Reviews – 🏝 Poptropica Help Blog 🗺

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Comical Dragon. Enjoy!

Hi all! My name is Comical Dragon. I’m a longtime Poptropica player and PHB reader. I’m not going to say how old I am, but I am old enough to remember the Flash days of Poptropica, when new islands and ideas were abundant, and each one left me feeling satisfied.

To me, the beauty of Poptropica and its islands was their creativity.

Remember when the friends page used to look like this?

I’m the kind of person that likes the simple things in life. Even as I aged out of Poptropica’s target demographic (originally 6–15 years old), I still revisited the website from time to time, and up until their removal, I would replay some of my favorite islands over and over again. All this to say, Poptropica was, and is, a game that I’ve held close to my heart. For that reason, it pains me to say that I’m deeply disappointed in where the game has gone in recent years.

A bit of background, in case you’re unfamiliar with Pop lore: The game was released in 2007, created by Jeff Kinney (more popularly known as the author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series). Through 2007-2015, the game grew to have over 75 million registered users. The original publishers were Pearson Education, but the site was sold to Sandbox Networks in 2015. As it often happens with company acquisitions, teams were restructured, with evidence of some longtime Pop Creators leaving against their wishes. This is the point where I begin my criticisms.

Secret Lair: This evil HQ is under construction.

Looking at this list of island releases by year, taken from the Poptropica Fandom Wiki, you can see that starting in 2015, there are fewer islands released per year, dwindling down to just one last year in 2022.

Also see the PHB’s Island Guides for info on all the islands.

In my personal opinion, the islands from 2015 onwards lack the creativity and depth of the islands before them. My playthroughs of the most recent ones, the three contest-winning Dream Islands (Fairy Tale, Goofball, and Jade Scarab) left me deeply disappointed. The concepts of these islands are so rich and have so much potential! Just check out the inside looks with the player designers of Jade Scarab and Goofball Island. But it felt to me as though the team didn’t want to play with the ideas they were offered from players.

It took me no more than 15 minutes to play through each one — granted, I am an older player. Still, there was not much to explore in the environments of these three islands, barely any NPCs to interact with, and the main quests were extremely simple. They essentially held your hand while going through objectives, and there wasn’t much of a story element that I had enjoyed with previous islands.

Because I don’t want to be overly negative, I will mention that some newer features of Poptropica are quite nice, like the Home Island and the player’s clubhouse, allowing players to make their own space in-game.

Of course, I can’t talk about the latest islands without talking about Flash. When Adobe Flash was discontinued in 2020, many of Poptropica’s islands were rendered unplayable. The Creators kept promising that old islands were being brought over to a new format, but the selection of islands has disappointed fans. Poptropica went from a bustling 51+ islands to 17, with some of them being locked behind a paywall, either of membership or the paid Steam bundle.

I will admit that transitioning the amount of content that Poptropica had does take time and hard work. I won’t fault the Creators for that. However, I think that rather than releasing new islands that don’t have the same appeal as old islands, and continually revamping the Home Island, the Creators need to bring back the old islands — as they were originally. They’ve remastered classic islands in the past, and the results haven’t been well received (see the watered-down Mythology, and Zomberry on Roblox).

Moving on from the islands, I’d also like to touch on the membership paywalls. Many original costumes, and even some of the re-released islands, are for members only. I understand the need for revenue since the website doesn’t seem to be getting as much traffic these days, but this has a huge impact for players. The costumes available to all are flat — they’re everyday clothes that you or I might wear. And the Costumizer tool, which allowed players to put together creative looks inspired by the characters they met across the islands, is also gone!

Poptropica doesn’t offer the same freedom to players anymore — we can’t explore islands nor customize our characters to be as fantastical as we want. A huge part of what drew me to the website was the creativity, and the escapism of it all. It just isn’t there anymore.

My suggestions to the Pop Creators:

Spend more time rebuilding, and gradually releasing old islands! While adding to the Home Island and little side quests are great, they’re really not what Poptropica is all about.
Let players make their own choices, and have deeper gameplay! Kids are so much smarter than we give them credit for, especially when they’re engaged — simply look towards the old islands.
Give players more creative control over their characters, and make more whimsical and fun costumes and add-ons available to people who don’t have memberships.

Poptropica in its prime was releasing quality islands and drawing millions of players, old and young alike. What happened? Let’s bring back the old Poptropica that so many people cherished.

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Comical Dragon. If you did, you might also enjoy our various Pop Petition posts.

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!

Reviews, Steam Bundle

PHB Review: Poptropica on Steam 💨🎮

May 29, 2022January 30, 2023 Slanted Fish

Poptropica recently released a bunch of their older islands and more via Steam for about US$20 (or less in some regions). From what’s in it to whether it’s worth it, we’ll be evaluating everything you need to know about this Steam bundle. Let’s pop into it!

What do you need to run the game?

First and foremost, you’ll need access to Steam, the video game distribution platform. Signing up for an account and downloading its app is free and easy. The game will run on both Windows and Mac computers, although M1 Macs (post-Nov 2020) are currently not supported, and Mac users will also need to download Adobe AIR.

Downloading the game requires 2 GB of storage space, and playing the game requires an internet connection and Poptropica account (free).

What’s new with Poptropica on Steam?

Most of the content has lived on the main Poptropica desktop and mobile game before, so playing it is more for nostalgia than novelty.

The only new thing is a twist on the ending of Monster Carnival Island. However, the changes are not particularly significant — just a bit of dialogue changed, with a somewhat less cruel fate for Ringmaster Raven. See what’s new in our updated Monster Carnival Island Guide! 🐦

What else is included in the Steam bundle?

The Steam bundle includes 17 islands (+1 if you count the tutorial, Snagglemast): Mythology (classic), Shrink Ray, Poptropolis Games, Monster Carnival, Time Tangled, Mystery of the Map, Virus Hunter, 24 Carrot, Galactic Hot Dogs, Mocktropica, Escape From Pelican Rock, Reality TV: Wild Safari, Timmy Failure, and all episodes of Survival, PoptropiCon, Arabian Nights, and Mission Atlantis — also known as the AS3 islands, or the newer bunch of the old islands. 🏝Plus, it also comes with the create-your-own-world Realms.

You’ll also have the Flash version of Home Island (with summer scenery), which includes Amelia greeting you on a bridge, your clubhouse and Realms portal at the top, the New You customization building to the left (plus the movie theater, closed), and the daily spin wheel, store, pet barn, and Blast-off Arcade to your right.

In terms of features, it’s almost like going back to the 2020 version of Poptropica. You’ll get to access the Costumizer (on all islands, not just PoptropiCon), the crate menu, and the inventory layout with the item cards in two rows and horizontal scrolling. You can also visit common rooms and buy older store items, but can’t access the friends feature nor play in full screen — though it’s still bigger than the desktop version.

Since you’ll need to login to your Pop account, everything’s connected to your save data from Haxe (desktop) Poptropica (formerly Flash) and the mobile app, which means you’ll have all your store items, costumes, pets, clubhouse layout(s), island progress, credits, etc.

Is Poptropica on Steam worth the price? Do we recommend it?

At the risk of sounding like a cop-out answer, it depends! If you can swallow the US$19.99 price tag (varies by country), and are wondering if this is where you want to spend it, these are our recommendations:

👎 If you have Flashpoint (requires some setup): No

You might know that you can revisit these islands and more with Flashpoint, the fan-run preservation project, which is already free. All it needs is a bit of setup on a computer (Windows will be easier, while Macs might take more work, and Chromebooks are not compatible).

Flashpoint might occasionally glitch out, but if it works for you, then this Steam bundle won’t add anything new beyond Realms and the minimal changes in Monster Carnival. And if you’re looking to play the oldest of old islands, like Astro-Knights or Super Power, you’ll want Flashpoint, not Steam.

👌 If you have the pre-2022 Pop mobile app: Maybe

For those who have the pre-2022 Poptropica mobile app, the content will be similar — although you do gain Poptropolis Games, Mocktropica, Monster Carnival, Virus Hunter, and Realms, so long as you never update the app. Plus, if you just have the islands on mobile but want to play on the computer, the Steam bundle gives you that option.

👍 If you don’t have Flashpoint: Yes

Mac users will have to jump through more hoops to get Flashpoint working, so if you’d rather save yourself this effort, the Steam game offers an easier option (except for M1 Macs, which are not currently supported). If you can spare the cash, $20 adds up to about $1 per island, for about an hour of gameplay each, which seems like an OK deal.

Plus if you’ve updated your Pop app since 2022, this is also the only official way to access these old islands. Because of that, it should run more smoothly — if it doesn’t, you can always contact Pop support for a fix. You’ll also be supporting the development of Poptropica with this purchase. It’s true that these islands all used to be free, but alas, times have changed. Better a paid Poptropica than none at all?

That wraps up the PHB’s review of Poptropica on Steam! You can also read more reviews directly on Steam. Will you be getting the game? What do you think of it? Share your thoughts in the comments!

— the Poptropica Help Blog —

Jade Scarab Island, Reviews

PHB Review: Jade Scarab Island 🪲

May 2, 2022May 13, 2022 Slanted Fish

*Curbed by the curse? Check out our Jade Scarab Island Guide.*

You you you! Yes you, adventurer! Have you played Jade Scarab Island yet? The PHB team has had some time to dig in and digest, and now we’re here to share our thoughts with you about this final Dream Island, which released in late April. Beware: spoilers lie ahead!

Storyline & Characters

Soon after Jade Scarab Island was announced as a winner of the Dream Island contest last year, the PHB shared an inside look from Girl Power, the Poptropican who designed the island. Looking back at her original ideas, it’s interesting to compare them to the real thing.

Girl Power’s submission contains extra details not found in the game, particularly in regard to names. This includes: Claira the curator, King Khnurn’s tomb (“reborn sun” in Egyptian), and the village of Iteru (“river” in Egyptian) — in Poptropica, they were all nameless.

However, the game is faithful to some of her other ideas, like the merchant and Howard Diggory. Other ideas are modified — instead of errands of fishing and translating, we’re boosting a camel business and locating a missing excavator. We’re not opposed to the Pop Creators taking creative liberties, but for an island that felt a bit short in playtime, it could have benefitted from more fleshing out of details.

*The Ancient Antiquities Museum in Cairo became the Museum of Really Old Things on Pop, but still with the Egyptian flag on top.*

Still, there were lots of fun characters and dialogue. We especially loved the player’s self-aware blimp remark, the busy businessman who rejects your flirting, and of course, the adorable little cat (although that goddess transformation came out of nowhere and left too soon!). 🐱

The reveal and defeat of the villain, the digsite foreman, felt abrupt and anticlimactic. He’s surly throughout the island, so it’s not much of a surprise when he swoops in to attack. However, his identity (though not expression) was part of Girl Power’s plan — she had named the foreman Awantagi (“deceitful person” in Egyptian). We don’t get much time to face him, either: a quick cutscene and it’s all over. Overall, the story is intriguing, but we just wish we could engage with it longer.

Gameplay

At times, the game can run rather slowly, and some players have reported getting locked in scenes. Hopefully the Creators can iron out these glitches soon, but in the meantime if you find yourself stuck somehow, you can restart the island from the map.

When things work, though, exploring Jade Scarab does feel like a classic OG island, with less hand-holding than most of the other new islands. Scanning the desert by flying with the falcon definitely gave us nostalgic vibes for similar mechanics on old islands like Wild West and Cryptids! 🦅

Perhaps the most challenging part of Jade Scarab is the merkhet puzzle. Even with the instructions and animated demonstration, players have been confused about the task at hand. (Our guide can help!) Its uniqueness makes this part interesting, but it also leaves us without much frame of reference for what we’re supposed to do.

Still, other parts struck a decent balance between fun and frustrating. Whether we were making charcoal rubbings or chasing a cat, it was exciting to make discoveries, and rewarding to figure things out.

Audio & Visuals

We love the looks and listens for Jade Scarab, but at the same time, they don’t feel new. Many of the soundtracks are from Arabian Nights Island, including this “Genie Dance” tune. (Hear more on our Pop Music page!)

The desert marketplace and tomb setting feels similar to Arabian Nights, while the ancient Egyptian aesthetics were also a feature of Nabooti Island. Technically, Jade Scarab is a new story with new art, but it doesn’t really break barriers in the Poptropica canon. 🚜

That being said, there are still many cool details to enjoy, like the mix of ancient and modern culture (including traffic honks!), hijab-wearing bystanders, and even Rumpelstiltskin on a ring float.

Verdict

With its fun but short storyline, classic island vibes, and neat but derivative stylings, Jade Scarab Island feels like a good-but-not-great addition to the map. Out of five we’d give this Egyptian expedition…

3.5 out of 5 Bastet idols. Though this excavation vacation comes with its share of enjoyable discoveries, it ultimately comes up short in its potential to dig deeper. Let’s hope Poptropica breaks that curse soon!

There’s so much more to unpack — head over to the trivia section of our Jade Scarab Island Guide to see what other details you may have missed!

With that, all three Dream Islands from the 2020 contest are done and dusted! Which one was your fave: Fairytale, Goofball, or Jade Scarab? 🏝 Next up, we’re looking forward to the return of some old islands to Steam—and maybe bigger adventures on Poptropica, too? 👉👈

Thanks for reading our review of Jade Scarab Island! Do you agree with our verdict? Share your opinions in the comments below!

— 🚜 the Poptropica Help Bloggers 🪲 —

Guest Posts, Reviews

Ramble Review: Mocktropica Island

January 15, 2022January 15, 2022 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Silver Shell. Enjoy!

Now, I love Mocktropica Island because of how real it is. You don’t battle pirates or ninjas on this island, but you battle something just as challenging: Games breaking down. Chaos. Frustrating management that doesn’t listen to anyone. There’s a lot of frustration and confusion in the plot of this island. There are plenty of glitches, but the creators seem to only care about new things, like the dreadful Pop Coins.

Sounding familiar yet? Unfortunately, modern Pop has started to immensely resemble Mocktropica these days. There’s plenty of talk about that already, though, so let’s move on from that.

I think the island is really fun! You get to design Main Street from a little basement, change the weather and time of day, and, of course, it’s the home of the Narf. My favorite part of this island was trying to convince the former creators to get back to their jobs. All three of them had moved on and needed lots of persuasion before they would return. However, once you get the whole team back together, a lot is fixed! The player gets to actually fix the game itself! How cool is that?!

The twist? First-rate. The fact that management had been planning to destroy Poptropica all along to move Mega Fighting Bots up to the top of the list was, I have to say, quite genius. The clues were everywhere, but I never made the connection! I had assumed those people were just cheap and loony. In my opinion, that twist was the best one in Poptropica.

I actually needed Thinknoodles’s walkthrough for the end part with the flying bots, but I had a lot of fun with it, especially considering the fact that you threw Pop Coins at them. Revenge on the Pop Coins. 😜

And that’s that! Thanks for reading again!

Pop Nonstop,

🥈🐚

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Silver Shell. If you did, you might also enjoy the PHB’s other Ramble Reviews of various islands, like this one about Lunar Colony by Purple Paw.

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!

Goofball Island, Reviews

PHB Review: Goofball Island 🤪

November 30, 2021November 30, 2021 Slanted Fish

Dr. Blandston got you confused? Check out our Goofball Island Guide.

Heyo, Poptropicans! Now that Goofball Island has been out for a little while, the PHB team is here to share our thoughts on this strange happy place inspired by a winner of Poptropica’s Dream Island Contest.

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 fan theories.

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!