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!
It’s playtime, Poptropicans: Goofball Island is here and available to all players! Head to the map to get started on this wild ride.
Looking for a little help in this adventure? Check out our Goofball Island Guide with pictures, trivia, and more! 🥳🥸
Get ready for a wacky world of contrasts, exploration, musical madness, colorful characters, and weird twists. We won’t spoil too much here, but you’re welcome to discuss your thoughts in the comments here, on our guide, or on the PHC. Plus, stay tuned for the PHB’s review!
The Creators’ Blog also has a new guest post from Invisible Ring, comparing the two Dream Islands that came before Goofball: Arabian Nights (2014) and Fairytale (2021). In her commentary, she highlights their similarity in drawing inspiration from classic legends, as well as a few differences, such as genre, platform, and even medallion designs.
Arabian Nights IslandFairytale Island
Which fan-imagined Dream Island is your favorite? What did you think of the latest one? Share your thoughts and get your goof on! 🤪🕵️♀️
Hey Poptropicans, pop in for the latest in Pop culture! We’ve got Pop stars, boredom busters, Mythology assumptions, and more.
The Pop-arazzi are back—kind of. Poptropica recently put out a tweet comparing two celebs with Pop characters: SNL comedian Pete Davidson as Hades from Mythology and actor Timothée Chalamet as Edgar the carnie from Monster Carnival. See any resemblance?
honestly can’t stop thinking about how much pete davidson and timothee chalamet look like poptropica characters pic.twitter.com/h7VAXMONcC
Over on the Pop Creators’ Blog, new guest writer Golden Crown (who has appeared on the PHB) shares some Poptropica boredom busters! Crown’s tips include winning at all the games, buying everything you can, looking for details (btw, get some good ones in the PHB’s Island Guides trivia), throwing a party (even playing tag!), and taking pictures.
Beyond dressing up on Poptropica, you can also give your character some flair through drawings! Poptropica’s latest Instagram stories feature some expressive Popsona designs, as well as a call to join the monthly costume contest, which runs until this Friday, November 19.
On TikTok, Poptropica has started a new series called “What your fave Poptropica island tells me about you.” First up: Mythology. If you love this island, you might also love everything else about ancient Greece, the Percy Jackson series, use scifi and fantasy as a form of escapism, and are super into art or a band kid — “either way, you really relate to the burned-out gifted kid stereotype.” Rings true, or just a myth? 😜⚡️
Hey Poptropicans! Today I’ll be talking to you about how Poptropica should first work on what we players specifically ask for, before jumping onto something else that they only think we might like.
Granted, this one’s a little obvious, but I feel like someone needs to bring it up. Poptropica often makes a ton of new features nowadays, and I feel like most of it is really unnecessary. Specifically, Poptropica seemingly enjoys replacing and changing perfectly good features. I’ll be addressing some of them here.
Not only are most of the new features pretty annoying and inconvenient in my opinion, they also bring up more glitches than the original version had. This is bad for both the players and the creators, since they have to spend even more resources on fixing the glitches, when they could have avoided all this by simply leaving the feature the way it had been. Here are some examples:
A Buggy New Inventory
New and current inventory
Previous inventory
This one has been brought up a lot. For a long time, Poptropica’s inventory screen has looked similar to the above picture to the right (though the categorization of items with tabs came much later). Earlier this year, it was changed to the one on the left. The original had very few bugs, and there was hardly anything wrong with it, especially once tabs were introduced to help sort through tons of items.
However, once it was changed to the character screen, even more bugs came up. People have been complaining about bugs on the character screen for a long time, but few are fixed. My theory is that the creators hear these complaints, but have already invested so much on changing the inventory setup that they are lacking the resources to fix it.
Loss of the Charming Crate Menu
New and current menu
Previous menu with crate opening up
Remember the crate menu? You’d click on the box in the top corner to open up all the menu options. I know I definitely loved the crate. It was subtle and charming, and it was satisfying to watch your items just spill out across your screen. For another thing, it didn’t take up a lot of space like the new one does.
But when it was changed earlier this year, it was a boring modern 3-lines button. Not very fun at all! Not to mention how much space it takes up when all nine blocks are set out on the screen. I just think there was no real reason to change it. And it’s not like we couldn’t have the original in Haxe, since it had been there in Haxe’s earliest stages. Why did the creators feel the need to change this?
Speaking of new visuals, I’m also not a big fan of the new animation of characters, but that’s getting off-topica.
With all that in mind, this is my message to the creators: Stop replacing good features, and work on what we players specifically ask for!
The game wouldn’t be much without the players, but in its current state, it barely resembles the Poptropica I used to play. Creators, if you listen to our petitions for old stuff, Poptropica will really improve! So please, stop changing what is fine the way it is, and start working on what we really want — specifically, island adventures.
That’s all for this post. Thanks so much for reading about my ideas for what Poptropica should really focus on!
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!
Hey Poptropicans, get ready for gaggle of goofing off with a sneak peek for Goofball Island, Halloween cosplays, and more. Let’s pop right in!
The upcoming Goofball Island, the second of three winners in last year’s Dream Island Contest, is “coming to Poptropica very soon and will be available to all players,” according to a new Creators’ Blog post. For a teaser, they even dropped this sneak peek full of contrasts:
As we know from earlier, the island is all about how an evil scientist turns a town full of fun and laughter into one purged of its color and cheerful character. We definitely get a glimpse of that in this new pic showing both a black-and-white side with a detective trying to figure things out, while on the other end it’s all bright colors, with an eccentric mayor-like character who appears to be officiating a competition about “Cats” (or perhaps he has just won 5th place, as his ribbon shows). Neither of them appear to be the evil Dr. Blandston, but what are your impressions on who these people might be?
Wacky wonders aren’t just on islands yet to be discovered, but happening all the time on social media! The Pop Creators recently featured a few on their Instagram story, including both doodles and Halloween cosplays of iconic villains Dr. Hare and Binary Bard from a duo of grown-up friends. Cute! 🐰🃏
While the recently released first episode of Mission Atlantis is currently only available to members, all are able to watch the Haxe adventure in this new playthrough video from Poptropica. Sea for yourself!
Hey Poptropicans, tune in for costume calls, TikTok trends, future fun, Instagram imaginations, and mustachioed men. Let’s pop right in!
First up, November’s costume design contest is now taking entries! Share your submissions to Poptropica before November 19 at 8 pm EST, and it might be chosen for the Baron’s return in December.
That’s right, after her long stay all throughout Red October, she’s off to the skies again and, according to the Creators’ Blog, “taking some time away from Poptropica to spend some quality time with her friends and family.” Wait, she can leave Poptropica? And she and Ack aren’t lone wanderers? Wonder if we’ll get to meet the fam?
Next up, Poptropica’s been popping off with the TikToks! The release of Mission Atlantis on Haxe came with a soundbite from The Office, and more recently, here’s one with a noseless human face juxtaposed on a Poptropican zipping through 24 Carrot (a cheat of a speedrun, though):
Poptropica’s post of TikTok features also included some news on upcoming releases.
While Mission Atlantis and a handful of other old islands are back on Haxe, only their first episodes are available at the moment. However, we now have assurance that several of them will be getting their next episodes! As for who, what, and when… that remains to be seen.
Survival Island is one of the episodic islands that only has its first episode up on Haxe. Episodes came out for members first, then later released for all.
We also get a reminder that Goofball Island is currently in the works, though no new info is offered. But in case you missed it from last month, the PHB was able to get an inside scoop on this upcoming island from the fan designer himself, Thirsty Flame! Catch our Inside look at Dream Island winner: Goofball Island.
Also, here’s the latest batch of Poptropica’s Instagram stories. In addition to featuring their own TikTok, they also shared some fun fan art, including Smart Spinner’s “how not to wear a mask” (with nose!).
Also earlier this week on the Pop Creators’ Blog, we have a new guest blogger who, despite his name and writing style, refers to himself as “your old man.” Young Rider shares tons of pics from his “penthouse clubhouse,” as well as erratic doodles and even a Bitmoji.
After introducing us to his many pet followers, Rider gets to theorizing what might’ve happened to El Mustachio Grande since his arrest on Wild West Island way back in 2011. Ten years later, Rider suspects the hairy bandit might be vowing for revenge, eating a sad turducken, hijacking a flight to Home Island, or even, maybe, living as a kind scientist on Super Villain Island. What do you think?
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