Clubhouse, Home Island, Membership, Store

A Little Color In Your Summer: Pop Worlds Updates

Hey everyone! Spotted Dragon here with a Poptropica Worlds summer update! And this one comes with a lot of big additions to the game that we’ve been waiting for.

popworlds summer update 1

I’ll start off with what everyone will be happy to hear about: the colorizer is here! This is a feature that many of us have missed and it’s one that was even listed in our first Pop Petitions post!

With it, you can color your hair and skin any way you see fit! Just like in Original Poptropica. Once you change colors, you won’t be able to go back to the exact tone you had when you first logged in, unless it’s included in the basic palette we’re provided, but either way this is a big step forward for our customizing possibilities.

popworlds summer update 4

The colorizer is located in the closet, but there is one big drawback: only members can pick any color they want. The rest of us can only pick colors from a small color palette. While the addition of the colorizer is great and everything, this puts a damper on the feature for most players.

Talking about changing colors, this isn’t the only update bringing color into our summer (or… not depending on where you live). We also get two new color changing outfits! There is a male and female version, but every player is able to buy both, no matter your gender! That’s great if I do say so myself.

popworlds summer update 5

Sadly, many accessories in these outfits are for members only. But they do look pretty cool! A Poptropican in the a full color changing outfit also shows up on Home Island, right outside your door, to tell you about the new things in the store. In addition to these color changing costumes, there are also new summer themed outfits in store! We’ve seen promises for these outfits before, but they haven’t shown up until now.

popworlds summer update 6

Crop tops and rompers, huh? These 8 brand new costumes have a very modern look to them. Anyway, all outfits are available to players of any gender too, which I’m glad to see is becoming a norm for Poptropica. Sadly, many of these outfits are completely members only.

I am a bit disappointed about all the membership restrictions, but I do like some of the new accessories. If only we could customize lips/mouths at this point too, right?

Lastly, we have one more summer update to share… a House Expansion! We’ve all seen the locked doors in our house and it’s finally time to unlock one of them. What lies behind the door you ask? A beach themed room, fit for summer! My apologies to those living where it’s not summer at the moment.

popworlds summer update 2

Personally, I was expecting these expansions to just be like the main room we already have. I was not expecting an entire theme! Anyway, to get into this room you have to first find the key. No, it’s not hidden somewhere where you’ll have to go on a quest to find it (which is a bit disappointing to be honest). The key is simply located in the Decor Shop, under the (you guessed it) key tab.

After unlocking the room, you also gain access to new beach themed decor! 19 new items should be available to purchase, marked in the store with a blue banner and key symbol. From pineapple wallpaper to windows with a palm tree view, there’s lots of new items to choose from.

popworlds summer update 3

Sadly, expansions are for members only. I saw this coming, but it (like the other membership restrictions) is super disappointing. I understand that Poptropica needs membership to earn money (and that membership needs to be worth buying), but I feel like regular players (like myself) are gonna be missing out on a lot.

With these summer updates, many players have been complaining about missing house decor and house resets. Even before this update, missing items have been a problem. But fear not!

According to Poptropica’s Twitter, this issue shouldn’t be a problem any more.

So how do you guys feel about these updates? Let us know in the comments below.

~SD

Home Island, Web Development

Map Mishaps, Becoming Official, and More!

Hey Poptropicans, it’s Slanted Fish splashing on!

Everyone’s excited about last week’s release of Poptropica Worlds, and if you haven’t already completed Crisis Caverns Island, fear not – we’ve got a written walkthrough right here, under our Island Help tab. It even comes with pictures and gifs!

puzzle1

Despite all this buzz over Worlds, it looks like the Original Poptropica (which you can access from the top-right button on the Poptropica homepage) hasn’t been completely forgotten about just yet.

If you hop on your blimp, you may notice that the map has been updated to categorize islands by pages! The categories are: Starter, Easy, Adventure (a page each) and Challenging (which takes up six pages). Check it out:

Notice anything funny? The PHB team has a few questions about this new arrangement:

  • Why isn’t Early Poptropica Island in the “Easy” category? (It’s on the fourth “Challenging” page; page 7 overall.) As the first ever Poptropica island, it’s also notoriously and unequivocally one of the easiest to complete, so this placement just seems odd.
  • Why do Timmy Failure, Escape From Pelican Rock, and Shrink Ray show up twice on the map in the same “Challenging” category?
  • Where is Wimpy Wonderland Island?
  • Why is Realms considered a Challenging Island? Shouldn’t it be its own category, much like the “Watch cool videos here!” button on page 1 of the map that brings you to the Home Island theater?
  • Why not some more categories, instead of six pages of Challenging Islands? How about a list for Sponsored Islands (such as the Wimpy Kid islands)? Members-only Islands (although that is most of the sponsored ones…)? Spooky Islands (like Vampire’s Curse, Ghost Story, etc)? What about organizing islands by geographic world locations? So many possibilities!

The last time the map was given a major update was a little over a year ago, when the Poptropica menus were becoming more button-based. Now, this new categorization system was a cool idea, but some things sure seem a little out of place…

weird

Speaking of strange, the Wheel of Loot on the Original Poptropica’s Home Island has now been moved inside to the theater!

There doesn’t seem to be a clear reason for this, but my own guess is that, since there’s already a Wheel of Loot on Poptropica Worlds, they’re making it a step harder here so you’ll spin it there instead. Or maybe they want us to watch more videos. Who knows.


Onto some brighter news! Last week, the PHB (along with several other prolific Poptropica community content creators) were made official VIPs by Poptropica, which stands for Very Important Poptropican.

We’re honored to receive this official recognition after all these years of blogging! Thank you, Poptropica Creators, and all you lovely readers for supporting the blog! ❤️

VIP2560x1440

As VIPs, we were awarded some spiffy graphics to display, which includes the sweet new VIP badge you’ll find on our blog header and sidebar. That’s pretty cool and all, but if we can dream even more, then we hope that perhaps Poptropica can one day officially link to all the VIP/official fansites on the Poptropica site itself (or at least the Creators’ Blog)!

Anyway, that’s all for this post! Let us know what you think in the comments below about the new map, moving the Wheel of Loot, and VIP officialization!

Stay popping, Poptropicans!

~🐠

Home Island

The new theater showings may make you fidget more…

Hey Poptropicans! First of all: Happy Easter! 🐣🐣 Poptropica Worlds has yet to be risen, but in the meantime, the Movie Theater is here to be resurrected from your forgotten memories…

We’ll get to the news after Poptropica’s Easter bunny, Dr. Hare, does his hoopy dance. 🐇

Preludes are ridonkulous and I should just get to the point? Okay, okay…

The Movie Theater on Home Island (both online and on the mobile app) has been updated with some new videos, including the following (as noted on the Creators’ Blog):

  • 😎 Schaeffer McLean — See this 12-year-old skateboarder go on awesome adventures
  • 😁 Batman Unlimited — Watch as Batman swings into action to save Gotham City
  • 🤓 eScape — Check out this science fiction, video game-based adventure
  • 😂 Fidgetmore —  Giggle with this animated series starring Fidgetmore School’s teenagers

There is something else that they haven’t mentioned: each video is now preluded by a 15-second ad for the Nickelodeon series Hunter Street, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to escape it. It’s unnecessary to see it over and over again, and I strongly urge Poptropica to change this so it doesn’t need to be viewed more than once.

The lineup for the theater videos has also changed a little, with the Types of Teachers one at the forefront, and it no longer autoplays (although the prelude ad does). This is an improvement from the PHB’s last post about the theater, and I even mentioned that being one of the better videos, so it’s great to see that recognized! However, I still hope to see more improvement with regards to categorization of the videos to make it easier to find something tailored to each person’s tastes and demographic.

Anyway, what do you think of the new videos and changes to the theater? What kinds of videos would you like to see? Comment here with your thoughts! The Creators like hearing feedback from the players, so remember that your input matters. 😉

Stay popping!

–🐠

Home Island

Now Playing in Theaters: What Even Are All These Videos??

Hey Poptropicans! Slanted Fish here to make a splash on the silver screen!

new2bmovie2btheater2bon2bpoptropica2521

The big news of the day is that the Movie Theater on Home Island, which appeared a week ago, is now open for business! The sign is glimmering, and the door is open, so head on in. Inside, you’ll find a little room with a bright sign leading you into the theater. (Wait, where are the concessions?)

Once you click there, a video player will pop up, and the movies will begin! However, the movies aren’t anything we predicted in our previous post about the theater. Instead, this is a collection of kiddy videos – fun, educational, and everything in between – that a few of the Creators picked out for everyone.

(Notes: If you have AdBlock on, you’ll need to deactivate it on Poptropica in order for the videos to play. To see the videos without logging in, click here – thanks to idk for the link.)

If you click on the red video camera button in the top corner, you can browse through a really long list of videos. Here’s what the interface looks like:

The very first video that plays is a song about gravity with animated robots, and it’s very much aimed at a younger age group. However, there is quite a variety among the video selection, from comedy sketches to educational animations and more, and it’s possible to find clips that slightly older audiences can enjoy as well, if you click around. Still, having the starting clip be something so juvenile was a little jarring, to say the least.

All the videos are produced by sources outside of Poptropica. Poptropica must have obtained some kind of rights with the various different producers of these videos in order to be able to show them, but how they’ve worked that out is not clear. At any rate, some Poptropicans on the PHC have already been voicing out some disappointment in seeing that these videos are not Poptropica-produced, as many had hoped. But this doesn’t have to be a bad thing, if they work at choosing videos that will interest the diverse tastes of all Poptropicans. At the moment, however, it seems that most of the videos are geared towards elementary-aged kids.

All in all, the Movie Theater wasn’t what most Poptropicans were hoping for – and the unfamiliarity and lack of organization among the videos has made this update fall a little flat for some eager Poptropicans. I think it would be a good idea for Poptropica, in the future, to arrange the videos by topic and/or age group in order to make it easier to find something you’re interested in.

The good news is, there’s still a wide selection and variety of topics explored in the fun-themed videos, so if you dig deeper, you can probably find something to your tastes (I personally enjoyed the “Types of Teachers” video!). And, this being a carefully curated selection, everything is child-friendly, which could make this a nice alternative from YouTube for the cautious parents out there.

As announced on the Creators’ Blog, the Movie Theater is up on the web now, and will be joining the Poptropica mobile app very soon.

Plus, they plan to mix up the selection of videos playing in the theater as time goes on, so be sure to check back to see what’s new!

What do you think of the new Movie Theater? Any videos you recommend among the huge list? Any videos you think are not worth watching? What else do you wish to see Poptropica do with the theater? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

~🐠

Home Island, Islands of the Month, Social Media, Super Power Island

Super sketches, snowy spring, and bingo games

Hey guys, my name is Brave Tomato, and I’m here with good Poptropica stuff for you all today!

To start, as we know, Super Power is one of the two Islands of the Month for the month of March. And since that is the case, we get to see behind the scenes sketches from the production of that Island! Although we have seen some of these sketches before, there are some new ones in the mix. Check them out below (click to enlarge images):

Interestingly enough, according to the Creator’s Blog post, these are sketches are from a Poptropica artist named Lance. Well, there’s one Creator that we know of that has that name: Lance Fry! Even though it’s kinda hard not to stop chuckling at Crusher’s over-sized arms and chest, these sketches do give quite the insight on Poptropica’s development in 2008.

In other news, over here in the East Coast of the US, nature decided that the definition of “almost spring” weather is not sunshine and decent temperatures – instead we’re getting snow! Skinny Moon lamented this over on Snapchat, yet at the same time, has hyped up the new Movie Theater on Home Island. What will come of it? We’ll just have to wait and see…

Finally, just for fun, Skinny Moon also posted a bingo game on Poptropica’s various social media channels! Check it out below:

Bingo

Within the bingo cards are not only in-game/multitasking parts, but also community-related activities, like “hang out in a Poptropica Discord chat”!

Does anybody have a bingo? Or two? Did anybody black out the board? Let us know! Plus, share your bingo board with Poptropica and they’ll feature it on social media!

BT out!