Category: Islands

Crisis Caverns Island, Sneak Peeks

Crisis Caverns and New Map!

HPuterpop

EDIT: The old store is back — but only if you access it from ingame.
The map icon still takes you to the mobile app store.

Hi Gs,

Big news today, as a new island has been added to the Poptropica file database: Crisis Caverns! You may recognize it as the “underground island” that was canceled. It looks as if it’s being brought back! The name, now verified as Crisis Caverns, alludes to the bulk of the island being underground. From what we’ve seen in past Daily Pops, it involves alien-like creatures and a villainous Mole King!

All that’s uploaded of the island so far is the main street, which is a refreshing glimpse of new content that we haven’t had for so long! What new information can we glean from this sneak peek?

2

The setting of the island is confirmed to be the “Caldera State Park“, which after a quick Google search can be verified as not a real location, but a parody of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. We’ve seen Old Reliable, and most of the interiors of these buildings before; it seems that the island is nearly finished in the art department based on previous Daily Pops. We can also see some dashing buffalo scattered around the scene.

What the elk: All your questions answered, right here.
Spouting Off: Geology can be a real bear.
Disguiser: You might recognize this incognito geological feature.
Can You Canoe: Hang around a while and you may get a chance.
Mine All Mine: You don’t have to dig far to find a cool common room.

One more thing about CC: in the files, the island is named “cavern1” — and if you’ve kept up with BTS island names, you’ll recognize the “1” as the indicator of an episode. Whether they’re bringing back episodic adventures or not is a mystery, but I personally feel that full island releases are subjectively better.

Another major update is that the map has been updated to SUI, with the same set up as the mobile app! This update has come with a whole slew of new features:

  • A progress bar for how far you are in an island. For the episodic adventures, the bar is split up into sections.
  • A new info page before you enter the island.
    • Difficulty rating – one, two, or three skulls.
    • Description from the Tour pages.
    • Restart button.
    • Island completion counter.
    • Progress bar (again).
    • Island logo.
    • Screenshot from the island.
  • The island order is now scattered, with no obvious order. This is most likely because islands from previous years usually are easier than newer islands.
  • You can access your account settings/game settings directly from the map.
  • The store button now leads to the mobile app store — which currently does not work! You can’t buy anything.
  • All island icons are now in color! Do note: not all islands are SUIs, it’s just the icons alone.

newMap

The store, as before mentioned, is the same store as the mobile app — but for some reason, you cannot purchase any of the items there. You also cannot access the original store – will original store items become relics?

newStore

The homepage that greets you upon login as been completely disabled and Home Island now acts as a home page. While I do not necessarily support the SUI engine, I do like these updates in theory. We’ll have to see where it leads. Tell me in the comments what you think of Crisis Caverns, the new map, and all these neat colored island icons!

TAFN.

-HPuterpop

Galactic Hot Dogs Island

Credits Where Credit Is Due

Ultimate iPad Expert

Heyyo Poptropicans, it’s Ultimate iPad Expert here to bring you news of what’s going on in Poptropica!

As promotion for the recent release of the newest Galactic Hot Dogs book, The Weiner Strikes Back, Poptropica is adding some new credit rewards for finishers of the aptly named Galactic Hot Dogs Island. You can read more about GHD on Funbrain.

GHDCredits

Unlike some of the former bonus credit promotions, repeat finishers can receive the bonus credits as well! The first time finishers of the island receive 300 credits (the normal 150, plus an extra bonus 150) and repeat finishers will receive 150 credits for their playthrough. These bonus credits are online available through this upcoming Monday morning (May 9), so you’d better get ’em quick.

They’ve also updated the map icon for GHD Island, which you can see below (left) in contrast with the original (right). Looks like the Neon Wiener made way for Funketoun and an excited Cosmoe!

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In totally unrelated news, our friend Yujo_Jacy_the_Jumpy_Coyote has found a little bug on the Mystery of the Map Photo Booth.

HotWheelsBug

On non-SUIs (classic islands not colored on the map), the photo booths are accompanied by an unrelated NPC. According to Yujo himself, the character (as well as his dialogue) is from a former Hot Wheels Battle Force 5 advertisement.

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And lastly, Poptropica creator and best-selling Wimpy Kid author, Jeff Kinney, was on Fox & Friends this morning talking about Wimpy Kid, Poptropica, and StoryArc Media. Here you can see him drawing with some kids on the show.

Fox & Friends uploaded Jeff Kinney’s part of the show to their website, so if you’d like to check out that video, click here. The video segment is kinda short, but still pretty cool to see Kinney’s drawing skills in action. 😛 Definitely check it out if you’re interested!

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And that concludes this little roundup post. What do you guys think about this news? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below.

Meme King out. 👑

• Ultimate iPad Expert •

Daily Pop Sneak Peeks, Sneak Peeks, Zomberry Island

PHB Sneak Peeks: Zombie Defense Mini-Game

Spotted Dragon

Whale hello there everyone! 🐳 Spotted Dragon here with a cool behind the scenes post.

Before we get started, happy Star Wars Day! May the 4th be with you! Poptropica released this cool picture of a Poptropican-ized Kylo Ren on their Twitter today. Now the real question is, how do we get that awesome lightsaber? 🌟⚔

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming…

Remember the PHB’s post with the sneak peeks of Zomberry mini-games, Zombie Catapult and Game Jam? The Daily Pop also hinted at these games, as you may recall:

Well, there’s another one we haven’t mentioned yet: Zombie Defense! Credit goes to idk for the info.

zombie defense

Yes, it looks like these sneak peeks are becoming a reality because what we have here is a mini-game in the making!

The zombies you see come out of the door on the bottom right and make their way up to the top left. Towards the left of the image, we can see 5 buttons for setting various booby traps. Presumably, we set traps for the zombies to stop them from reaching the end, or we just try to survive without letting them touch us.

The bar at the top shows the level and wave you’re on, along with how much health you have left. It also shows your prep time before the wave starts.

That basically wraps up what we have so far, so hopefully we can expect a Zombie Defense mini-game soon! Maybe it’ll appear in the new Poptropica? Let us know what you think! 😀

~SD

Home Island, PoptropiCon Island

On your marks, get set, run!

Slippery Raptor

Hey guys, Slip here!

hi

There’s a brand new event on Poptropica’s Home Island! It’s called Feats of Speed. You simply need to beat Speedy Sam in a race to get the prize! (Samwow5, I didn’t know you liked track and field! 😛)

feats

Once you land on Home Island, go to the left and you can easily spot Speedy Sam running on the treadmill. (He’s more fit than Samwow5! Just kidding. 😉 )

sam

Once you talk to him, he then dares you to beat him in the race to the PoptropiCon roof. The mini-game is similar to the race between you and the Cheetah Bandit in the first episode of PoptropiCon. If you need help, check out this video!

That was quick!

After you beat Speedy Sam, he will ask you to beat the world record. The default world record is 14 seconds, and the only way to receive the sneakers is to beat it! When you’re done, Speedy Sam will grant you your very own running sneakers — it’s the first time we get shoes to keep!

The sneakers work like Cheetah Bandit’s bottle cap amulet. When you move, it leaves a magic trail behind you. Cool, right?

shoes

Speedy Sam also tells us that this won’t be the last sneaker you’ll have! There will be another prize next week, so better train yourselves for the next challenge! What do you think it is?

What’s your world record? Make sure to like this post and share your world records in the comments!

mermaidhi

-Slippery 💦

Advertisements, Wimpy Boardwalk Island, Wimpy Wonderland Island

Rant: Wimpy Ads

Spencer

Hey folks, Cobalt here. Ohoho, do I have a rant for you.

So, I went on Poptropica today, as I do almost daily. Here’s the news: both Wimpy Kid islands have been opened to all (Wimpy Wonderland and Wimpy Boardwalk), and first-time finishers get 300 credits (instead of 150). And there’s a Wimpy Shirt prize for going on one of those islands.

But there’s a bigger issue here, and it’s glaring right in our faces. This update truly is wimpy.

Screenshot at Apr 13 18-26-01

I thought, well, it is Wimpy Kid Month, and Jeff Kinney is the author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. So I didn’t have any doubts at all they would advertise it at some point. Despite me not personally enjoying the book series after the trillionth release, I logged on anyway. It’s not like it was going to ruin my Poptropica experience for me.

Screenshot at Apr 13 18-27-08

Oh wait, it did. It really did. Look at this. It looks so tacky and cluttered it makes me think who was orchestrating this mind-numbing catastrophe opened up MS Paint and just played around with it for two minutes. On top of all that, April has become “Apriil”.

2016-04-13

There are six different fonts in this. Six. Are you guys aware that HPuterpop and UiPE from the PHB do design work for free? Hire them! Like, what is this?

The prize card that Poptropica so obnoxiously and cringingly shoves in our face is also poorly made. They couldn’t even make good what they advertised so heavily.

Screenshot at Apr 13 18-27-41

Like, is this just a belated April Fools prank? The text is off-center, the image is highly pixelated, and it all makes me wonder who thought this was okay. Honestly, if this person got paid for making this, it angers me. Not only did they recycle the redhead from the other ads, but they also recycled the prize shirt itself without adding anything new. Poptropica, you can do better than this, and you have in the past. Why deteriorate now?

Some of you may remember Smockers, the first PHB author ever, not including Slanted Fish? He hasn’t played in years. And yet, this shirt is part of his look. It’s that old.

Screenshot at Apr 13 18-28-28.png

This was an ad prize a long, long time ago that they’re passing up as something new and exciting. I’m not even joking, this frustrates me. Also, care to notice how that recycled, low-resolution lady is wearing a necklace? She’s covering up the collar above Greg’s (The Wimpy Kid) face. Why are they advertising a shirt and covering part of it up? That’s like advertising a watch and wearing a long sleeve shirt and covering some of it.

Honestly, I’d love to go even deeper into this, and why I think the quality (and quantity!) of the ads are as downright pitiful as they are, and how it’s been 50 days since the last island (and a simple tutorial one at that), and how Daily Pops are inconsistent, and getting any sort of update is slow and disappointing… but I don’t want any controversy from my viewers or the Poptropica team themselves. So, I’ll leave it at this crude joke from fellow author Brave Tomato:

2016-04-13

I think Poptropica should really rethink their priorities, their graphic designer(s), and what kind of content they consider approved for the game.

This whole thing is really embarrassing, and I’m not happy about it. Poptropicanos, can you really tell me this isn’t honestly a complete annoyance? This is hardly the first time Poptropica has released poorly designed promotional graphics, offered disappointing prize items, or offered a bunch of extra credits for a first-time island completion and called it news. And while it’s great that a couple members-only islands have been unlocked to the public, they should have been free in the first place, as they were before that fateful member-lock update last summer.

I honestly don’t want Poptropica to be chagrined over this, but hopefully, this is a wake-up call for them.

When community manager Skinny Moon said they may have had something planned for Wimpy Kid Month, I was expecting something better.

Are my expectations too high? Or was the delivery too low? What do you Poptropicanos think?

UPDATE: Poptropica Creator Skinny Moon left the following comment on this post in response:

Hey there Poptropicans,

We hear your concerns and we admit it — we rushed this Wimpy Kid promotion and we apologize. We need to do better. Honestly, we’re glad when you point out something that’s not our best work. All fan feedback is helpful!

We do hope you enjoy your rare Wimpy Kid shirt, though! It’s true that it’s an old-school Poptropica item. We thought you’d enjoy a little piece of history!

Also, we know you’re wondering why there hasn’t been a lot of new stuff happening on Poptropica and why we seem to be pretty quiet. All I can say right now is that we are incredibly busy working on very exciting things for Poptropica, and we’ll be able to reveal more towards the end of the month.

Please know we’re listening to your feedback — keep it coming — the good and the not-so-good!

Keep poppin’,
Skinny Moon

Thanks for hearing us out, Poptropica. We hope it gets better!

Until next time,

– Cobalt Spinner