Vampire’s Curse Island – 🏝 Poptropica Help Blog 🗺

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by White Fox. Enjoy!

Hi, Poptropicans! It’s White Fox again, here with a Ramble Review on the one and only Vampire’s Curse Island. First things first, I have to mention Christopher. The brave, loyal boyfriend.

Yeah, right. Moving on.

One of the reasons I liked this island because of all the references to Bram Stoker’s vampire story Dracula. For example, the villain’s name is Count Bram. Seriously, it is right there.

Also, one of the graves is dedicated to one of the Count’s victims, who was drained of her blood in the novel Dracula. There’s more trivia like this in the PHB’s Vampire’s Curse Island Guide!

Let’s be honest, this island was definitely creepy. I mean, graves. Old statues. Vampires. Spiders. Eek! At first, this island did not seem like something I would be interested in playing. Mythology? Sure! Spies? Fine! But I didn’t feel like I wanted to play an island based on vampires.

Personally, seeing blood makes me freak out, so there’s a problem. The dark sky, the small city, everything at the beginning of the island was not what I would call welcoming. In the end, however, it was one of my favorite islands!

If I could change one thing about this island, though, it has to be the part when you make the anti-vampire serum. Just the fact that it’s so random. I wish it had more reason to it, like you find something that gives you a clue to it. More of an explanation to why it is like that. Or maybe there was, and I didn’t see it.

Even if this island doesn’t get brought back, I hope that the dumbwaiter and the crossbow gets brought back. I loved that. I especially liked the part where you shot arrows at the side of the castle to get the mandrake root. That was hard, but fun and memorable.

I always wondered why tomatoes were in his lab. I mean, next to blood, I suppose tomatoes are a vampire’s favorite food? Or maybe he just had them for research?

I loved this island because of all the adventure. From using the crossbow, to firing the cannon, to growing a tomato head, to helping Katya escape Count Bram, the island is purely full of wonder and mystery.

I think that just about wraps up this post! Put your favorite part of the island in the comments below. 👇Thanks for reading!

Peace,
White Fox

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by White Fox. 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! 📰✨

Pop Places IRL: Vampire’s Curse

October 30, 2018October 30, 2018 Spotted Dragon

Pop Places IRL Header

Welcome back to “Pop Places IRL,” Poptropicans! Today, I’m bringing you an extra spoOOOooOoky setting. This time around, we’ll be traveling to Vampire’s Curse Island! Enjoying the series? Be sure to check out other Pop Places IRL posts.

So, first things first… where exactly does Vampire’s Curse take place? Though the setting is never directly stated, it is implied that the island is heavily influenced by the classic tale of Dracula. In fact, Count Bram is named after its author, Bram Stoker.

And, dear readers, the castle featured in Dracula is none other than the Bran Castle. Eerily similar to “Bram’s Castle,” don’t you think? The creepy tale made the IRL castle pretty famous, because you can even take tours of it today!

photo: Bran Castle Transylvania (vagrantsoftheworld.com)

I suppose this castle comparison leads us to another question… where is the castle located? If you haven’t already guessed, the infamous Bran Castle is located in Romania, a country in Europe. Specifically, the towering construction is near Transylvania, a region especially known for vampire lore. Though the towns in the area are much more modern today, you can definitely still see the remains of older architecture.

photo: Saxon Village (lonelyplanet.com)

However, when you begin to stray away from civilization on Vampire’s Curse Island, you’re sure to wind up deep in the woods (on your way to Bram’s castle, of course). A bit of a maze in game, I’m thinking IRL Romanian forests aren’t much easier to navigate at night. Though they might be less vampire-infested, Romania’s woods always seem to come with their own creepy lore either way.

photo: Hoia Baciu Forest (dailystar.co.uk)

Finally, I think it’s important to touch on the graveyards of Romania, considering their own spooky connotation in-game, where the grand Mausoleum has Latin that reads “meminervnt omnia amantes,” translating to “remember all the lovers.”

This sure adds to the island’s spooky aesthetic, but how does its appearance hold up to its counterparts in real life? It turns out that Romania has a pretty famous grave site called The Merry Cemetery, filled with surprisingly colorful gravestones. What a contrast!

photo: The Merry Cemetery (thecultureist.com)

Welp, that wraps up our IRL tour of Vampire’s Curse! Did it live up to your Halloween-y expectations? Hope we didn’t spook you too much this year. 😉

But I’m curious… what do you think? Have you ever been to Romania? How do our comparisons to the game hold up? What other islands do you want to see in this series? Be sure to leave a comment with your thoughts below!

La revedere! Don’t let the vampire bats bite!

~SD

Shrink Ray Island, Vampire's Curse Island

Happy birthday – have a pencil!

September 15, 2016September 27, 2016 LJ

Hello, everyone!

It’s Lucky Joker here, showing you a fabulous Poptropica cake!

Over on Poptropica’s Twitter page, Poptropica has just announced that they’ll be celebrating Poptropica’s 9th birthday this month! I’m not sure what Poptropica has in store for us, but we were promised some fun coming soon! 🙂

We celebrated Poptropica's 9th birthday at Pop HQ today! Birthday fun coming to Poptropica soon – get ready!!! pic.twitter.com/PIaVbvxowx

— Official Poptropica (@Poptropica) September 15, 2016

Moving ahead now! We’ve also got some unreleased items we may or may not see in Poptropica. Courtesy to idk for the photos.

As seen above, we have a Pencil, a Shoe Box, and an Amulet. From the island logos imprinted on the cards, I’m assuming these were items that were cut during development. Both Shrink Ray and Vampire’s Curse logos can be seen, if you look closely. Maybe even items for the New Poptropica?

If I were to guess; I would say that some of the original islands may be renewed in the New Poptropica. Eh… Just something that came to mind. 😛 Here’s what creator, Skinny Moon, had to say in a recent Q&A we held.

Who’s excited? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

– Lucky Joker

Ghost Story Island, Great Pumpkin Island, Monster Carnival Island, Sneak Peeks, Vampire's Curse Island

Disturbing Drafts: The Conceptioning

October 14, 2015November 3, 2015 gianthawkpoptropica

Greetings Hawk-tropicans! This is Giant Hawk speaking, and I’ve got some spooky news for all of you.

Over the course of the past few days, the Poptropica Creators have been releasing early concept sheets from some of their eeriest islands on their Twitter. So let us journey together, if you dare, into the world of the initial and the uncanny…

Our first concept art is from the early stages of Vampire’s Curse. And as someone who loves the creepy architecture of this island, I must say – this sheet is pretty great! I find it interesting, however, that it is listed as Dracula’s castle…

Our next piece hails from Ghost Story, and appears to be a preliminary representation of Prisoner 24601’s jail cell. Maybe it’s just the color and shading, but I think this is my favorite of these concept pieces. The eerie message is a nice touch too.

Next, here is an early sketch from Monster Carnival. Clearly, what we’re seeing here is some original character models for the Monster Duck Hunt Carnie. I do like his current form the best, but seeing these other possible appearances of this creature is fascinating. Which form is your favorite? Comment below with your opinion!

Now here’s a little something extra for you! Here we have some concept art from Great Pumpkin, which depicts the early days of a few of this island’s mini-games. To be specific, we have ‘Find the Biggest Pumpkin’, which takes up most of this art, and ‘Apple Bobbing’. I do love both of these games, so it does intrigue me to see their humble beginnings.

On Halloween, the Creators tweeted several sketches from the spooky-themed islands of Vampire’s Curse, Great Pumpkin, Ghost Story, and Monster Carnival respectively.

So there we go! Whether or not the Creators decide to post any more of these (update: they have, and they’ve been added to this post) I must say they are all visual treats. But most importantly, they help us fans peer into the making of these islands and assist us in really beginning to appreciate the work that goes into each one. And for that alone, I sincerely believe that they are worth our viewing time.

Until next time…

– – Giant Hawk

Labs (Land), Popstorms, Sneak Peeks, Social Media, Vampire's Curse Island

Treehouse tour, a popping 3D effect, & more art

November 13, 2014February 20, 2015 Spotted Dragon

Yep, the updates just keep on coming!

Best of Land winner: Zany Crown’s treehouse tour

The Public Land Preview may be over, but the hype isn’t! Captain Crawfish filmed a quick tour of Zany Crown’s treehouse, the winner of the “Best of the Land” readers’ poll. 🙂

Pretty cool, huh? I definitely think the basement with the tree roots was the best part of the Land. It was super creative, so congrats, Zany! (Plus, Land will be released as a full version early next year!)

Popping 3D on Forgotten Islands

Plus, the Creators posted a reminder that Poptropica: Forgotten Islands is now out for Nintendo 3DS. (Well, actually, it has been out for about a month now.) You can buy it from Amazon or a local toy store if they have it. Just in time for the holidays!

This game marks the first time Poptropica has been presented with stereoscopic 3D, and you don’t even need overpriced 3D glasses!

More behind-the-scenes art

Of course, as is the trend these days, more behind-the-scenes art has been released on Poptropica’s Twitter and also their new Tumblr. (Click to enlarge the images.)

Check out PopStorm #4 – deviating from the “hair” themes of the first three, this one demonstrates the squash and stretch theme.

Next we have Jeff Kinney’s rough castle sketch for Vampire’s Curse Island, which was drawn on a huge piece of paper. Looks like it didn’t deviate too much from the end product!

Finally, here is a sneak peek of a palace interior scene for an upcoming, unannounced island. Apparently the island will be coming in January 2015, so that’s not too far away!

Any theories, guys? I may be way off, but this image kind of reminds me of the underground cave Daily Pops that surfaced throughout 2013. Some people even thought they could be for the return of Legendary Swords. Check out this or this PHB post for some of these sneak peeks, or see some of the images below from our Daily Pop sneak peek archive.

Shroom Available: Looks like a fungal infection has gotten out of control.

Gate Crasher: You came to the wrong neighborhood.

Hot Springs: Nothing like a relaxing dip in some molten lava.

Down Under: Nope, not Australia. It’s even under there.

Undercurrents: Like this water, you may eventually find your own level.

The Glow Pt 2: A light in the darkness is helpful no matter where it’s from.

Spelunky: Gear up before you go down.

On the Edge: Don’t go overboard.

Fossil Fuel: The soil holds many secrets.

The images seem to have a similar style, right? Then again, at a second glace, the old Daily Pops remind me of Arabian Nights too. Well, hopefully you guys have some better theories than I do. 😛

Last but not least, PoptropiCon, Ep. 2: Spoiler Alert releases to everyone tomorrow! Get ready for a big plot twist – and if you need spoilers, check out our PoptropiCon Island Guide. 🙂

That’s all for now! Comment your thoughts below. 😉

~SD