In a colorful and bizarre-looking town populated by joke-loving and silly citizens, the evil scientist, Dr. Blandston, has invented a device to take away the town’s color and goofiness. It’s up to you to defeat Dr. Blandston and destroy his machine before he can turn the entire island into a dull, gray, land.
Hey Poptropicans, news from the hive coming at you live! Sort of, anyway. Pop in for sneak peeks, costumes, member gifts, and fan art!
The Pop Creators have dropped one last sneak peek for the upcoming Goofball Island side quest, as well as the bomb that it’ll be for members only, like bonus quests of old Pop islands. Meet the Hive News van:
Could Bee Bot from previous peeks be a tool, or even a sentient employee, of this buzzing news organization? We’ll find out soon when this sequel side quest drops! 🐝🎤
Over at Adventure Outfitters, tons of PoptropiCon-themed outfits and clubhouse decor have hit the racks! Among the new outfits are characters from Mighty Action Force, the card game from PoptropiCon Island, Ep. 2: Spoiler Alert. Seems like a hint for the next possible rerelease, as Poptropica has mentioned bringing back more episodes.
The start of a new month also brings two familiar traditions: Member gifts for January are the Apple Cider Bottle, Fun Fireworks, and Sparkler accessories. Plus, the call is already out to begin sending in designs for the monthly costume contest, which ends in two weeks on Mon, January 17 at 8 p.m. PST. Keep your spark going! 🌠
Get your inspiration going with the latest fan art features from Pop’s Instagram stories. Maybe even join our Community Creations!
Hey Poptropicans! We’ve got another side quest sneak peek, costume winner, activities away from screentime, a Crazy Club tribute, and cute criminals in the Pop universe. Let’s get started!
Last week, we got news of an upcoming side quest sequel for Goofball Island along with a sneak peek of a mechanical bee. Now, Bee Bot is back on our screens and colored in greens! Friend or foe, we don’t know.
Bee Bot sketchBee Bot, colorized
We also have word on the winner of December’s costume contest: Rainbow Puppy by Hamburger Hamburger! This colorful creation will be available for free at the Baron’s when the ship arrives in early January.
Plus, check out all the other fun costume creations in this roundup reel:
That’s a wrap for this update! Hope you’re enjoying the Grapple-Pap season on Pop with the Grapple-Gift Side Quest and decking yourself and your halls with Christmas gear. Cheers! 😄✌️
Hey Poptropicans, buzz in for a sneak peek, special tips to know, and a mini review of the year!
The Pop Creators’ Blog recently revealed that the story of Goofball Island isn’t over — a sequel side quest is on its way, and it involves this Bee Bot! 🐝🤖 The drawing might be dull in color, but could it turn out goofy?
What do you think this little critter could bee for? Whatever it is, stay tuned for more details about the upcoming adventure! No word yet on whether it will be for members or for all, but at least it’s nice to see this behind-the-scenes sketch.
Speaking of Goofball Island, the endings have been updated to include Bosko! Whether you pick a goofy, bland, or balanced outcome, our favorite furry monster will be there to crack his odd jokes. (Thanks to Incredible Flame for the tip!)
By the way, the Baron might’ve disappeared from the skies earlier this week, but you can still access her airship through your messages in the menu. Be sure to catch her Grapple-Pap gear while it’s here! (Thanks again to Incredible Flame for the tip!)
Last but not least, guest writer Invisible Ring is back with another post on the Creators’ Blog, bringing along a cameraman to report on the past year’s developments in Poptropica. From new islands to side quests, features, and multiplayer content, she notes that Poptropica met their promises for 2021, albeit with some mixed reviews in some areas.
On that note, keep an eye out for the PHB’s 2021 Rewind, coming out just before the new year! We’ll be taking an even deeper dive into this past year’s releases, both from the Creators and the fandom. To go even further, browse through our Pop Yearbook of past years in Poptropica.
See you at the PHB’s Grapple-Pap party this weekend, Poptropicans. Bee there or bee square! ☃️ 🐝
Hey Poptropicans, get ready for more Goofball spirit!
The Poptropica Creators released their own official guides for Goofball Island this past week, both a written walkthrough and a video (below). But if you can’t get enough, the PHB’s also got our own Goofball Island Guide right here, with fun facts you may have missed! ✨
Flying in with Mary Poppins’ “winds in the east,” Poptropica also released a short on TikTok and YouTube to hype up the latest island:
And there’s more on Pop’s TikTok! This new clip pairs the idea of Poptropica “back in the day” with a caption that claims they’re “still releasing new (and old!) islands.” Sooo… are more old islands on the horizon? Time will tell.
Also on TikTok is a clip celebrating the weird physics of Poptropica parkour, paired with screaming from a scene from The Office. Now that’s some Pop core.
There are more Goofball goodies coming from the fandom! The Creators’ Blog featured several pieces of fan art inspired by the new island. Goes great with this month’s theme for the PHB’s Community Creations, which is—you guessed it—Goofball!
Beyond Goofball, Poptropicans’ fan art lately also features classic characters like Ringmaster Raven and Dr. Hare. Check out some recent ones from Poptropica’s Instagram stories:
Centering on a weird and whimsical town that’s being “bland-ified” by the dull Dr. Blandston, this island is bursting with unique characters, fun art and soundtracks, and a story full of shocking plot twists that we haven’t fully deciphered yet. We’ve got tons to cover, so let’s dive in!
Beware: spoilers lie ahead!
Storyline & Characters
Goofball Island was particularly impressive in terms of its story. The plot was complex, thought-provoking (so Detective Gram/Dr. Gramston was the original Blandston and… turned people productive and soulless?), and even offered numerous new concepts we’ve never before seen in Poptropica, the most notable being multiple endings (more on that later) and the player being an antagonist.
Some might wonder if this story, with its performance-enhancing crystals and over-the-top lifestyles one way or another, could be a metaphor for something: Growing up? Neurodivergence? Drugs? Dreams? Whatever your interpretation, that’s the beauty of story — through it you can experience anew.
The plot does get a tad confusing towards the end, though. As soon as you emerge from the flashback revealing that you were a Blandston, the mayor makes you decide the island’s fate, leaving no time for further explanations. Still, with twists and turns throughout the tale, the story was engaging and overall well done.
Also noteworthy is how both the bland and the goofy side are portrayed as relatively neutral, something you don’t see very often in media. While the bland and goofy people don’t seem to understand each other well, they at least live together peacefully — even to the point of goofy Mayor Naise hiring a bland detective to investigate the case.
Lucky Joker: “Do you not see who you’re talking to?”
It was also fascinating to learn about the origins of Goofball Island in City Hall, particularly through Jumpy Spinner’s woke commentary. Who knew that the goofiness it was named for wasn’t there from the start? Then, like a parallel to real-world colonialism, there’s the acknowledgement that even though Xavier “discovered” the island and coined its current name, Native Poptropicans had inhabited the island for some 1000 years previously. Represent!
Speaking of Jumpy Spinner, Goofball Island is full of intriguing characters, even when they’re being bland. In the land of grayscale, we have the City Hall lady breaking the record for longest monologue in Poptropica, the baker who regulates your consumption of carbs, and Regular Dan, who somehow hasn’t gotten kicked out of the Crazy Club. And on the flip side on Goofside, we have to mention the tree dude in City Hall, the lovable Bosko, and nearly all of the Crazy Club. Among them, it was interesting to see animals counted as island citizens and people dressing up like animals (furry gang, anyone?).
Gameplay
With items to collect and interactive elements to explore, playing Goofball Island felt almost like the experience of the old islands, albeit shorter and with the newer Haxe pop-up graphics. While the quest was fairly straightforward, there were still a few moments of slight challenge, but nothing really difficult. Cutscenes interspersed helped propel the story especially in unexpected moments (rip goofy Bosko), yet for the most part, the player had a decent amount of agency in where to go and who to talk to.
Moments of choice are what really stand out in Goofball’s gameplay. Inside the Dreary Building, for example, you can choose to take either the stairs (and annoy people behind locked doors) or elevator (which turns out to be the slow way) to get up to Detective Gram’s office. Just for amusement, you can also play around with the food at Fry’s Fried Freds (and even the Dusty Crust Bakery, to a much duller extent). And of course, at the very end, you get to decide the fate of the island: will it be all bland, goofy, or a balance of both?
Of the endings, the two extremes are fun to experiment with, and the choice offers an incentive to replay the island to discover the alternate endings (or you can see them here in our guide).
But the balanced ending looks almost exactly like the island did from the beginning, just with a pop more color. For this ending which may have felt more “right” as it allows both types of personalities to coexist, the lack of newness leaves something to be desired and seems to erase our hard work of getting to the bottom of things. After all, weren’t the citizens of Goofball Island thriving in their goofy selves before “Dr. Blandston” appeared?
What if we got to see more characters switch between their two forms, goofy and bland? Maybe the use of crystals could be regulated like a medicine prescription? At any rate, it would have been interesting to see more change in the balanced ending, to reflect all that we’d gone through and the newfound knowledge of the crystals.
Audio & Visuals
One of the coolest parts of Goofball Island has got to be its music, reflecting both sides of the island by the pomp of a marching band (goofy) and the vibe of a classic silent film complete with record noise (bland). In an impressive first for Poptropica, the soundtrack shifts as you move around in a scene, with vibrant brass instruments that get louder when you’re on Goofside, coupled with the jazzy piano when you’re in Dullsville. We wish the bop at the Crazy Club could have brought on more energy, though!
Goofball Island is visually striking as well, with the contrast between the island’s two sides emphasized through color (or lack of it), in both scenery and characters. The boisterous and bright Goofside could not be more different from the black-and-white Dullsville (plus, props for the film noir art style with the white static floating around!).
We also can’t miss mentioning Bobby Bill’s shocking dance moves — not only are they confirmation of Poptropicans’ heads being detachable, but they can be spun around and even dribbled like a basketball with seemingly no repercussions! Fun seeing a new side of the whole Poptropicans-without-necks phenomenon that’s sure to generate some wild fantheories.
Verdict
With a mix of contrasting worlds, fun personalities, and intriguing mysteries, Goofball Island definitely feels like the first real Poptropica island in a long time. All things balanced, out of five we’d give Goofball…
4 out of 5 chubby thumbprints. While this at-times rambunctious island carries with it all sorts of fun (even when it’s serious), the villain showdown at the end may leave players confused about what just happened. Still, with a considerably longer tale to unfold, Goofball’s storytelling was a marked improvement from Fairytale and the other strings of side-quests we’ve had lately. Good stuff, Goofball!
There’s so much more to unpack — head over to the trivia section of our Goofball Island Guide to see what other details you may have missed!
That’s 2 for 3 Dream Islands this year! We’re looking forward to the last and hopefully not least, Secret of the Jade Scarab, possibly in 2022.
Thanks for reading our review of Goofball Island! Do you agree with our verdict? Share your opinions in the comments below!
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