Contests, Forgotten Islands, Monkey Wrench Island

The Forgotten Monkey!

Hey guys! Slip here.

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I’m sorry for not posting for a while, I was just busy and, a bit under the weather. Enough with the drama, let’s head on to the news!

THIS IS JUST IN: A monkey was seen rampaging through the streets of Eastman last night. It dropped a few blueberries and is said to have become a zomberry! Please stay inside your lovely houses.

As you may remember,  monkeys have escaped from Monkey Wrench Island and are now roaming Poptropica. Now, the second monkey has landed on Zomberry Island! You can get your own Berry Scary Monkey follower in front of Joe’s Donut Hole (left of the Cinema).

This thing gives me the creeps and I feel uncomfortable with this follower. Just look at this monkey jumping up and down like a lunatic. Creepy right? It doesn’t make it cute with its purple hue. Still scary. Yikes.

Moving on from a nightmare, dreams do come true! In addition to the Mystery of the Map giveaways, Poptropica is also doing another sweepstakes for membership! Visit bit.ly/PopSweeps and enter for your chance to win a 1, 3, or 6-month membership!

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That’s not all – for those of you who have wanted the Forgotten Islands game (walkthrough here), available on iOS devices and Nintendo 3DS, we’ve got good news! The game is currently 50% off ($9.99 on Nintendo and $2.99 for iOS)! Grab the game as soon as you can, because we never know when the sale ends. Buy go(ld), bye!

Also, our very own Brave Tomato was featured in a Creators’ tweet with her sketch of Mya and Oliver! Looks awesome, BT!

That’s all of the updates we have for now! Stay tuned for more monkey madness here at the PHB and make sure to enter the Monkey Membership Madness sweepstakes as well as the MotM Periscope livestream sweepstakes. You might win something!

So, got to go! Bye!

-Slippery 💦

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Advertisements, Graphic Novels, Photo Booth, Wallpapers

Love is in the air, Mystery of the Map everywhere!

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Hey guys, Slip here!

February is already here! Deadpool and Valentine’s Day are coming too! Speaking of Valentine’s day, looks like we guessed it right, Poptropica has a brand new Valentine’s Day-themed booth and is now available in the Poptropica app!

Once you open the photo booth, Poptropica gives you a heart-warming card greeting! (Aw, we love you berry much Poptropica!)

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Moving along, there are new Valentines related props, backgrounds and characters on the app! This includes the Heart, Cupid, some UFOs, candy hearts and teddy bears! Check them out in the gallery below. Don’t worry guys, it’ll be added to the desktop version and KindleFire version next week!

On the other hand, Poptropica also released the promotional website for the Mystery of the Map graphic novel (coming 3/1) and features a slide and video about it!

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You may have also seen the new advertisement in Home Island regarding the graphic novel, which also directs to the site above. Are you excited for the graphic novel?

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Speaking of Poptropica, did you know that they have a giant Back Lot poster in their Headquarters? You can also have one here! (This was posted on their Facebook page and Instagram account.)

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And that’s all of the updates we have today! What do you think of the recent updates? Leave a comment below! Oh yeah, here’s a Valentines card for all of you.

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-Slippery 💦

Blast from the Past, Daily Pop-In, Escape from Pelican Rock Island, Galactic Hot Dogs Island, Hall of Fame, Home Island, Mystery of the Map Island, PHB Specials, PoptropiCon Island, Timmy Failure Island

2015 Rewind: Islands, Events, and More!

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Hey guys, Slip here.

Wow, another year has already passed. 2015 is coming to an end, and what better way to bring it to a close than to reflect and look back to all that’s happened this year?

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2015, for Poptropica, is one of its awesome years. They reached a lot of milestones and new developments that made our game experience better than ever. This post is divided into three parts: the islands, the Poptropica milestones, and the PHB events.

Islands & Episodes

In 2015, we had a total of 4 new islands and 2 new episodes! From the forty thieves to space pirates to robot rulers, there was a lot for Poptropica adventurers to experience this year. Let’s take a look!

Arabian Nights Episode 2: Lair of Thieves

Poptropica started the year with releasing the second episode of Arabian Nightsone of the best episodic adventures we’ve had. It was definitely challenging, heart-stopping, and mysterious all at the same time. In this episode, everything was well done, making for an enjoyable experience. (You can check out our review here!)

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Galactic Hot Dogs Island

Poptropica also launched a brand new sponsored island early on in the year: Galactic Hot Dogs. To be honest, Galactic Hot Dogs Island is one of Poptropica’s easiest islands, and its lack of challenge plus its being a sponsored island with a very contrasting art style made it rather unlikeable for many Poptropicans (in fact, it was voted Worst Poptropica Island in the PHB’s Poppies event!). Still, Poptropica brought a new island with a distinct story and a light challenge to all.

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PoptropiCon Episode 3: Reign of Omegon

After releasing Galactic Hot Dogs to everyone, PoptropiCon’s concluding episode followed next. Now this was one amazing episode. Everything worked out well and Omegon played effectively as the story’s antagonist. I believe Poptropica made sure that this island would be remarkable; it definitely was one of the better ones and even inspired our April Fool’s prank this year!

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Mystery of the Map Island

In May, a new island dawned on Poptropica. Based on the Poptropica graphic novel, you could say this island is a hybrid of both original and sponsored island. I enjoyed how our player is added to the plot. The downside was that the graphic novel had already been released, which meant everyone was already aware of what was going to happen. Still, the island was cool to play, and the design was well made. (Read our review of this island here!)

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Arabian Nights Episode 3: Careful What You Wish For

Wishes do come true, as the ending of Arabian Nights showed us. I would consider this episode one of Poptropica’s finest works. Poptropica made everything top-notch in this episode — the story, the characters, the gameplay and even the design were all so amazing! Plus, Samhal the comedic genie gave us a lot of laughs along the way! (Read the PHB’s review here!)

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Timmy Failure Island

This island isn’t a complete failure; it’s actually greater than expected! Sponsored islands have a down-factor since they aren’t an original Poptropica story, but this island defied the paradigms of the sponsored islands! From its wacky characters to its hilarious whodunit storyline, this island didn’t fail to meet our expectations. As far as sponsored islands go, this is one of the best. As a plus, it even came with a weekly giveaway(Check out our review here!)

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Escape From Pelican Rock Island

We’ve been through a lot of prisons in Poptropica. Most of the time, prison security was a joke. Not so with Pelican Rock Prison! The year ended wonderfully with this island, which brought on a unique storyline with fantastic designs, particularly of the individual characters. Poptropica clearly worked hard on this island, and I believe this is the best island of 2015. 😛 (Catch the PHB’s review over here!)

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That brings us to the next part: Poptropica’s milestones of 2015!

Poptropica’s Biggest Momentspop realms

PHB Events

Look back through the parties, events, milestones, and even fan art contests! Here’s a slideshow of various PHB events we’ve had through the year:

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This year was a big year for other reasons – namely a stronger reunion of the PHN.

UiPE bringing back a weekly series really helped out with inspiring the community again like Poptropican Portraits did once. Last year, HP reflected that he wanted the community to be more community centered, and in the past year we have gotten a lot of awesome community help. Trusty Biker helped out with the PHN website, Ylimegirl did a load of work on the Poptropica Wiki, and remember the fan art contests UiPE and HPuterpop held?

The Poppies was an awesome awards show – we really enjoyed seeing what you guys, the community, collectively preferred. We’re excited for next year!

We also joined forces with We-Love-Poptropica on deviantArt, the biggest Poptropica fan art community, fulfilling our goal to focus on the arts. Plus, starting in July, we picked up our Magazine series again, this time publishing The POPCORN in PDFs.

Here’s a timeline of some of our major events, too!

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Wow, a lot of things have come down in one year and things have gone so fast. Time really flies when you’re having fun, eh? It’s really a great time to reflect and ponder all of the things we’ve done this year.

Looking forward to the new year, here are a couple of our next aspirations:

  • A better glitch community. Free for all! (And more on the way!)
  • More active viewers – PHB lurkers, start commenting more on our posts! That’s the only way we can improve. 😀

Here at the PHB, it’s our privilege to bring you the best Poptropica news as we can. Hope y’all enjoyed this year-end recap! 2016 is going to be an awesome year!

🎇 Happy New Year, Poptropicans! 🎇

~from the Poptropica Help Blog ❤

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Escape from Pelican Rock Island

Everyone’s going to prison! (Escape from Pelican Rock for all!)

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The warden threw a party in the county jail.
The prison band was there and they began to wail.

No, wait! How did this end so wrong? Everyone’s going to prison! Uh oh.

Anyways, after 3 long weeks of waiting,  Escape from Pelican Rock is now open to all players! Prepare to live the life of a prisoner! Jailhouse Rock is now playing all over town!

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I do have a feeling who’s behind this frame-up. Someone I know and has been on the tip of my tongue for days. I’m pretty sure about this. He’s been sending everyone to the dungeon, waiting for his next victim. The mastermind is the Earl of Lemongrab! Yep, I got it right.

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If you ever get stuck in the dungeon and got into serious trouble, check out our EFPR Island Guide— complete with information and pictures! You can also check out your ranking in the World Champions map and see how well your Houdini-esque escape worked. 😂

Plus, you might also want to check out Captain Crawfish’s walkthrough or even our review! Another thing, the PHB’s year-end recap is coming tomorrow! 😀

Now I hope you’ve learned a valuable lesson, Poptropicans. I’ll visit you in prison one day. 😛 I hope that you don’t end up saying this:

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Everybody in the whole cell block
was dancin’ to the Jailhouse Rock.

-Slippery 💦

 

Escape from Pelican Rock Island, Reviews

PHB Review: Escape From Pelican Rock Island

Trying to find a way out of prison?
Look no further than our Escape From Pelican Rock Island Guide!

Hey, guys! Slip here.

Welcome to my review on the latest Poptropica island: Escape from Pelican Rock! This review was first published on my site, Slippery Raptor’s Blog. Special thanks to Slanted Fish for letting me play EFPR Island on her account! And now, here we go…

Warning: This post contains spoilers.

With the release of Escape from Pelican Rock, Poptropica proved it could still make a solid island adventure with just the right amount of challenge. EFPR is not your cliché hero island with you chasing the villain – it’s a quest like no other.

We PHB authors were so excited about this island that we already knew it was coming months before its release! It was first known as Prison Break Island but later became known as Escape From Pelican Rock. EFPR also had an island preview similar to Timmy Failure Island’s a month before it released. We were also shocked (and incredibly honored) to find this interesting Easter egg on the island:

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After weeks of free prizes and photo booth specials on the island preview, it finally came without warning on December 10, 2015 for members. And now, let’s see how it plays out!

Storyline

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Pelican Rock is the toughest prison ever built. And after you’re framed for a crime you didn’t commit, it’s your new home! Use your wits to devise an escape plan, and your nerve to pull it off. But getting out is just the beginning — because the real criminal is still out there!

We’ve been through a lot of prisons in Poptropica. Brave Tomato stated that these prisons flopped and got destroyed— whether it was a missing ghost prisoner, glowing meteorites, obsessed rulers, or even Old West bandits! How would Pelican Rock stack up to the rest?

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Pelican Rock is a treacherous place no one would dare to enter. Aside from it being secluded from the streets of Bay City, Pelican Rock prison is feared for being home to the most notorious criminals of Bay City. Now things turn upside down when you try to do something good – collar a thief – and instead end up framed behind the bars of Pelican Rock!

A question bugged me while reading the plot: “How will I find my way out of a prison of maximum security?” The story is intriguing indeed. You’re being framed for something you didn’t do — how harsh.

Overall, Poptropica gave us a fresh spin from the fallen prisons of past Poptropica islands, and Pelican Rock proved to be stronger than the rest.

Gameplay

The gameplay of this island is fairly good. Since it just released, it’s more prone to glitches, but that’ll probably get fixed over time. While I was playing, I got stuck on the first day of work, and the player slides while eating. Although I struggled with a few bugs at first, it was smoother as I progressed.

I also liked the idea of having the NPCs (non-player characters) designed to be the same gender as your player — definitely a Poptropica first. Both the prisoners and police come with male and female counterparts!

The mini-games were also quite enjoyable. I thought making license plates and earning gum was a clever idea, and the vent puzzles were a nice touch as well. What I didn’t like as much was the repetition of each day, going back and forth trying to make a little progress at each turn. But that was all part of the story, so in a way it worked out. It was also pretty helpful to have Marion, the inmate at the metal shop, offer some hints to keep us from getting too stuck.

In conclusion, Poptropica gave us some pretty great and challenging gameplay on this island. Keep it up, Creators!

Soundtrack

Animations & Design

Moving along, Poptropica also improved on their animations. One of the best scenes on the island was the police holding back Big Tuna. Other good examples were the food fight part and the end scene of the island!

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The character designs were also created well. I loved the little details, like Florian’s shiny hair, Big Tuna’s unusual body structure, the abs on Bert, the rollerskating kid’s outfit, and of course, the boots on the Booted Bandit, the only permanent shoe-wearing Poptropican! They certainly did a great job here.

Last but not the least, the rooms were created wonderfully. I like how they made the Main Street to look so friendly and calm with the color palette they used. As for the prison, I like how it made it quite realistic and detailed from the cracks and the rust on the galvanized iron sheets.

Verdict

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Poptropica definitely ended the year on a high note with this excellent island. Compared to the other three islands of this year, this brought on the best challenge. Kudos to Poptropica! I would definitely recommend you to play it when it releases to all at the end of the month.

If I would rate this out of 10, I think Escape From Pelican Rock gets… an 8.2!


Thanks for reading this review! There’s more where this came from!