of episodes. This Episodic era only lasted a couple years from 2014-2015, bringing shorter but more frequent releases.

Flashier (2013–2016)

Starting from 2013 and encompassing the Episodic era, Poptropica used a newer (but now still outdated) Flash technology, AS3. These Flashier islands came with more sound and bigger screens. These adventures can be found in AS3 Flashpoint as well as Poptropica’s paid Steam bundle.

Worlds (2017–2018)

With the looming demise of Flash, Poptropica Worlds was introduced as a new platform for the game’s future development. From 2017–2018, Worlds brought a handful of 3D adventures. Sadly, it remained inactive until it was quietly discontinued in 2022, and is no longer playable.

Haxe (2019–2023)

While Worlds went dormant, Poptropica continued updating its original platform. In 2020, Poptropica rolled out Haxe to replace the Flash build. This current era is characterized by islands that are shorter and simpler than in years past, along with a curious trend towards Roblox.

Like Taylor reclaiming her music by re-recording her previous songs, Poptropica has also since re-released some of their old islands after they were lost to Flash. The Flashier era and a few of the Classics are recovered on Steam, but we can only hope that more adventures join them someday. Until then, we also have the unofficial Flashpoint.

Anyway, that’s a wrap for the Poptropica Island Eras Tour! We hope you enjoyed this journey through Pop’s many storytelling eras of 16 years and counting. Share your favorite era with us in the comments! ✏️

Poptropica, it was enchanting to meet you.

~ 🩵 the PHB

Fanfiction, Guest Posts

Fanfic: Zombies, Zombies, ALWAYS ZOMBIES! 🧟 Ep. 15: I Spy

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Magic Kid. Enjoy!

And we’re back (probably sooner than you thought)! Back with the fifteenth episode of Zombies, Zombies, ALWAYS ZOMBIES!

If you missed it, you can catch the previous episode here, or if you would like to start from the beginning, click here. Please enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed writing it. 😈

Character doodles by Magic Kid

ZOMBIES, ZOMBIES, ALWAYS ZOMBIES!

A Zomberry Series

Episode Fifteen: I Spy

The three friends were in that hot air balloon and had been scanning the ocean for hours. As there wasn’t much to do other than occasionally steering the ship, they had settled for a game of I Spy, which was still very boring.

Icy Stone

I spy with my little eye something… blue.

Jazzy Hawk (semi-gloomily)

Water.

Icy Stone (sarcastically)

Wow? How could you have guessed?

Truth be told, all they could see WAS water. The ocean stretched to all the corners of the horizon, leaving almost nothing but a blue expanse, speckled with a handful of islands. None of the islands they passed looked like it had anything similar to the helicopter they had seen on it. Every island was full of zombies, little purple dots from the view on the hot air balloon, and they served as a reminder on how much damage the apocalypse had done. On how much they had to save.

Clumsy Bird was looking through binoculars through the horizon, keeping an eye out for any upcoming islands.

Clumsy Bird

I spy… OH! An island!

Continue reading “Fanfic: Zombies, Zombies, ALWAYS ZOMBIES! 🧟 Ep. 15: I Spy” →
Guest Posts, YouTubers

Fan Spotlight 🌞 Poptropica: The Movie

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Invisible Ring. Enjoy!

Monochrome: These colors don’t run.

Hey there, Poptropica fans! Hope things are going well for you all. (You’ll probably tell me they aren’t though, with the complicated alarms of Poptropica’s end and everything, but I had to say it anyway.)

I’m Invisible Ring, and I’m here to share with you something that should’ve shown up as a guest post on the Poptropica Creators’ Blog many months ago. It’s not my (still upcoming) pirate movie, but a retro movie I found long ago while I made my first movie. Introducing one of my all-time favorite fan productions: Poptropica: the Movie!

In this by-fan, for-fan production, from the vault of “Production Poptropica”: A normal kid (Spotted Bubbles, aka Graham Burrell), whose favorite thing in the world is Poptropica, is called on a special quest in the Great Beyond, where his Poptropican adventuring skills are put to the test. Loaded with action and laughs, this movie is not just about the world of Poptropica, but also the real world from which it came.

…You see, it was just around this time of year when I found this movie (from 2011!) and watched it. And although it wasn’t a holiday program, it gave me great cheer for the cold dark winter, and I hope it’ll give all of you great cheer, too. I bet we all could use it right about now.

Hope you enjoy the movie, and stay tuned for more Invisible Ring guest posts like this one that never got to go on the Poptropica Creators’ Blog!

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Invisible Ring. If you did, you might also enjoy her interview for her first fan movie production, Battle Morale.

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. Interested in writing for the PHB? We’d love to hear from you!

Blast from the Past

2023 Poptropica Rewind: Radio Silence 🔇

Slanted Fish

As we approach the end of 2023, here’s a look back on Poptropica’s quietest year yet. Without a Pop drop, you could hear a pin drop.

Vandals: Just trash the place, why don’t you.

(You might be interested in taking a look back on Poptropica’s previous years, too. We’ve got just the thing over on our Yearbook page!) 📖

2023 kicked off with the monthly costume contest in January, a tradition going back to May 2021. But something was different about this one: we never heard back about the winners, and no further costume contests have been announced since. And not just that…

Without the new costumes meant to be offered on the Red Baron’s airship, the Baron’s ship never made another appearance on Home Island. After all the drama that unfolded the previous year, we’ve been left hanging as to what’s going on with the ship and its constituents.

The Red Queen was introduced in October 2022.
The airship was last seen in December 2022.

The silence continues throughout the year — the first year we’ve had no new islands nor mini-quests. Poptropica is quiet with their comms too, with no blog updates since February, and no updates to their most active social media platform, Instagram, since September, after months of memes. They also closed off commenting on their blog in August. 🤐

Still, the game hasn’t been totally dead. Though updates have been sparse, Poptropica did experiment with daily questions, bring back the Candy Crazed Mini Quest for a limited time, re-released Mission Atlantis Ep. 2 for members, launched a few ads including an “island” for Pixar’s Elemental, and celebrated their 16th birthday with sweet gifts. But all that pales in comparison to what they’ve been able to achieve before.

Daily questions, but nowhere to show answers
Elemental City on Poptropica

Here on the PHB, we’ve tried to keep the spirit of Poptropica alive with fun content including an April Fools joke on a TV show starring Amelia, Favorite Poptropica Character Tournament, the Poppies 2023 Awards, a Sweet 16 birthday art collab, and lots of fanfiction, including The Villain Saga by Smart Bubbles, Zombies, Zombies, ALWAYS ZOMBIES! by Magic Kid, and PoptropiCon Saga comics by Invisible Ring. 💥

We’ve also shared some nostalgic blog posts as players reckon with the fact that Poptropica’s better days are now behind us. Here’s a selection, with more good reads available in our Greatest PHB Posts collection:

Throughout the year, Poptropica continued trudging along with its routine shop rotations and monthly member gifts — until, in December, even membership was removed with no explanation. 😬 On the bright side, previously paywalled content became free for all and Poptropicans showed their support for the game amidst worries about its future, including a shutdown scare ignited by a false rumor.

The strange turn of events puts an end to the PHB’s membership giveaways that started in 2021. We also said goodbye to another one of our series — Community Creations — in July, after six inspiring years. 🥺

With the lack of communications and updates to the game, the future of Poptropica seems thrown into a free-fall. But whatever happens, we at the Poptropica Help Blog will be here for the ride.

“The PHB team” by Magic Kid

Hold on for 2024 — who knows what we’re in for!

~🩵☃️ the PHB

Fanfiction, Guest Posts

Fanfic: Zombies, Zombies, ALWAYS ZOMBIES! 🧟 Ep. 14: So About What Happened to Toothpick…

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Magic Kid. Enjoy!

Hi there! I’m back with the zombies, the drama, and the adventure! Are they too late to save Toothpick? We’ll have to find out…

(I apologize in advance for the events that take place in this episode. Also, Merry Christmas!) (Catch the last episode here, or first episode here.)

Traffic Jam: Looks like we took a wrong turn.

ZOMBIES, ZOMBIES, ALWAYS ZOMBIES!

A Zomberry Series

Episode Fourteen: So About What Happened to Toothpick…

Let’s rewind a few days previously to Party Time Tower, right after unsuccessfully trying to change the past. The flying pirate ship is soaring away, engine sputtering dangerously. Toothpick was left alone. Alone, in the middle of a vast hoard of zombies.

He instantly felt as though something had dunked him in ice cold water. Oh, the fear!

Toothpick didn’t know if this made the situation better or worse, but a black helicopter was on his way towards him. 

The zombies had fallen back a bit when the pirate ship had lowered down, but they were now regaining the height at a very quick pace. 

The helicopter was now right above Toothpick. A rope ladder unrolled right by him. 

Pilot

GET IN!

Either Toothpick is captured by zombies, or he gets on that helicopter. 

Continue reading “Fanfic: Zombies, Zombies, ALWAYS ZOMBIES! 🧟 Ep. 14: So About What Happened to Toothpick…” →