Guest posts are blog posts that are written by Poptropicans who are not staff writers on the PHB team at the time of writing. Interested in contributing? Check out our “Write for the PHB” guide under the Contact tab up top.
Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Invisible Ring, showing us another one of her realms. The Realm code is w3r7v. Enjoy!
What time is it? …ADVENTURE TIME!! There’s no better time or place for adventure than this!
Why “Adventure Time”, you ask? Well, why not? There used to be Adventure Time items and costume outfits in Poptropica, as well as an “Adventure Time Pop” website.
Now, I originally designed this realm based on the “Candy Land” board game, but after watching the Adventure Time Candy Kingdom on TV this morning, I decided I just HAD to suit up and crank this realm adventure up a notch!
Crank it up I did. Cake the Cat and I have just finished a special mission from the Cookie Patrol: To venture across the kingdom, find the stolen treasure of the Giant Gummy Bear, and bring it back to the gingerbread village!
Did we find it? YEAH! It was a total CAKEWALK! No pun intended, kitty…
Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Invisible Ring, showing us one of her biggest realms yet. The Realm code is w3qvy. Enjoy!
Howdy, y’all! Come fer the tour, have ya? Well, yer in luck, pardners. Amidst these sandy grounds, we got dude ranches, ghost towns, campsites, and even a BEACH! All right here in the beautiful Realm of Keafogoab Sha!
Tickets are sold right here, and it just so happens we got some extra tickets from my fire and ice Realm tours! Buy these, and today’s rootin’ tootin’ Realm tour is free!
But I know what yer thinking: “What are the tickets for?” They’re for the train, that’s what! This Realm ain’t like the others. Not only is this Realm the first one I made after growin’ up in Asgard, but it’s a BIG Realm. VERY big! There’s no WAY we can cover this whole Realm on foot, so we’re takin’ the train today. ALLLL ABOOOAAARD!!
Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by TechWizard. Enjoy!
Freeze Frame: Getting animated about Poptropica.
Hello, I’m TechWizard. You may remember me from all those nonsensical (or whimsical) guest posts where I showcaseddeveloper rooms or gave my thoughts on top 5 islands. What fun times we’ve had!
I figure I’d write to the Poptropica Help Blog once more with something different: my personal retrospective about Poptropica and its future.
After Hours: When the lights go down, the action heats up!
I guess I’ll start things off with a simple question: how’d I get into Poptropica to begin with?
Well, like probably a good portion of my generation, I frequented a little website called Funbrain, where I’d seen plenty of ads for Poptropica. Like the curious individual I was, I decided to try it out. I was enamored by the circular avatar before me (though it’d be awhile before I figured out how to properly save an account), and added Poptropica, as well as notorious competitor Club Penguin, to my rotation of Web-based Flash games.
Dig Deep: But don’t get tunnel vision.
For a good while, from circa 2010–2011 to all the way in 2017–2018, I’d be heavily invested in Poptropica, eagerly anticipating each new island, enjoying the benefits of membership (every item for free at the time was quite worth it), and overall just enjoying the fun times. I remember Poptropica’s transition to AS3 islands, where I was when Virus Hunter Island released, and even the buzz and discussion of Poptropica Worlds.
Well, unfortunately, Worlds wasn’t the bright refresh the franchise needed. While it was quite an interesting concept (even if Poptropicans with hands were a little jarring), it was eventually taken down.
Tower of Power: Reaching the penthouse suite.
But, unlike Club Penguin around 2017-2018, Poptropica itself was still going strong. But there’s still another looming threat: the death of Flash. It’s a good thing they migrated to Haxe, right?
The game migrates to Haxe, and… we get barely anything. With maybe three new islands total, Poptropica exists in a state of limbo, now being hosted on Cool Math Games. So, why bother keeping Poptropica around, if only to keep it in stasis?
Deep Freeze: Only frozen foods for you on this voyage.
I hope Poptropica eventually gets its footing again and puts out more content. I am very impressed that the game is still around, but I wonder if it’s truly worth it if the folks at Cool Math Games don’t intend to update it? Anyway, it’s been a long journey—plenty to talk about here!
We’ll meet again, probably.
—TechWizard
(If you read this whole darn thing, congratulations. Take this screaming book off my hands and go bury it in the woods. I beg you.)
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, this is a guest post by Invisible Ring, showing us her awesome Realm based off Super Mario Bros. The Realm code is w3r7r. Enjoy!
Heeeey, Pizanos! It’s time to put down your Nintendo Switches and tune in to my next realm, Deakeamchi Jurfai! Trust me, you’re gonna love it. We all love playing Super Mario as well as Poptropica, but who here has played Super Mario IN Poptropica?
It’s a real blast — a real blast of HEAT, that is! So, before we get out of the frying pan and into the fire, allow me, Invisible—I mean Princess Peach—to cool you off with my previous Realm tour, so you don’t overheat in THIS one! Are you ready? Let’s go!
Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Silver Shadow/Red Tomato. Enjoy!
Benched: Maybe sit out the next couple of plays.
Hello everyone ^_^ You can call me Silver Shadow!
I used to go by Red Tomato all the way back in 2017-2019. I was an active PHB reader and commenter, and also authored a few guest posts, like two Pop 5lists. I had a few blogs of my own, although only one of them (“Red Tomato’s Poptropica Blog”) is still up, and I would rather not publish the direct link because of how cringeworthy my posts were 💀… I also was a former author on the Poptropica Fun Blog, which has been inactive since 2020. I hope the owner is doing ok, wherever she is!
Anyway, this post will basically be about me discovering all that went down in the past six years. First of all: why did I disappear from the Poptropica community? Basically I had just lost interest and felt I had gotten too old for it (I was a preteen at the time… I’m now college age! time goes by fast) so I just up and left.
Wonderland: You can’t have more fun under one roof.
About a month ago, my friend was randomly like,”hey do you remember that game you played when you were like 11?” I was like, “Oh yeah Poptropica… good times!”
Then I remembered the PHB, and I wondered if it was still up. I was surprised that it was! This is when I learned about the fate of Poptropica that’s happened in the past few years. While I was busy being a nerd about anime, musical theater, and gacha games, my childhood game was slowly dying.
Fastball: Watch out, because this bot is coming at you.
I looked through some PHB posts that got me up to date on what happened with Pop, like almost all the islands being gone, the company closing, the move to Coolmath Games, etc. My initial reaction to all of this was: “wow Mocktropica (peak island btw) really didn’t age well 💀” One positive thing I learned was that at least a few more new islands got released!…. before the company died and the game became stuck in an unfinished limbo state on Coolmath Games dot com (btw: have you seen Coolmath Games’ Instagram page?? Peak content. I’m not joking).
Anyway, I wanted to revisit the game, so I downloaded the archived version on Flashpoint. I made a new character (Squeezy Shadow — I clicked for like 5 minutes until I got a name ending in Shadow, because I’m currently hyperfixating on a certain edgy hedgehog from a certain game franchise…) and was excited to relive some childhood memories!
My love for bright blue hair hasn’t changed…
Unfortunately, my reliving of childhood memories didn’t go as planned… I first attempted to play through two of my personal favorites, Virus Hunter (which has aged really well 🦠) and Mocktropica. I got halfway through both islands but was unable to progress further due to glitches (on Mocktropica, the crate of soda wouldn’t show up on the island editor, and on Virus Hunter, the first encounter with the white blood cells froze the game!).
The next day I decided to try again with another favorite of mine, Monster Carnival. I also got a glitch that made me unable to progress — this time the game froze when I rescued the couple from the Ferris wheel.
Finally, I decided to go to an AS2 island, Back Lot. MY CHARACTER WAS BALD AND MISSING HALF OF HER CLOTHES!!!!!!!!
After that horrifying incident, I just decided to play on the Coolmath version instead, which as I mentioned earlier is a husk of its former self.
My character this time was named Silver Wing, which as a fan of Honkai Impact 3rd, I appreciate very much (one of Bronya’s battlesuits is called Silver Wing 😉).
Slaying that long braid 💅✨
(If you didn’t notice already, the name I chose to go by for this post is a combination of Silver Wing and Squeezy Shadow. 😉)
I played through and beat PoptropiCon (another personal favorite) and was happy to have FINALLY beat a Poptropica island with no game-breaking glitches! Yippee!!
Long Thaw: Ice to see you.
In conclusion, Poptropica’s current state makes me really sad… seeing what was once a thriving childhood wonderland reduced to a shell of its former self, with most islands only available through the very glitchy Flashpoint, not to mention the fact that the spinoff (Poptropica Worlds) is now lost media since nobody archived it.
It makes me sad to know that modern kids aren’t growing up with Poptropica and all of the other virtual worlds that made people’s childhoods. At least there’s Roblox? 😅 (Which by the way, why did Poptropica make a rainbow unicorn Roblox game… what????)
Doors of Perception: They don’t make these buildings like they used to.
Anyway, revisiting this niche lil corner of the internet was fun! I’m not sticking around or anything, just wanted to drop by and say hi! I may come by again sometime for nostalgia. Before I go, I have one confession I must share with you all: Black Widow was my lesbian awakening.
-Silver Shadow (aka Red Tomato 🍅/Squeezy Shadow 🦔/Silver Wing 🪽)
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!
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