Category: Big Nate Island

Astro-Knights Island, Big Nate Island, Islands, Reviews

2009 Island Showdown: Astro-Knights VS Big Nate

LJ

Howdy Poptropicanos, it’s LJ in your faces again! 🤪 To commemorate the 15th anniversary of Astro-Knights Island and Big Nate Island this year, I thought it’d be fun to conduct a comparison between the two where I evaluate the fundamental elements of each island to determine which one is the better option. (Pretend that the outcome isn’t obvious, alright?) Let’s begin!

For the gameplay discussion, my emphasis will not be on the plots as I intend to reserve that topic for the story portion that will come later. Instead, my focus here will be on the technical dimensions of the islands.

Big Nate Island

This island encompasses a plethora of key features that are emblematic of Poptropica islands such as locating a multitude of paper pieces scattered everywhere, piecing the papers together, swimming underwater, mixing liquids, and playing a few of minigames (racing an opponent, hangman and table football). I appreciate all of these elements, particularly the minigames. I wouldn’t have minded a few more to be honest. One negative thing I will say is that I was not a fan of Nate following my character around everywhere I went. Was that just me? So anyway, how does Big Nate compare to Astro-Knights?

Astro-Knights Island

The time required to complete Astro-Knights is about double that of its rival, which I find absolutely delightful! In the early stages, the gameplay is more or less similar to Big Nate involving the typical exploring and item collecting. However, upon reaching space, things really get exciting.

We get to build a custom spaceship, which, while not having a substantial impact on the island’s tactical gameplay, remains an entertaining feature. Navigating through space, avoiding asteroids, luring space sharks, and fighting against enemy ships were indeed challenging tasks, yet they were not overwhelmingly stressful.

The most challenging parts of Astro-Knights Island are the four significant battles that resemble “boss fights,” including the three misleading encounters (the Mother Phoenix, the Tigercopter, and the Dragotank) and the final showdown against Mordred. Besides the Mother Phoenix, I experienced a fair share of difficulties with all of these. Nonetheless, these battles greatly eclipse even the most engaging gameplay that Big Nate Island has to offer. Honestly, the absence of such difficulty is sorely missed. Any islands for that matter, but that ship has unfortunately passed.

Which one wins?

It seems I may have gone a little overboard in my discussion of the gameplay in Astro-Knights Island. 😅 There was just so much to unpack! It’s quite obvious which one I was more enthusiastic about and which island takes the first round: Astro-Knights!

The differences in the characteristics of these two islands are strikingly apparent. Let’s get into it.

Big Nate Island

Big Nate Island’s appearance presents a whimsical and joyful ambiance. As you walk through the island, your eyes are treated to or tortured by vivid, colorful illustrations, all accentuated by thick black outlines, which enhance the sensation of really being inside a comic book.

I find the comic book aesthetic highly appealing, and I’m someone who is very attracted to bright colors. Also, the school, the playground, and the klassic komix store bring back memories of my IRL childhood, creating a comforting atmosphere.

Astro-Knights Island

While traversing the landscapes of Astro-Knights, we come across an obliterated medieval kingdom, black holes, space sharks, lava-controlled platforms, a mechanical ecosystem, and an actual asteroid belt. The array of locations on this island is truly breathtaking.

The stark contrast between the setting reminiscent of the Middle Ages and the advanced, futuristic planets in outer space (with completely different climates from one another) contributes to the island’s diverse appeal, making it more captivating than many others.

Which one wins?

This round was somewhat more of a tossup. Each of these islands had a viable chance of winning, as I appreciate the styles and moods of both of them. Ultimately, I opted for Astro-Knights Island as the victor for this round, primarily because it offers a higher number of scenes—which can never be a bad thing in Poptropica!

Big Nate’s pivotal concern revolves around the possible destruction of a middle school—a cause certainly worth caring about. In Astro-Knights the story is much more out of the ordinary, however. Time to elaborate!

Big Nate Island

The plot of Big Nate is a bit lackluster. It seems to be a step back in terms of intricacy. In comparison to previous islands like Nabooti, 24 Carrot, and Spy, it feels excessively straightforward.

From my perspective, the characters within this island are not developed enough. The storyline is interesting; however, I don’t believe it was executed to its maximum potential in the plot we were offered. As a child, I found it okay, but looking back now, I am not as wowed as I am with Astro-Knights—which still holds up with the ageing fanbase in these more recent years.

Astro-Knights Island

It goes without saying that the lore and mission in this island are exceptional. A princess, intrigued by the vanishing of a scientist who has gone missing in space, finds herself abducted by aliens. Our job is to launch into orbit to rescue her. Additionally, the once noble scientist has transformed into a malevolent cyborg, and we are tasked with locating three knights who have vanished on various planets while in pursuit of the lost princess. This dramatic tale is filled with so many compelling elements, it’s unreal.

This island presents two noteworthy characters, Elyana and the more celebrated Binary Bard/Mordred. Heck, he took the gold in Pop’s villain showdown back in the day and has remained popular ever since! Since I was not aware of the Big Nate comics when the island was released, I had no insight into the characters. Their minimal development within the island led to them feeling somewhat forgettable to me. Astro-Knights has little to no issues with this.

It’s also worth noting that Astro-Knights demands a certain level of investigation to grasp the situation at play, unlike Big Nate, where the problem is presented immediately upon arrival.

The Life of Mordred: A Cautionary Tale

Which one wins?

There is no question that Astro-Knights has once again triumphed in this round. The story is just so exceptionally engaging, and when I reflect on its awesomeness, I envision its potential to be adapted into an outstanding feature length film! Wouldn’t that be epic?

Big Nate Island had a tough day being demolished by Astro-Knights Island with a score of 3-0. To be honest, it was a bit of a mismatch given that Astro-Knights is widely regarded as the favorite among the community.

I’d love to know your thoughts on both islands! How would you rate them overall? I’d say Big Nate deserves a 3 out of 5 peanut butter crackers, and I’d give Astro-Knights a perfect 5 out of 5 force shields! Thanks for reading and pop on folks. 🍀

Big Nate Island, Creators, Fan Art Features, Social Media

Coming out with fan art and Fiona’s song 🎻

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! In this post: a TikTok video and fan art features with sweet jams. Plus, a hint at something big to come. Let’s pop right to it!

The Pop Creators finally made their second TikTok video after opening their account back in April. The new clip showcases the Pride costumes released this week in the store, with Diana Ross’s ’80s banger “I’m Coming Out” playing in the background. 🏳️‍🌈✨

Poptropica also shared the video on their Instagram story to promote their TikTok handle @poptropicacreator.

Also on their Instagram story, Poptropica shared tons of fan art! One particularly noteworthy post is happyclonetrooper’s sheet music for Fiona’s violin song from Ghost Story Island. Although she acknowledges it’s been done before, this is one melodious masterpiece that’ll never get old! 🎻 (Click to enlarge the pics below.)

In other news, Jess Brallier’s blog isn’t done with Poptropica just yet! His most recent post shares the story of selling the Big Nate series to book publishers, citing the success of Poptropica’s Big Nate Island.

Opening Nate’s locker on Big Nate Island.

At one point, Big Nate, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Poptropica’s Mystery of the Map held down three of the top five slots on the New York Times bestseller list.  I was the happiest publisher in the world.

Jess Brallier

Hold on for tomorrow’s post from the former Poptropica CEO, which will tackle the big topic on our minds: “What about today’s Poptropica?”

Tomorrow brings one more big event we have to mention before we wrap up: the PHB’s Pride Palooza! Join us Friday, June 18 at 8 pm Eastern in Poptropica’s Arcade and wear the colors of the rainbow. 🌈

We’ll also hang out on the PHC and in the PHB comments. See you there, loud and proud Poptropicans! 💖

~🐠

Advertisements, Big Nate Island, Creators

The biggest kids’ site hosts Big Nate and more greats, as told by Jess Brallier

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, we’re back with more reflections on what made Poptropica successful from longtime publisher Jess Brallier.

Previously, we shared the former Pop CEO’s insights on “storytelling, games, and Poptropica.” This week he released two more blog posts about the subject: “The Internet’s largest kids site!” and “Big Nate!“

So we’re having a blast with Poptropica.  Telling unexpected stories via a gaming literacy, exceeding budget targets, employing good people, having fun. We started our storytelling with Early Poptropica and Shark Tooth Island in 2007.

Jess Brallier

In that first post, Jess recounts how Time magazine listed Poptropica as one of the “50 Websites that Make the Web Great” (this was in 2011).

Jess goes on to share about Poptropica’s carefully planned and well executed business strategy, “conceived to serve both kids and advertisers” before a line of code was ever written for the game.

As I’ve said before—and I’m often the lone voice on this—having the right advertisers fund the delivery of great content to kids is a good thing.  I had zilch interest in a publishing strategy that was purposely confined to kids with parents wealthy enough to afford a subscription.

Jess Brallier

Next, Jess quotes generously from a 2020 article written by Arian Tomar titled “Why Poptropica Mattered,” posted on a site called Voices of Gen-Z. Here’s a snippet from that reflective piece:

Poptropica changed my life. If I’m being honest, I think it influenced many young people more than we acknowledge… To me, Poptropica represents an internet full of stories, exploration, connection, and advertising, a microcosm of the essential parts of the internet.

Arian Tomar

Anyway, on with the main point of Jess’s post: for a time, Poptropica was the largest kids’ site on the internet!

The news was nervously given to him one morning in late 2008 by Poptropica’s marketing director, Kim Regan. They didn’t blast the news right away as they wanted to make sure it was true. But sure enough, Poptropica’s numbers had grown bigger than Disney’s Club Penguin and Nickelodeon’s Nicktropolis, two other hugely popular virtual worlds at the time. (And Poptropica outlived them, too!)

It was all so incredibly satisfying.  This quiet, caring, hard-working, respectful, unknown group of talented and good people went up against Nickelodeon and Disney and kicked their butts. 

And they did it by telling stories—great writing, great art, great design—when all the experts confidently screamed that kids wanted nothing to do with stories on their computer screens.  By 2012, story-based Poptropica had 500+ million registered users from around the world.

A good story, once again, won the day.

Jess Brallier

Now let’s turn to Big Nate, which began as a comic strip and now has a pretty popular narrative-and-art hybrid book series. But before the book series, there was the Poptropica island.

Poptropica’s official tour page for Big Nate Island when it first released in 2009.

Poptropica Creator Jeff Kinney knew Lincoln Peirce, the creator of Big Nate, and figured it would be a good match, as he and Jess were looking for brilliant content outside of Poptropica to add to the game.

One of Jeff’s and my notions was to introduce content on Poptropica that did not first originate on Poptropica.  Why limit all those kids to discovering only what our writers came up with? …Wow, doing that would make Poptropica all the more powerful, inclusive, and all-serving.

Jess Brallier
The first Big Nate comic strip

Jess loved the idea (and the brilliance of comic strip creators), and they met with Lincoln and decided to give it a try.

Two months later, late morning on a Friday, we launched “Big Nate Island.” By midnight, two million different kids had played it.  Seriously!

Jess Brallier

Two million is impressive, but what else stands out is the fact that it took just two months to dream of and create an island! A far cry from the snail’s pace of island releases these days…

Anyway, the success of the island confirms Jess’s hunch that there’s a unique kind of book for all those comics. But that’s another story!

~🐠

Big Nate Island

Big news: Big Nate Island is available to all!

LJ

What’s up, Poptropicans? It’s Lucky Joker here, and I’ve got some big news. Today, Poptropica just announced that…

big_nate.png

There it is loud and clear, folks—Big Nate Island is available to all players this week only! Up until this Friday (July 27), members won’t be the only ones able to play this classic island. 😉 Sadly, it’s not really a full week, but rather a full standard school/work week which is only five days. :/ But hey—it’s better than nothing at all.

UPDATE: We’ve been getting reports that the membership lock continues to activate up until the end of the demo point. To combat this, PHB reader Massive Monster suggests closing the “get membership to continue” window and refreshing the page to continue without membership.

So what are you waiting for? Log on to Poptropica, check out our Big Nate Island Guide for some extra help, and earn those credits (since store items are super pricey now)!

Well, that’s the little amount of news for now. Thanks for reading as always! Talk to you all soon… pop on!

– Lucky Joker 🍀

Big Nate Island, Sneak Peeks

Storefront sketches and the gate to Big Nate

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, Slanted Fish here, with two bits of news. 🐠

The first is this: another sneak peek! Yup, soon after the Creators posted a sketch of a pet barn on their blog, we find another view of the same scene posted on their Instagram. This one includes a movie theater (hopefully it’ll be better than the current one), store (which we’re familiar with), and the aforementioned pet barn. Check it out:

barn peek2

The caption on Instagram offers some insight into the island creation process:

Ever wonder how games like Poptropica are made? It all starts with our artists working on lots of concepts like this one! Once a design is chosen, it’s redrawn in Photoshop! Stay tuned for more behind the scenes pics! 🎨

And the comments reveal a little more. A commenter (hiskeyblade) asked, “Do you guys start just random doodles after you figure out a plot of a world?”

To which the Creators replied: “We do! We also create mood boards with photos of real places and other inspiration!”

Pretty cool to hear about — it’d be great to learn more about their creative process, and the prospect of seeing more behind-the-scenes pics is one we can all look forward to!

Now for the second shocker: there’s a good chance that Big Nate Island, which is currently locked for members only, will be unlocked for all to play! See for yourself:

The hundred-plus comments received on the Creators’ proposal on Instagram are overwhelmingly in favor (albeit with some repeat “votes”).

As it should be! Poptropicans who hear about the sponsored islands being made members only are still as salty as Cap’n Salty’s about it as the day the news broke three years ago. With Poptropica Original likely to fade by the end of 2020, perhaps all features should be made free — better that more of us get to enjoy it than not at all, right?

That’s all for this post, but be sure to scroll down the blog for more news. We’ve had a lot going on in the Poptropica sphere lately!

<・)))><<