Slanted Fish

Fanfic: The Pink Knight, Part 1/4 💕🪶

June 5, 2022June 15, 2022 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Dizzy Feather. Enjoy!

Hello everyone, I’m Dizzy Feather. Before we get started, I’ll tell you a little about myself. I am ever loyal to the Pathfinders, but if I had to choose another tribe it would be the Seraphim.

Anyway, my fanfiction has four parts. It stars me as my alter ego, the Pink Knight. Plus, find out how you can be part of it below. Let’s go!

The scene is black. A sad melody plays. We hear a female voice.

DIZZY FEATHER (VOICEOVER):
Once I was a hero.

As she speaks, we see black silhouettes surrounding the Pink Knight in pictures of swordfights and handcuffs.

DIZZY FEATHER (VO):
I defeated countless villains, but one day…

Bird’s-eye view of the Pink Knight’s uniform and sword piled in a chest. Fade to black. We hear the chest lid slam, followed by the rattle of a lock.

DIZZY FEATHER (VO):
I decided to put it all away after I failed my mission. Poptropica has dozens of adventurers — they’ll manage without one more hero.

A phone rings. We see DIZZY FEATHER walk over to a small wooden table to pick up the phone and place it to her ear.

AMELIA (VO):
Dizzy, listen, can you come over to my shop real quick? I mean, above my shop — you know where I live.

DIZZY FEATHER:
Uh, sure. Are you OK?

AMELIA (VO):
No time to talk, just come over here. Now!

DIZZY FEATHER hangs up and runs out her clubhouse door. AMELIA is calmly sipping tea in her home. DIZZY FEATHER runs into the room, slamming the door behind her.

AMELIA:
Oh hi there, would you like some tea?

DIZZY FEATHER:
Wait, what? You sounded like you were being robbed over the phone!

AMELIA:
Oh yeah, sorry about that. I had to get you to come over here quickly — you know how you like to take your time. Anyway, here you go.

AMELIA hands DIZZY FEATHER an orange ticket. As DIZZY FEATHER takes it, we see that it says: “PoptropiCon — Admit One — VIP Pass.”

DIZZY FEATHER:
Uh, are you going to the con? Have fun!

AMELIA:
No, you’re going to the Con. You see, after the Omegon incident last year, I bought a VIP ticket for the following year so I could send someone to help in case it happened again. I would go myself, but I got a store to run.

DIZZY FEATHER:
You could go, and I could run your store until you’re back.

AMELIA:
Sorry, I only trust myself to run my store, and it can’t be closed for an entire week.

DIZZY FEATHER:
Fine, I mean Omegon was defeated last year, what could happen?

Jump to DIZZY FEATHER with a bulging pink backpack, walking around the Poptropica convention. Suddenly, a large red spaceship lands in the back, where the catapult was in episode 1). DIZZY FEATHER drops her drink out of surprise.

DIZZY FEATHER (whispering):
Oh, no! It’s happening.

That’s it for the first part. In the upcoming parts, I would like to include some of you readers! If you want to be part of this story, just pop in a quick outline in the comments with:

who you want you Poptropican to be (villain, hero, anti-villain, etc)
your Poptropican’s name
your Poptropica username (so I can add you to my friends list)

I will choose two players from the comments of this post and then we can meet up in-game!

I’ll wait till you’re in the game, then invite you to my clubhouse.
Get ready for a screenshot! Just follow me around, then stand a little ways away from me, facing me, so I can take the pic.
I will not contact you, so what your Poptropican says and does in my story is completely up to me.

Hope you like the story so far! Feel free to share what you think will happen next. I look forward to hearing from you in the comments!

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Dizzy Feather. If you did, you might also enjoy The Villain Saga, a fanfic series from the PHB’s MaryannTheConqueror.

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!

Advertisements, Fan Art Features, Monthly Costume Contests

May Costumes vie with Rainbow High 🌈

June 4, 2022 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, pop in for fashion, ads, and art — all at once!

May’s costume contest fan submissions reel is out and ready to be admired! 🎞 Although the Baron hasn’t yet picked a winning costume to bring to virtual life, her airship is expected to land soon, as it often does at the beginning of a month. In the meantime, enjoy the creativity:

Over on Home Island, there’s a new ad building for Rainbow High fashion dolls! Enter and talk to the nearest doll to help out with getting ready for their fashion show by collecting 8 outfits in 3 minutes. With surrounding sparkles, they’re pretty easy to spot all over the venue!

When you start the game, you’ll get to choose which team you’re helping: Rainbow High or Shadow High. After you win, you can play for the other school to get both prizes, the Emi Outfit and Heather Outfit.

Speaking of rainbow styles, remember to stop by Adventure Outfitters for colorful threads this Pride Month! 🏳️‍🌈✨

There’s more art to admire via Poptropica’s Instagram stories! From the Baron’s next great costume candidate “Boxing Barb” to a minor Monster Carnival character, check out the latest fan art features below. (Tip: Click the artists’ names to visit the original posts!)

A world without Pop? by @happyclonetrooper

~🐠

Creators' Blog Guest Posts, Fan Art Features, Member Gifts, Store

Pride Fabrics and Wide-Eyed Comics 🏳️‍🌈👀

June 2, 2022June 3, 2022 Slanted Fish

Happy Pride Month, Poptropicans! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

To kick off the festivities, Adventure Outfitters has restocked their rainbow gear, featuring lots of the LGBTQ+ Pride-themed costumes and clubhouse items from last year, which will be around all month.

Just restocked June’s Pride collection! 👀 Pop into the store to scoop up this year’s free costumes and clubhouse it… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…—
Official Poptropica (@Poptropica) June 01, 2022

In case you missed it, the store has also made more of its pets available to non-members! Plus, the pet wear has been refreshed, bringing back the Mustache, Pink Wig, and Pink Sunglasses (75 credits each). 🥸😻

Also, a new month means more prezzies for members! June’s member gifts are Succulent Seeds (equip to spread succ seeds!), Gardening Hat, and Succulent Follower — all wearables. 🪴

Over on the Pop Creators’ Blog, guest writer Muddy Kid is back with another installment of her Pop fan comic, The Adventures of Ruby!

We can’t miss mentioning the PHB cameo that appears as Ruby’s Flight Academy friend Syd (based on Spotted Dragon) shares a site she’s working on with — well, us 😜 — which has all the guides she needs to be a proper adventurer. Catch up on parts 1, 2, and 3 before diving into part 4!

Also, check out all these fan art features on Pop’s Instagram stories lately! There’s some really special stuff in here, from sidewalk chalk to blimp earrings (that you can buy!). Talented as always! 💙✨

~🐠

Monster Carnival Island, Steam Bundle

Monster Carnival’s Rewritten Ending 🐦🎡

May 31, 2022May 31, 2022 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans. You know Monster Carnival Island is full of shady shenanigans… but did you know that applies to the story’s end, too?

Beware: Spoilers ahead!

The original resolution from the island’s release in 2014 had Ringmaster Raven, who masterminded a plot to hypnotize the whole town to serve him, end up hypnotized by your character. You go so far as to make him believe that he is a chicken, giving the carnival a brand-new attraction: The Incredible Chicken Man. 🐔 He clucks, too!

However, some fans have since expressed concerns over this character’s treatment going from bullied Bird Boy to shamed Raven, still outcasted by the townsfolk whose welcome he chased unsuccessfully. HfEvra wrote in 2021 that the tragic tale “dehumanizes a man of color who was already treated as a literal monster by the narrative because of an aspect of himself that he had no control over,” elaborating further in a video.

Bird Boy was disliked seemingly because of his freakish features of looking not entirely human (which is why Dr. Dan is so afraid to have his monster identity discovered in the bonus quest), and also had a reputation as a “troublesome carnival freak.” He was blamed for arson at Honest Gabe’s, although we find out from the current business owner that Gabe was actually quite dishonest and even serving jail time for fraud. This calls into question whether Bird Boy really committed the crime or was set up, which is left open to interpretation. Either way, it’s wild that the town threw out an at-risk kid with no one to care for him.

*Newspapers from the island reveal that Bird Boy was a carnival orphan who was blamed for arson at Honest Gabe’s and exiled.*

Also, in 2017, @concanelaa tweeted that a line of dialogue from one of the Black townsfolk which originally talked about being nicer to people so they didn’t try to “enslave us” appeared to sound as if Black people were “blaming themselves for being enslaved.” The call-out led to Poptropica modifying that line to say “take revenge” instead.

The dialogue was changed. Thanks for keeping us honest. pic.twitter.com/mxXhfBYuy1
— Official Poptropica (@Poptropica) October 31, 2017

The various concerns led to the Pop Creators auditing the island and hinting at a twist to come for the island’s re-release on Steam.

Sure enough, in 2022, Steam brought along a new ending to this carnival caper. Instead of brainwashing Ringmaster Raven into acting like a chicken, you force him to be your friend. The next day, you’ll still find Raven caged, but instead of becoming a laughingstock, he’s being shipped off to Super Villain Island, presumably to be jailed there. As the trucks roll out, you’ll be left saying to no one, “But he’s my…”

As for the townsfolk, they’re now more remorseful of the way Bird Boy was driven out of town all those years ago, with new dialogue about how they should have “been better” replacing the lines about being nice just so people won’t “take revenge” (formerly “enslave us”) or “because it’s the right thing to do, I guess.” Subtle yet significant shifts!

But is the story satisfying? Before the Steam ending was released, the PHB reached out to former Pop Creator Mitch Krpata (who worked on the island in 2014, but not the rewrite in 2022) for an interview. Asked “Why such a tragic ending for Raven and the people?” he responded:

Monster Carnival was a hard one to write. There was a lot of pressure to come up with something spectacular, and while there’s a lot about it that I like, I don’t think the script ultimately ended up where I would have wanted it. I will say that the idea behind Ringmaster Raven’s comeuppance was to thwart the expectation of what usually happens in kids’ stories. It always turns out that the villain was just misunderstood, or lonely, and everyone agrees to let bygones be bygones and now they’re all friends. I kind of wanted to turn that on its head and say, no, this guy is actually pure evil and there’s no putting the toothpaste back in the tube.
Mitch Krpata in a 2022 interview with the PHB

Fans have had mixed feelings about the Monster Carnival ending, sometimes saying that Ringmaster Raven deserved better, which begs the question: What does “justice” look like for Ringmaster Raven?

Does it mean he never should have been caged at all? Never hypnotized, whether to be your friend or a chicken? Never exiled, blamed for arson, orphaned, or born with a deformity that others were afraid of?

And yet, these are all part of his story. Whether he is truly “pure evil” as Mitch suggested, or his circumstances led him down this path, he did try to hypnotize people into slavery, and two wrongs don’t make a right. Raven’s life was troubled from the start, but there’d be no story without these conflicts, even the injustices he suffered.

Now that you know the tale behind the Monster Carnival rewritten ending, what do you think of the way Ringmaster Raven is treated? 🐦 We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

~🐠

Reviews, Steam Bundle

PHB Review: Poptropica on Steam 💨🎮

May 29, 2022January 30, 2023 Slanted Fish

Poptropica recently released a bunch of their older islands and more via Steam for about US$20 (or less in some regions). From what’s in it to whether it’s worth it, we’ll be evaluating everything you need to know about this Steam bundle. Let’s pop into it!

What do you need to run the game?

First and foremost, you’ll need access to Steam, the video game distribution platform. Signing up for an account and downloading its app is free and easy. The game will run on both Windows and Mac computers, although M1 Macs (post-Nov 2020) are currently not supported, and Mac users will also need to download Adobe AIR.

Downloading the game requires 2 GB of storage space, and playing the game requires an internet connection and Poptropica account (free).

What’s new with Poptropica on Steam?

Most of the content has lived on the main Poptropica desktop and mobile game before, so playing it is more for nostalgia than novelty.

The only new thing is a twist on the ending of Monster Carnival Island. However, the changes are not particularly significant — just a bit of dialogue changed, with a somewhat less cruel fate for Ringmaster Raven. See what’s new in our updated Monster Carnival Island Guide! 🐦

What else is included in the Steam bundle?

The Steam bundle includes 17 islands (+1 if you count the tutorial, Snagglemast): Mythology (classic), Shrink Ray, Poptropolis Games, Monster Carnival, Time Tangled, Mystery of the Map, Virus Hunter, 24 Carrot, Galactic Hot Dogs, Mocktropica, Escape From Pelican Rock, Reality TV: Wild Safari, Timmy Failure, and all episodes of Survival, PoptropiCon, Arabian Nights, and Mission Atlantis — also known as the AS3 islands, or the newer bunch of the old islands. 🏝Plus, it also comes with the create-your-own-world Realms.

You’ll also have the Flash version of Home Island (with summer scenery), which includes Amelia greeting you on a bridge, your clubhouse and Realms portal at the top, the New You customization building to the left (plus the movie theater, closed), and the daily spin wheel, store, pet barn, and Blast-off Arcade to your right.

In terms of features, it’s almost like going back to the 2020 version of Poptropica. You’ll get to access the Costumizer (on all islands, not just PoptropiCon), the crate menu, and the inventory layout with the item cards in two rows and horizontal scrolling. You can also visit common rooms and buy older store items, but can’t access the friends feature nor play in full screen — though it’s still bigger than the desktop version.

Since you’ll need to login to your Pop account, everything’s connected to your save data from Haxe (desktop) Poptropica (formerly Flash) and the mobile app, which means you’ll have all your store items, costumes, pets, clubhouse layout(s), island progress, credits, etc.

Is Poptropica on Steam worth the price? Do we recommend it?

At the risk of sounding like a cop-out answer, it depends! If you can swallow the US$19.99 price tag (varies by country), and are wondering if this is where you want to spend it, these are our recommendations:

👎 If you have Flashpoint (requires some setup): No

You might know that you can revisit these islands and more with Flashpoint, the fan-run preservation project, which is already free. All it needs is a bit of setup on a computer (Windows will be easier, while Macs might take more work, and Chromebooks are not compatible).

Flashpoint might occasionally glitch out, but if it works for you, then this Steam bundle won’t add anything new beyond Realms and the minimal changes in Monster Carnival. And if you’re looking to play the oldest of old islands, like Astro-Knights or Super Power, you’ll want Flashpoint, not Steam.

👌 If you have the pre-2022 Pop mobile app: Maybe

For those who have the pre-2022 Poptropica mobile app, the content will be similar — although you do gain Poptropolis Games, Mocktropica, Monster Carnival, Virus Hunter, and Realms, so long as you never update the app. Plus, if you just have the islands on mobile but want to play on the computer, the Steam bundle gives you that option.

👍 If you don’t have Flashpoint: Yes

Mac users will have to jump through more hoops to get Flashpoint working, so if you’d rather save yourself this effort, the Steam game offers an easier option (except for M1 Macs, which are not currently supported). If you can spare the cash, $20 adds up to about $1 per island, for about an hour of gameplay each, which seems like an OK deal.

Plus if you’ve updated your Pop app since 2022, this is also the only official way to access these old islands. Because of that, it should run more smoothly — if it doesn’t, you can always contact Pop support for a fix. You’ll also be supporting the development of Poptropica with this purchase. It’s true that these islands all used to be free, but alas, times have changed. Better a paid Poptropica than none at all?

That wraps up the PHB’s review of Poptropica on Steam! You can also read more reviews directly on Steam. Will you be getting the game? What do you think of it? Share your thoughts in the comments!

— the Poptropica Help Blog —