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!
Hey Poptropicans, tune in for more on the upcoming Steam bundle!
The fourth hint is here and it’s got only slightly more verbiage than the last one: the letter “C” followed by the word “answer.” What do you C?
Reddit user ashelenbrowses made a strong case for the hint pointing to Mission Atlantis Island: the “answer” is found under the “C” (sea). In this island, we discover an ancient city underwater, which fits the bill.
If you’ve been keeping up with the past few hints (1, 2, 3), this guess goes along with the theory that the 13 islands we’ll be seeing on Steam will be AS3 (newer) “old islands.” Complete islands were promised for Steam, so if this guess is right, it’ll be a bigger offering than the one episode that was ported several months ago to desktop for members. 🌊
Below: What do you call a skyline when it’s underwater?
(Also, check out our updated Pop Music collection for tunes from Mission Atlantis and more!)
It turns out, by the way, that the Steam bundle will not be free. In a comment on the Pop Creators’ Blog, Poptropica replied to a fan’s question about cost, adding that the price is to be announced. It’s pretty disappointing considering that all these old islands were free before they disappeared — but business is business.
Anyway, that’s all for Steam hint #4! Stay tuned for the next one, and if you’ve got some good guesses, share them in the comments or on our Discord server, the PHC. “C” you later!
Hey Poptropicans, steamy sounds of more clues incoming!
Since the announcement of some old islands to return on Steam, Poptropica’s been sharing dailyclues as to what those islands may be. The third hint is but a lone image: a pink wiener dog. 🌸🐕
While a few islands of the past had their share of dogs, the specificity of the clue being a wiener dog seems to point strongly to one in particular: Galactic Hot Dogs. In this island based on the eponymous graphic novel series by Max Brallier (son of former Pop publisher Jess Brallier), we hop aboard a spaceship called the Neon Wiener, which has a hot dog inside.
If we want to look to other possibilities for the clue, we might also consider the B.A.D. guard dogs you have to dodge in Spy Island, or Spitsy, a slender dog who helps you dig up the time capsule in Big Nate Island.
Spy Island dogsSnacktime for Spitsy.
With the three hints we’ve seen so far, rumors have been circulating about the choice of the 13 islands to return on Steam: they may all be newer old islands, as opposed to super longtime classics. These newer old islands are sometimes known in the fandom as SUI (Sound-Updated Islands) or AS3 (ActionScript 3, the Flash-based programming language) and include islands released from around 2013 to 2015, which had bigger screens and sound, and may be easier to port as the technology isn’t as old as AS2 (encompassing all pre-2013 islands).
As Tough Spinner points out, these AS3 islands had been playable on the Poptropica app before they were removed in early 2022 to match with the desktop experience. Those now-missing islands are the complete sets of episodes for Survival, Mission Atlantis, PoptropiCon, and Arabian Nights, as well as standalone islands Reality TV: Wild Safari, Mystery of the Map, Shrink Ray, Galactic Hot Dogs, and the original Mythology Island. Maybe these are the islands returning via Steam…
…but that’s nine islands (counting episodes as part of a full island), leaving four more, since we were promised 13 islands on Steam. It just so happens that there are at least four more AS3 islands that were never ported to the mobile app: Virus Hunter, Monster Carnival, Mocktropica, and Monkey Wrench (whose return was promised last year). Poptropolis Games was also re-released as an SUI/AS3, though it was originally an AS2 island.
Yet another possibility for some of the Steam islands could be those AS3-turned-Haxe islands that already exist on desktop: 24 Carrot, Time Tangled, Timmy Failure, and Escape From Pelican Rock — a perfect four. (The former two are OGs from 2008, but later remade into SUI/AS3 format.) Hopefully not, since we can already access them, and it wouldn’t really be in the spirit of “old islands” as promised…
Branching Out: Time for us to make like a tree, and leave.
The fact that Galactic Hot Dogs was never really a popular island among the fandom also makes it an odd choice, but it lines up with the AS3 islands theory, as do the rest of our best guesses for the other hints so far (Shrink Ray and Mythology). But who knows? Maybe we can still have hope for a few truly older AS2 islands… time will tell.
For a bit of nostalgia about islands old and new, check out our updated Poptropica Music collection under the Pop Plus tab here on the PHB! 🎵
Formerly known as “Behind the Scenes,” we’ve recently updated this page to remove outdated links as well as share previously uncovered Poptropica music files as embedded audio so you can listen directly on the page. For a taste, enjoy this track from Monster Carnival at daytime:
There’s more! Pop into the PHB’s Poptropica Music page to hear tunes from Mocktropica, Time Tangled, and many more. Enjoy!
But we’re going to have to wait just a bit longer for it, since whatever it is will be revealed at 12 p.m. PST (3 p.m. EST) on Wednesday, April 6, according to Poptropica’s socials. What could it be? 🤔
Past and present Poptropicans, your voices have been heard! Incredible news coming tomorrow at 12pm PST 👀
Pop’s tweet tells us our “voices have been heard” and includes “past Poptropicans,” so the hype is set for something that may address veteran (and even newer) players’ increasing concerns about the stalling of old islands returning. Maybe a response to our open letter?
In other news, check out Poptropica’s latest Instagram stories! In addition to the news hype, there’s fun fan art of fave villains, as well as the return of the Poptropica Enneagram we saw last year. (Protip: Click on the artists’ hyperlinked names to view posts in detail.) Enjoy!
Look out: the Zomberry outbreak is back, but not on Pop! Poptropica’s second Roblox game is out and this time, it’s hide-and-seek.
To play Zomberry: Humans vs Zombies, you’ll need a free Roblox account. Once you enter the game, you’ll find yourself in the parking lot of Joe’s Donut Drive-in, which is the lobby waiting area. We’ll delve more into fun finds from this area below, but for now, click “ready to play”!
Two or more players can start a game, which already makes it more accessible than Pop’s first Roblox try, Unicorn Frenzy. Each player is randomly assigned to one of two teams: humans or zombies.
🧟 Team Zombie: You’ll start off in a shed and will need to bust open the door by rapidly clicking on it till it opens. Once you’re free, start looking for humans so you can infect them with your spit! If all humans are infected and become zombies, zombies win.
👷🏾 Team Human: Your role is to run and hide from the zombies. If you’re infected, you’ll join the zombies team to try to infect others! But if you can stay hidden until the 3 minutes are up, humans win.
You’ll also play as a random 3D Poptropican avatar, which could be any random civilian or, if you’re lucky, an iconic character such as Dr. Hare from 24 Carrot Island, Xavier Pendragon from Home Island, or even Joe Puddy himself from the OG Zomberry Island.
But that’s not all of the familiar faces: in the arena, you can find a fountain with the missing statue of Xavier from the Home Island quest. And in the lobby, inside Joe’s Donut Drive-in, the storekeeper is none other than Amelia… with a zombie caged above her: the Baron. Eerie…
By the way, you can talk to Amelia by clicking on the cup of caffeine (one of her beloved teas?) in front of her. She’ll explain that zombies have taken over the city, and now the donut shop is a safe house.
Behind the counter, you can also find secret rooms inside the donut shop. The one on the left is a storage room with another bizarre sight: a Frozen Zombie. The one on the right is a cozier room with film gear, a unicorn plushie you can ride, and framed photos previously seen in Amelia’s home(thanks for the tip, Tough Spinner!).
Back out in the lobby, you can find the leaderboard as well as a few more Easter eggs. On the outside walls of the donut shop are movie posters previously seen in Poptropica: Pony Bros (PoptropiCon), Night of the Living Carrots (24 Carrot), and Zombie in Paradise (Zomberry).
Poke around and you’ll find a mini one-seater car which you can ride around the lot at varying speeds. The car even has “RED” as its license plate — could be the Red Baron’s? She’s quarantined now, so enjoy!
If you played this Zomberry game on its release day, April 1, you might’ve met the Pop Creators, who held a launch party at 3 p.m. PST/6 p.m. EST, but were also online for a while before that. 🎉
Plus, the friends of @Pop_Creators account that hosts Pop’s Roblox games might reveal individual team members’ Roblox handles. 👀 We don’t recognize most of the 12 names, but there are a few familiar ones, like Pop artists @jonpitcher (Jon Pitcher aka Master Mime) and @lionhearted_gale (Abigail Grigg, who also has a webcomic called “King and Lionheart”). And @bloctorhare: “block” and “Dr. Hare”?
Another point worth mentioning: Poptropica’s Roblox games mark the first time officially having free chat in a Poptropica medium, something they’ve previously shied away from due to safety concerns. It might be a welcome change for players, but also indicates a shift in values.
Overall, this Zomberry romp is a decent minigame with some nice references to tie it into the Poptropica universe we know and love, which gives it more substance than Unicorn Frenzy. But as with that other Roblox release, and with our half-joking rant on release day, we’re still left wondering why develop on Roblox in the first place. It’s more Poptropica this time, sure — just not the Poptropica we’re looking for.
🏝 Looking for more walkthroughs? Check out our Island Help page! 🏝
Put away the pitchforks, Poptropicans… the Poptropica Hate Blog has had its day, and the real PHB’s back to say: April Fools!
All rage let loose for the Poptropica Hate Blog on April Fools’ Day.
Many of you joined in on the mutiny with such fiery passion that sometimes the line felt blurred between genuine and exaggerated criticisms! Enjoy some reaction highlights from the comments (click to view full size). There’s more where they came from!
Now that the ruse is revealed, we want to pull back the curtain and share a bit about the making of the Poptropica Hate Blog.
As evident from all the complaints that came pouring in, our hot takes were in fact inspired by real sentiments from the fandom that have been brewing over years of frustration for what the game has become.
For the prank, though, we mainly wanted to highlight the worst of the outrage mentality and amplify our grievances with over-the-top outcries. The PHB team put together many ideas for rants, with memes and written contributions from Gentle Dolphin, MaryannTheConqueror, Purple Paw, and Slanted Fish. Plus, Purple Paw came up with a brilliant illustrated header to go with all the anger. Check out all the little details!
Most of the people criticizing Poptropica aren’t just “haters” though. Most of us were big fans in the past, which is why we hate to see how they’re ruining the game.
For all the frustrated followers of Pop out there, we hear you! The Pop Hate Blog might be a joke, but it clearly touched some nerves.
So, what to do with all the hate? For sure, we can grieve for what we’ve lost and gripe about dreams that disappear.
But at the same time, that energy can be draining, so it’s worth trying to see things from a more generous point of view, too. And ultimately, that’s what we keep working at here on the Poptropica Help Blog. To critique and affirm. Even when we’re hateful, we can also be hopeful.
