Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Fierce Hippo, who represents herself through her Poptropican and aims to finish all the islands. See below for details on sending in your own MPIP!

MPIP-FierceHippo

Hello fellow Poptropicans! My name is Fierce Hippo, or geekgreek512 (please don’t judge – I made that username in second grade XD ). This is my Poptropica story.

How It Began… and Faded

It all started when I was in second grade. There was a big thing that everyone would always be talking about: Poptropica. Curious, I asked myself, “What is this strange thing they’re talking about?” So I went on my humongous computer at home and typed in “Poptropica”, and sure enough, the website popped up. I made a username and password – the username I remember was “greekgeek” (I was OBSESSED with Percy Jackson books).

Sadly, after completing few islands throughout the span of one year, I didn’t come back for a long time. After that, I made approximately three accounts and abandoned them whenever I forgot the usernames. Around fifth grade, I stopped playing for the longest time.

How I Came Back

I came back to playing Poptropica just recently, at 14 years old, in high school already. I was bored on the weekends and didn’t have much friends to text to, so I decided, “Why not go to Poptropica!?” This time around, I didn’t have to go on my humongous computer – I could just go on my laptop.

I completely forgot my old usernames, and the greekgeek one didn’t have my regular password, so I made up a new username: this time, a play-on of my old username – geekgreek512 (and this is the one I use all the time now).

My Character’s Clothing

My character, Fierce Hippo, is always changing her clothing, but only certain parts. The headphones and shirt combo I got from Lunar Colony, one of my favorite islands. The beanie is from the Fall Fashion Outfit in the Store, and the emo bangs (as I like to call them XD) I customized from Slanted Fish (her username is slantedfish). I bought the “Electrify” power from the Store, which I usually have on purple, my favorite color. The wings I got from the Demon outfit, and the guitar is from the Rock Star outfit, both also in the Store.

The reason you really can’t tell the gender of my Poptropican until I mentioned “she” is because in real life I am a female demiboy – a girl who sometimes feels partially boy. My Poptropican reflects who I am, but not in a completely realistic way. My hair isn’t short in a beanie, but that is the way I want to get it cut. I don’t play the guitar, but I really want to. Also, I am emo in real life, so the headphones represent that I’m always listening to music, which is definitely true. XD Sometimes, I’ll remove or add a new part, but usually, this is my go-to outfit.

What I Love Most About Poptropica

I love the seemingly endless islands and the different ways to combine clothing! My favorite islands have to be Mythology (did I mention I was obsessed with Percy Jackson? 😉 ), Spy, Escape from Pelican Rock, Time Tangled, Lunar Colony, Virus Hunter, Shrink Ray, and Cryptids.

The hardest (longest, and most time-consuming) island to complete was Skullduggery Island because of the 1 million gold coins! But the other hardest one, that I have not completed yet, is Astro-Knights. I love the concept and I am obsessed with space so that is probably one of my favorites as well. I just can’t get past certain defenses in that game!

Goal

Obviously, to finish all the islands (at least that are available without membership)! However, perhaps unlike some Poptropicans, I am in no rush to complete all of them in one shot, or to do it quickly. I’m in a really tough high school and get lots of homework, so I’m not always free. When I am free, I like to go on Instagram or Goodreads (@marmalade4evs; you must’ve caught on by now that I love books) or my book blog. XD

But when I am free on the weekends, or after school, I go on here. So I am far from reaching my goal to complete every island –besides, it’s the journey that matters the most; not the destination.

-Fierce Hippo

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Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story! Feel free to send in your own (please include a minimum of 550 words, type with good spelling and grammar, divide it into labeled sections, and include your username). Look out for more community MPIPs in the future!

~the PHB.

Web Development

Poptropica 2.0: When Pigs Fly!

May 11, 2016May 11, 2016 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans and Pigtropicans! 🐷

So, you may have heard that Poptropica is currently in a rebranding process, and due to launch a New Poptropica later this year. This article about StoryArc Media (Poptropica’s new parent company) that was recently published offers some more insight into what we might expect – including flying pigs!

adventurepig

Check out this snippet from the article:

For Poptropica, later this year we’ll be adding some really great customization features that allow kids to feel even more they are at the center of the stories. We’re asking ourselves, how do we empower kids to make meaningful decisions and create experiences that feel unique? So you’ll see us adding features that allow kids to customize their avatars in much more detail than they can today, create an individual home experience and tweak the story experiences they have so it’s not like their friends’.

We know from Poptropica’s blog post that new customization features include shoes, among other things we don’t know about yet. But this article tells us we’ll also finally have the oft-requested feature of homes, and the story experiences (probably the Islands) will vary from player to player depending on how we modify them! Could this be like a series of choose-your-own-adventure scenarios? What exactly it means remains to be seen, but it sure sounds interesting.

Also, wondering what’s up with the pig in the picture above? It was tweeted by StoryArc Media, and the graphic style is a lot like Poptropica’s. Here’s what the article had to say:

We have another app launching later this spring, Adventure Pig, that’s designed to give more short burst play. On Poptropica most of the play sessions are a half-hour or longer, but kids may not always have a half-hour. This is our first foray into shorter experiences. It’s a single story broken into many chapters and levels that can be completed in less than a minute though the overall story is much longer.

Hmm. It’s not clear whether Adventure Pig will be part of the Poptropica story, or whether it’s its own franchise from StoryArc, but the art style does suggest some relation (though not exactly, as the eyes feel quite different from Poptropica eyes). Either way, it’s interesting that they’re trying something with shorter gameplay while still weaving together an overarching storyline – here’s to hoping StoryArc doesn’t disappoint! It’s supposed to come out this spring, so we may get to play it soon!

(Guess where else you can find flying pigs? The Orb Legend main menu!)

Anyway, that’s all I can ham-mer out for this piggy post! What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and of course, stay popping, Poptropicans! 😀

–SlantedFish 🐠🐠

Guest Posts

Thoughts with Bony Bones: Pop it, Lock it

May 10, 2016June 22, 2017 Slanted Fish

(Hey Poptropicans! This is a guest post by Bony Bones, a Poptropican who wanted to share some of his ideas for Poptropica including: locking islands until previous storylines are played, more Lego, and mini-missions. Remember, they’re just ideas, not reality. Enjoy! –Slanted Fish 🐠)

thoughtspop bonybones

Hello fellow Poptropicans! This is Bony Bones here with some things that I wanted to share about Poptropica. (Btw, if you haven’t played Super Villain or Shrink Ray Island yet, be wary of spoilers.)

If you read my MPIP, then you know a little about me already, but for those who don’t know me, I decided to join the circus as a Mexican cyborg-pirate in a pink bunny suit I have completed every island (so far…) and have been on Poptropica since 2007.

Anyway, *takes deep breath*, here I go.

1) Pop it, lock it

First of all, I think that Poptropica should organize islands into a timeline, locking certain islands until you reach a certain point in your Poptropica progression. This would be even better if there is an overarching storyline that progresses as you move from island to island. That means you’d have to beat certain islands in order to “unlock” other ones.

Like, it wouldn’t make sense for you to play Super Villain and then Mythology and Shrink Ray, because your first encounter with Zeus is on Mythology, not Super Villain, and Mr. Silva isn’t small until the end of Shrink Ray, but he’s already small in Super Villain.

2) Leggo for Lego

Second, remember Dr. Hare’s Lego campaign? Poptropica should try for a Lego set again, as Lego Poptropica would be totally brick-iful (wow, that was horrible… 😛 ). It would actually be even better if Poptropica joined in Lego Dimensions (the video game) because a Lego Poptropica world would be very cool.

For the Lego toy packs, they could do Dr. Hare and his Rabbot, or a pilot or other Poptropican with the blimp, or Binary Bard and his mech, etc. I just think that Lego Poptropica was too much of a pop-tastic (wow, I should just stop :D) idea to let it go* all together, even though it was out of Poptropica’s hands (the Lego CUUSOO team had sadly turned down the idea).

*I’ll give everyone just a moment if they need to suddenly break out into song.

…

All good, Elsa? Okay.

3) Mini missions

Finally, it would be great if Poptropica added mini-missions on different islands to give players something to do while waiting for the next island to come out. They could be about the length of the members only bonus quests on some islands, and one could come out every week or month or whatever Poptropica decides.

For example, you’ve beaten all the islands and are flying around the map to decide what to do now (and yes, I know that there are things to do like Realms and Mini-Quests and replaying islands, but just bear with me here). You see an exclamation mark near, say, 24 Carrot Island. You go and investigate, and find that whatever-her-name-is has lost her cat, Whiskers, again (so I remember her cat’s name but not hers…). You find Whiskers and the girl (oh, her name’s Charlie) gives you an exclusive outfit/item as a reward! Well, Feats of Speed on Home Island is something, at least – but it would be cool to play more Poptropica-story-like quests!

Well, that about wraps this post up, so until I pop in again, farewell!

–Bony Bones

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Hope you enjoyed this guest post by a PHB reader! The PHB welcomes guest posting from anyone in our community if you have something to share, whether it be random thoughts like these, Popspiracy theories, sneak peeks, My Place in Poptropica stories, or any other ideas you might have. We would like them to be well written with at least 550 words. We also encourage sharing on our subreddit and PHC.

If you have an idea for a guest post, send it in to [email protected]! 😀 Stay popping!

My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Cool Octopus

May 7, 2016May 5, 2016 Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Cool Octopus, who, like his character, is bearded and currently college-aged. See below for details on sending in your own MPIP!

MyPlaceInPoptropica-CoolOctopus

2007 | Discovering Poptropica at Random

When I was in 4th grade, I remember being on Funbrain playing a game called Mighty Guy. I soon got tired of playing it, so I looked around the site and found an ad for Poptropica. I clicked it and created my first Poptropican, who was named Messy Sky. I explored the game for a bit, but did not complete anything. I didn’t save the account, and in a week, I had totally forgotten about it.

2009 | Re-Discovering Poptropica

A couple of years later, I was in middle school. One day in my computer class, after I had finished an assignment early, I was terribly bored. A random girl in my class told me to go play Poptropica, which shocked me as I had forgotten all about it and was only just reminded. I went back on Poptropica and saw Red Dragon Island on the map, which had not been released yet.

I forgot to save my account again, but the next day, I created another one called Cool Octopus. I managed to finish Spy Island because the girl from my class had helped me.

2010 – 2012 | Getting Help from the Pop Community

I decided to keep playing Poptropica because I was intrigued by the various interesting stories on the islands, as well as the random Easter eggs and harmless glitches I could play with in the game. When I got stuck, I usually gave up and went on the internet to find out what to do next. I remember searching “Poptropica help” on the address page of my iPod touch, which brought up the Poptropica Help Blog, so I clicked on it. As I read the blog, I was amazed by all the stories and walkthroughs I found on it, which I continued to use.

When the Poptropica Friends feature was released in 2012, I decided to get more involved with the Poptropica community. I made my first email account and created a Gravatar profile (which is used on WordPress sites like the PHB). I commented on several Poptropica blogs and even worked in one for a while, but that came to an end. I was always quite interested in getting to know others in the Pop community, getting tips and advice from other players so I could be a better player.

I also joined the PHC (Poptropica Help Chat), which was hosted on Xat before it moved to Discord. I met a lot of great Poptropica players there, including Elphangor, Pixel, Red Lizard, H.C.M, WimpyKidFan, HPuterpop, and Slanted Fish. On the PHC, people liked to share cheats and glitches for Poptropica, which was especially fun for me when I got bored with playing the game itself. My favorite glitch was the gender-changing glitch. Also, I had always wanted a beard on Poptropica, which I was finally able to obtain only through glitching. It represents the beard I have in real life, although sometimes I shave it off because it itches.

2013 – 2016 | Current Life

Well, it’s been a long time since I was the young fourth-grader who discovered Poptropica at random while bored with another game. I have now finished high school, and I’m currently in college, hoping to one day be a cartoon voice actor. But I still love Poptropica.

I also bought a Poptropica membership, because when I first started playing, I never got to have the good stuff that members got to have, and only had the free stuff to enjoy. These days, I’m not as active commenting on Poptropica blogs or chatting on the PHC. I usually just watch and read people’s posts, but I am still following what’s happening with the Poptropica community. I’m about the same age as Slanted Fish, making me one of the older ones in the community.

Something I really appreciate about the Poptropica community today is how the Creators can and will reply to your comments on Twitter. Anyway, if you’d like to add me on Pop, my username is zama-air – and if you want to see who’s on my friend list and what’s in my Store items, check out my video here!

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~the PHB.

PHB Specials

PHB Special: Hidden Games of Poptropica

May 3, 2016May 24, 2016 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! 😀

Throughout Poptropica, you may come across the occasional hidden game – a mini-game you can play just for fun, that has no effect on the island quest you’re on. In this PHB Special, we’ll be taking a look at these sometimes-forgotten fun features that add a little excitement to Poptropica!

[Press ‘Start’ to begin.]

pophiddengames

Note: this list does not include games that are required during islands that you can re-play for fun later, nor does it include official mini-quests that come with their own item card in the Store.

[Loading, please wait…]

Table Football :: Big Nate Island

The first truly noteworthy “extra game” to arrive on Poptropica can be found on Big Nate Island. Inside the secret clubhouse at the top of the playground, you have to play the ‘Go To Jail’ hangman game, but the ‘Table Football’ game is optional. In Table Football, you aim a folded piece of paper into a football post, and you need 3 goals out of a maximum of 5 chances to win.

Plus, if you do win, you get a bonus book called Big Nate’s Pratical Jokes! Good, wholesome fun.

bignate tablefootball

Computer Ping-Pong :: Counterfeit Island

Inside the Web Browser Cafe on Counterfeit Island’s Main Street, clicking on the computers will activate a cool little computer game of ping-pong! The graphics and concept are simple: just move your cursor up and down to control your white ping-pong board on the left.

Like a goalkeeper, you want to prevent the pixelled balls from getting past your wall (the left) by bouncing them back with your board. The red balls are normal, while the yellow bonus balls move a bit faster and will also split apart into more balls and come back once they hit your board.

Slot Machine :: Wild West Island

On the facade of the Four Aces Casino in Dos Cactos on Wild West Island, you’ll find, at the very top left corner, a slot machine! It’s fairly straightforward: click on the crank at the left to turn the machine, and see where each of the three slots land when they’re done spinning. If they’re all the same, a slew of jalapeno peppers will rain down like confetti! If not, nothing happens.

Pool :: Game Show Island

On the bottom level of the Club Nouveau Riche on Game Show Island’s Main Street, under the glowing 8-ball sign, you can play a game of pool by clicking on the pool table! There’s just one ball, the white ball, and your goal is to align your pool cue (the stick) to try to roll the ball into the hole.

The blue circles, which appear in varying sizes, will make your ball bounce back, resulting in possible point multiplications. Every time you win (by rolling the ball into the hole), you get more lives. See how high of a score you can get before you run out of lives!

Planet Slug :: Night Watch Island

Notably similar to the pop-ular mobile game Angry Birds, Planet Slug is an app game found on your cell phone on Night Watch Island. In this game, you fling a little rocket ship from a slingshot in outer space, and your goal is to aim it at these green planets that look like slugs. Your rocket ships may also hit the asteroids, but that is not the ultimate goal. If you can hit all the slugs before you run out of lives, you win!

Terror in the Garden :: Zomberry Island

During the zomberry apocalypse, Gamer Guy is too busy holed up in his apartment on Zomberry Island playing video games. If you click on his gaming console, you’ll activate a game called Terror in the Garden! This game is essentially the same as the final showdown on the island when you’re saving the citizens with the zomberry antidote, except instead of people, you’re shooting at vegetables with faces! There are no prizes for winning, but it’s good practice for later in the island.

garden zomb game

Mega Fighting Bots :: Mocktropica Island

Inside Ephraim University on Mocktropica Island, if you click on the computer in the classroom, you can play Mega Fighting Bots! In MFB, you play as Bucket Bot, and you move around by clicking on where you want to go. To attack, you double-click, and your goal is to destroy your opponent before they destroy you.

Since MFB is also a main part of the Mocktropica bonus quest, you can find more tips and info for the game on our Mocktropica Island Guide. Alternatively, you can also play MFB on the external Mega Fighting Bots site set up by the Poptropica Creators!

Feats of Speed :: Home Island

Most recently, Poptropica added a new mini-game to Home Island called Feats of Speed, which you can read more about in this PHB post. Not part of any island quest, this recycles a part of PoptropiCon: Episode 1 where you race the Cheetah Bandit to the top of a building.

To get started, talk to Speedy Sam on Home Island (you’ll recognize him by the treadmill) and he’ll challenge you to a race. If you can beat his score, he’ll let you try for the world record, and if you beat that, you’ll win a snazzy pair of Sneakers that you can wear on your feet (really)! There are more sneakers to come, so stay tuned for that as well.

Plus, we’ve been getting hints of Poptropica working on some more mini-games that are Zomberry-themed – we’ll have to wait and see what this becomes!

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Anyway, that about wraps up this list of hidden games in Poptropica! Which ones do you like? What are your high scores? Do you want Poptropica to include more of these hidden games within the islands? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

As always, stay popping, Poptropicans!

–🐠🐠

Author: Slanted Fish

My Place in Poptropica: Fierce Hippo