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!
Fairy Tale Island, Fanfiction, Guest Posts

Fairytale Fanfic Challenge: Dangerous Dragon

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Dangerous Dragon, made before the winners of the Fairytale Fanfic Challenge were announced yesterday. Enjoy!

  • Dangerous Dragon

Hi, DD here! I know everyone is sad about the old islands being gone, and I am too. At least we got a new one this year, Fairytale Island.

I think it rocked! Still, it wasn’t at its full potential. Yeah it got modern and I liked that the creators put cutscenes but it lacked gameplay. They could keep the cutscenes but also add more asking dialogue, like old times, plus add item collecting!

Don’t worry, I’m going to imagine extra stuff for the island. Remember the Fairytale Fanfic Challenge? Here’s what I shared with the creators:

Where did Rumpelstiltskin disappear to? Will he ever return?

So here he has gotten free after troubling every fairy tale. Back on his home planet, he has a secret army! He is training his army to come back and attack every fairy tale further.

What does the prince’s fate hold? Will he have to get a job?!

Since his father has disappeared (for now), he has no choice but to move on from his royal past and become a normal person. You’ll see him working clumsily, as he has never done housework before. Sad sad prince… FOR NOW.

What comes of the new happy endings for Red, Snow, and Cinder?

Red’s got some babies to take care of… pizza-eating babies!

Oh, Snow White? She’s gone to college to study different animals!

And Cinder’s doing a concert at PoptropiCon. She’s famous now!

What friendship blossoms between Little Red Riding Hood and the Seven Dwarves?

They all are happy. Red and the dwarves are working together to make pizza now, since the dwarves love it!

Does Snow White open her veterinary practice?

She’s started practicing on hamsters, dogs, cats, and other small animals, but she’s still studying how to care for the bigger ones!

Do the Huntsman and Cinderella fall in love? Hopefully the Huntsman’s left behind his homicidal hijinx…

The Huntsman goes to Grandma and apologizes for his mistake. He also gives her a wedding card… to celebrate his and Cinderella’s love! It seems like Cinder’s attention is not only on her music, but also her soon-to-be husband!

And what did Rumplestilskin do with the real king?

He is his slave now! Now the king is helping Rumple, sadly, but he wants to escape because he knows what a GREAT DISASTER is coming their way… THE GIRLS ARE HAPPY AND SAFE… FOR NOW.

What happens next is up to your imagination! Now, here are a few other ideas I had for gameplay on Fairytale Island…

🍕 Making pizza with Red: So instead of just starting the mini quest delivering the pizza, what if we would get to first find the ingredients inside a kitchen and then assemble a pizza?

📘 Finding a book for Snow White’s vet dream: Maybe along your adventures, you get a book from someone who was a vet, and later, you can give it to Snow to start her journey.

💄 Getting the lipstick as a real item: You get it in your backpack. Instead of Amelia telling you everything… you get a little suspicious. Then you discover that in the mountains, there lives a wizard who knows the difference between a good spell and a bad one. There’s another side-quest where you find this wizard, and when you find him, you show him the lipstick and he tells you it’s a trick. Then, going back to Snow, you find her “true love” (goat).

👗 Spending more time with Cinder: More parts to the journey with Cinder would be fun. Let’s say something happens to her dress, hair, makeup, and so on… you go through a few stages to get her closer and closer to the ball… and by the end, she becomes the fuming Cinder we know and love!

Thank you for reading! I liked the island, and I hope you like my opinions! If it won the Fairytale Fanfic Challenge, I would have tears in my eyes!

Keep Poppin,
DD 💜

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Dangerous Dragon. If you did, you might also enjoy getting to know him in his Popular Poptropican interview!

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! 📰✨

Nabooti Island, Social Media, YouTubers

Looking back on good times with Jeff Kinney and Dimension Bros 🐦📺

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, we’re throwing in some throwback talk from a few familiar faces: Jeff Kinney, creator of Poptropica; and the Dimension Bros, who make Poptropica and other fandom videos. Let’s pop right in!

The other day, Jeff Kinney (@wimpykid) responded to a Poptropica fan account on Twitter dedicated solely to bringing Nabooti Island back, saying: “Nabooti was a good one.” He also commented on a separate short thread about losing game progress while playing the island when it first released in 2008, calling it a “tragic tale.”

It may not sound unusual for Poptropica’s founder to tweet about the game he created, but Senpai Jeff’s public comments about Poptropica are sadly few and far between these days. Although he served as its creative director since its beginning, he’s not involved with Poptropica these days, and most of his Twitter activity goes to his more popular creation, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. But with #Poptropica tweets recently showing they still have some star power left, maybe it’s worth a little more attention now!

Who remembers The Poptropica Timeline? The Dimension Bros on YouTube recently dropped an updated version of their first ever video, which won Best Fan Video at last year’s Poppies, the PHB’s annual Poptropica fan awards. With the Poppies coming up again in July, catch up on what’s sure to be another contender for the award:

Note for our younger PHB readers: While the Dimension Bros channel does have plenty of Poptropica videos, not all of them are kid-friendly, and generally are for ages 13+. The above video is fine for all ages.

The Dimension Bros also just announced that Poptropica Month will be returning this September—with a twist. While last year’s month-long celebration of fan-made videos honored Poptropica’s 13th birthday, this year’s theme will be “Poptropica Month (In Memoriam),” in recognition of the disappointment of a huge chunk of the game being lost in the Flash-to-Haxe transition.

Although September is a whole season away, it’s never too early to start thinking about what Poptropica videos you’d like to create and share with the world when the time comes. Remember, you can still play the old islands through the mobile app and Flashpoint, and keep petitioning for their return to the main web version of the game.

Let the memory of Poptropica live on!

~🐠

Ask Poptropica Siri

Welcome to Ask Poptropica Siri 🧠

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans—this is a guest post by Smart Icicle, who is bringing back a Q&A series to the PHB. Got a Poptropica question? Ask Poptropica Siri!

Hello fellow Poptropicans! I decided to start a new ask series on the PHB. Remember Ask the Joker, where you send various questions to Incredible Joker? Sadly, the Joker is no longer around in the Pop community, but his Q&A segment inspired this one.

Welcome to Ask Poptropica Siri! Like the old series, how it works is that you, the readers, send me your Poptropica-related questions by comment or email, and I’ll answer them with all the wisdom you can expect from a Smart Icicle. I will randomly select a few questions and answer them in each post, which will come every two weeks.

How can you send in your questions to Ask Poptropica Siri?

That’s a great question! You can use the following methods:

  • 📧 Send an email to askpoptropicasiri (at) gmail (dot) com. This way, you’ll get to keep your questions a surprise when they get answered on the blog.
  • 💬 Comment on the latest Ask Poptropica Siri post. Your questions will be publicly visible before they appear in a Q&A post, but this allows others to interact with your question if they so choose. If you don’t have an email address, you can enter a fake one in the email field when you post your comment.

Now put on your thinking caps and let’s get the Pop questions going. See you soon, Poptropicans!

~Smart Icicle 📚❄️

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Smart Icicle. If you’ve got a burning Poptropica question or two, Ask Poptropica Siri for a fresh perspective!

Guest Posts, Pop 5

Pop 5: Creatures of Poptropica 🐶🐴

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Smart Icicle. Enjoy!

Hello again, Poptropicans! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Remember the poll I made last month about “Who is your favorite Poptropica creature?” Thanks to all the people who participated, including a few PHB staff, and especially to those who made whole lists!

Now I’m here to announce the top 5 creatures based on the poll. Note that #5, 4, and 3 were all tied with the same number of votes, so they are ordered randomly here. Anyway, let’s get into it, shall we?

#5: Narf (Mocktropica Island)

Ah, the hilarious and adorable creature, Narf. Narfs can be seen in Mocktropica Island if you toss them some cheese puffs. Their last known location: the bridge. Try not to feed this funny creature.

#4: Fluffy (Spy Island)

Adorable but vicious, Fluffy is one out of the three dogs the player has to pass on Spy Island. Fun fact: guard dogs have better hearing than humans.

#3: Whiskers (24 Carrot Island)

Next we have Whiskers from 24 Carrot Island! In 24 Carrot Island, the player encounters this pet and has to get it back to Charlie. Fun fact: Cats can detect vibrations and earthquakes.

We are almost there! Keep reading for the last two winners!

#2: Elmer (Wild West Island)

In second place, it’s Elmer from Wild West Island. This tamed horse helped the player travel from place to place on the mission to capture El Mustachio Grande. Fun fact: Horses can communicate their feelings by showing facial expressions.

Finally! We’ve made it to the big one. And the winner is…

#1 Merlin (Astro Knights Island)

In 1st place, it’s Merlin from Astro Knights Island! This adorable robotic creature was seen multiple times in Astro-Knights and helped the player defeat Binary Bard at the end. Fun fact: Owls are a sign of wisdom. And yes, robotic birds are real.

Congrats, Merlin! But there is one more creature spotlight award to give out. This was first started by PHB guest writer, Dangerous Dragon, so I’ve decided to make it a category for him. Time to announce…

Favorite Poptropican Creature: Minotaur (Mythology Island)

This award is given out to the Minotaur, who is half Poptropican, half creature. In Greek mythology, the Minotaur is a half human, half bull hybrid. In the game, the player needs his nose ring to help Zeus. Many players might like the Minotaur because of his fun yet challenging labyrinth maze.

That’s all for this post! It’s been a blast doing these PHB polls and I’m glad readers enjoy them! If you haven’t already, please check out my other guest posts on the PHB as well as my new blog about Poptropica and other things I enjoy.

Also, feel free to suggest what you thought of the results, and what other topic I should do a poll on. Bye everyone!

~Smart Icicle 📚❄️

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Smart Icicle! Check out her original Who is your favorite Poptropica creature? post and visit the comments to hear more votes on other critters from the game.

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! 📰✨

Fan Art Features, Social Media, Store

Trending hot, heavy, and Pop-ular 🐦

Slanted Fish

What’s popping, Poptropicans? We’re serving up piping hot fan art, a sweaty store update, and news of none other than our favorite game #Poptropica trending on Twitter! Let’s pop right in.

First up, get an eyeful of these steamy snapshots of fan art, from a toned and tough Binary Bard to OCs in love or in combat. Topping it all off is a jittery reminder that the Candy Crazed Mini Quest just dropped—be sure to catch our mini review of it in the post below!

Time for a workout? This week’s store rotation contains new Bodybuilder costumes: one a gym bro with medium-sized weights and another with a smaller, hot pink hand weight. Go get those gains!

And now onto ever more sizzling news! Earlier this week, on Wednesday, May 26, the hashtag #Poptropica was trending on Twitter in the US. Which is rather remarkable for a game that, let’s be honest, is past its peak days and only retains a small niche following today.

It all started with a nostalgic tweet from @urfairymaid, who shared a photo with the logos of several popular kids’ virtual worlds from the late 2000s–early 2010s, like Club Penguin and Toontown Online, with a caption that read: “**** your zodiac sign / which one was your favorite.” (Contains some obscene language, but if you’re OK with that, you can see the original tweet here.)

Interestingly, Poptropica was not among the virtual worlds listed in the original tweet that went somewhat viral, with 10K retweets and 33K quote tweets. However, its lack of a mention was what then prompted many on Twitter to bring it up with the hashtag #Poptropica, garnering over 2K mentions and bringing it to the trending page for a day.

Even Poptropica’s sister site, Coolmath Games (@TheRealCoolmath) got in on the trend with a shout-out linking to the Coolmath Games site for Poptropica. Following that, Poptropica’s own Twitter (@Poptropica) retweeted Coolmath’s show of love.

So hey, congrats to Poptropica for popping off the Twitter charts for a flicker of time there! What a witness to the greatness of its past. 🎉

If you’re an oldie player who’s wondering what happened to the Poptropica you once knew, a few things: 1) Pop Protip: You can play all the old islands; 2) catch up with all that’s happened through our Poptropica Yearbook pages; and 3) join us in petitioning for the old islands back! Plus, new or old, thanks for sticking around.

No matter what, Poptropica will always be trending on the PHB! 💙

~🐠