Guest Posts

What makes a Poptropica island?

Slanted Fish

This is a guest post by Bony Bones, who’s examining just what exactly makes a Poptropica adventure count as an “island.” The following is his opinion only. Enjoy!

Hello Poptropicans, this is Bony Bones. I’ve frequented this blog, reading, commenting, and occasionally guest posting, so you might’ve seen me around.

Today I’m popping in to discuss exactly what makes an island, an island. There has been some debate over whether certain quests should be granted full-island status or just be labeled as mini-quests. 

The islands/quests that I believe are up for debate are: Legendary Swords, Snagglemast, Realms, Monkey Wrench, Haunted House, Home, the Blimp Adventure, and each individual episode of the episodic adventures. Here are my reasons for why I believe an island is, or is not, an island:

1) It’s on the map

One of the most recognizable traits that a quest is an island is that it is accessible from the Poptropica island map. Being able to travel somewhere with your blimp, and not via store card, menu button, etc., certainly classifies an island as a full adventure. All of the aforementioned islands have been on the map at one point, besides Blimp Adventure.

2) You earn a medallion

As reminded by Jim Probably of Reality TV: Wild Safari, earning a medallion is “a Poptropica thing.” It’s the cherry on top of the island cake. This knocks off Snagglemast, Haunted House, and the Home Island as full islands, and it would have knocked off Legendary Swords if a medallion hadn’t been added recently.

3) It has a complete and recognizable story

Though every good story leaves loose-ends untied for good reason, it still must be a complete adventure to be considered a full island. I mainly included this attribute to recognize that, while you may get a medallion after each episode in an episodic adventure, each episode is a part of a greater whole.

4) The Creators recognize it as an island

For quite some time, until recently, there was a list of Poptropica islands on the Poptropica.com home page. This was a good place to determine what was an island, which included everything from Early Poptropica to Monkey Wrench.

5) It’s less game, more plot

Even if an island does have a recognizable story, as I mentioned earlier, it must be more story-oriented than game-oriented. In the case of Legendary Swords, because the quest originated as an “action-quest” (basically a fancy way to say it was a little bit more than just a mini-quest), and therefore it does not have an island-style story.

The “game” aspects, with the health bar, the choice of weapons, and the waves of bad guys to fight, stand out more than the plot.

6) It must be located on the planet of Poptropica

Though there are some islands, such as Astro Knights and Lunar Colony, that take place on other planets (or moons) — and others, such as Super Villain and Time Tangled, that take place within Poptropica, but within dreams or another time period, the beginning of every island’s story must begin on Poptropica itself. As we saw from islands like Lunar Colony, Poptropica is a planet made up of various islands.

Therefore, with these attributes in mind, there are 47 fully-fledged islands, from Early Poptropica to Reality TV: Wild Safari, including Monkey Wrench but not including any of the others mentioned at the beginning of this post.

I hope this helped clear up any confusion about what really counts as an island. Feel free to comment any attributes that you think should be added to this list or any quests that you feel are up for debate.

Thanks for letting me pop in (I really need to learn some new pop puns). See you guys around!

—Bony Bones

Hope you enjoyed this Pop Petition guest post by Bony Bones! If you did, be sure to check out his other PHB guest post, “Pop It, Lock It”!

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. You can find some tips and guidelines on our page on how to Write for the PHB, and share blog posts on the PHC.

📰 If you have an idea for a PHB post, send it in! ✨

Member Gifts, Poptropolis Games Island, Reality TV: Wild Safari Island, Realms

Pole vault your way to a vault of Poptanium

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, it’s Slanted Fish popping in with what’s new. In this post, we’ve got the latest island no longer in beta, a Poptropolis Games fix, and a Realms highlight. Let’s get to it!

First, there’s Reality TV: Wild Safari Island, which was released last month on CoolMathGames as a beta for all players, including non-members. It’s now officially on the map on Poptropica.com, but currently only open to members (even on CoolMathGames).

Whether or not you’ve had the chance to play it yet, you can check out what the PHB team thought of it over on our Reality TV: Wild Safari Island Review, and look forward to the island being officially released for all soon!

The Pop Creators also recently announced that they fixed a bug on the pole vault game on Poptropolis Games Island. Now you can actually, you know, vault the pole. Hooray!

And Blue Tooth really rocks that little baby shark beanie well, don’t you think? 🦈 (That hat was one of the July member gifts, by the way.)

Blue Tooth also recently highlighted a Realm on Poptropica’s social media. Once you enter through the Realms portal on Home Island, Smart Bones’ “Labyrinth” can be accessed via the code 9rw56.

Though there is Poptanium to be found along the way, be warned: the Realm is more labyrinthine challenges than Poptanium vault. Still, if you like a good platforming struggle, this place is worth checking out. (If you prefer the Poptanium, though, we feature some good vaults in our Realms Guide.)


While it’s nice to see Realms featured by Poptropica, which hasn’t happened in a while, I can’t help but wonder whatever happened to the Look of the Week series and the yet-to-be-realized Clubhouse of the Week. Hmmm? 😛

That’s all for the latest in Poptropica! Share your thoughts in the comments, and keep it awesome, Poptropicans. ✌️

~/🐠

Poptropica Portfolio

Poptropica Portfolio: Nate Greenwall, 2.0

LJ

What’s up, Poptropicans? It’s time for another Poptropica Portfolio!

Today I’ll be featuring the works of an artist we’ve showcased before (the very first Pop Portfolio on the PHB, in fact) — the amazing Nate Greenwall (aka Shark Boy Guy), who worked with Poptropica for nearly 11 years from May 2007 to February 2018. Anyway, let’s get into it!

Greenwall helped design much of Poptropica’s merch over the years including books, toys, shirts, and more. Even the Dr. Hare’s Lair LEGO set that sadly was never released was designed by Nate. Poor Dr. Hare… that would’ve been so cool. I totally would’ve bought it!

Greenwall has also contributed to a whole host of Poptropica’s main assets like the old friends page, the photo booth, island backgrounds, and too many other things to list! He took part in the design process from beginning to end — starting with the wireframes and flows all the way to the final product.

In addition to the bigger features previously mentioned, he also created various advertisement content for Poptropica. Here’s a cool looking Toy Story 3 ad he worked on back in 2010.

When Poptropica was developing their mobile app, Greenwall was responsible for redesigning a lot of the game’s essential systems such as the costumization feature, item inventory, and icon (every so often).

Plus, shout-out to former PHB staffer Brave Tomato for being quoted in Nate’s portfolio from her My Place in Poptropica PHB post:

And finally, take a look at these sketches from the early stages of the island designing process. It’s pretty neat to be able to see some of the brainstorming and preliminary outlines done before an island’s release.

As you can see, Nate has contributed plenty to the game we love during his time with Poptropica, and it’s sad he was released in such an untimely manner. These days, he creates mockups and prototypes for the online furniture and decor retailer, Overstock.

Interested in learning more about Nate and his other projects? Head over to his personal website to see what he’s up to; you’ll find lots of extra Poptropica stuff there too!

I hope you all enjoyed this look into yet another poptastic Poptropica portfolio. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out all of the other artists we’ve featured here on the PHB — you won’t be disappointed!

As always, thank you for reading and I’ll talk to you in the next one. Pop on!

– Lucky Joker🍀

Blast from the Past

2012 Rewind: You’ve Got a Friend in Me

Slanted Fish

This post is part of our Poptropica Yearbook series. If you missed the intro, check it out on the 2007 Rewind and browse the collection here.

Let’s delve into 2012! Bring a friend, or make some new ones, and we’ll enjoy these memories together.

One of the most exciting and long-awaited features came to Poptropica in April of 2012: Friends! Finally, the top-right icon with two faces side-by-side that had been sitting uselessly on every Poptropican’s screen now had a purpose: discovering more about our Poptropican friends and showing off our own island medallion stats and personalities! We enjoyed these profiles for seven good long years before Poptropica redid them in 2019.

Tribes were one of the personality features we could display on our profiles, which came with tribe common rooms and teams to root for on Poptropolis Games Island, which had just surfaced from the sea.

Seraphim tribe common room
Eight tribes to choose from

Tons of islands were released in 2012. In addition to Poptropolis Games, there came S.O.S., Vampire’s Curse, Twisted Thicket, Wimpy Boardwalk, Lunar Colony, Super Villain (the 30th island!), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Zomberry — nine new islands total, perhaps the peak of Pop’s production.

Managing mischief on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Changing eye color on Lunar Colony
Encountering old enemies on Super Villain

It was also the end of the previous year’s era of prequel mini-games, but the beginning of a new island tradition: members-only bonus quests at the end.

Thunder Volt
Competing for a high score on Wimpy Boardwalk’s “Thunder Volt”
Decoding alien writing on Lunar Colony

Plus, Poptropica expanded their book line, releasing two novels based on the plots of popular islands, a coloring book, and a Mad Libs! And that wasn’t all: they also released a Nintendo DS game called Poptropica Adventures.

Over on the PHB, we changed our site theme again, sticking with blue for Poptropica. We also had a banger of a party celebrating the blog’s 4th birthday and a rare account giveaway to commemorate reaching 7 million hits!

In 2012, the site had another makeover, using the “Lifestyle” theme.
The PHB turns 4!

Toward the end of the year, Poptropica reported an earthquake affecting Poptropolis Games Island. For a while there, we weren’t sure of its fate…

You’ve reached the end of the 2012 page of the Poptropica Yearbook! Stay tuned for the next chapter, and to view the entire collection, check out the Poptropica Yearbook in our Pop Plus collection.

While you’re here, sign the yearbook by commenting? ✏️

Pop 5

Pop 5: Tear-Jerkers in Poptropica 😢

LJ

How’s it going, Poptropicans? I’m Lucky Joker and today I’ll be counting down the top — or should I say pop — 5 most tear-jerking moments in Poptropica! Keep in mind that this list represents my personal opinion, so your list may differ from mine. Anyway, let’s get right into the waterworks! (**Warning: Spoilers ahead)

5) The Wreckage of Poptropica (Super Villain Island)

After the job of collecting the totems from Poptropica’s most evil villains is done, it’s revealed that Dr. Jupiter (the person who sent us on this journey) was really Zeus all along! He betrays us and steals the totems we’ve retrieved in order to make himself the most powerful villain who’s ever lived, and to take over all of Poptropica.

Once he gets away, a cutscene plays out showing Shark Tooth, Mythology, and Mystery Train Islands completely destroyed. There’s something tragic about seeing the beloved past islands we’ve once explored and saved laying in ruins. I could imagine if this island was sound updated and had a sad piano or violin track playing over it, it would make the scene even more dramatic.

4) Count Bram and Annabelle’s Reunion (Vampire’s Curse Island)

Unlike all the other picks for this list, this moment is actually not a sad one, but still manages to get you emotional. After years of being cursed as a vampire and having Katya — who he believes is his wife — not want anything to do with him, Count Bram is finally happy when we break the curse and reunite him with the love of his life, Annabelle. We witness a very heartwarming moment as he finally is able to rest in peace.

3) Scheherazade’s Confession (Arabian Nights Island)

Scheherazade demanded Samhal the genie to relinquish his magic abilities to her, and after, went on a rampage ignited by her hunger for power — becoming a mere reflection of her father, the sultan. It’s later revealed that she was only acting up because she was yearning for something she missed greatly: her father’s attention. After he became sultan, he rarely showed her any affection because he was too concerned about his riches. When she opens up about her feelings, he begins to cry. That’s a sentiment everyone felt in that moment. I mean, c’mon, just look at her adorable little drawing of them happy together.

2) The Destruction of the Magic Orb (Twisted Thicket Island)

At the climax of the island — after you’ve gotten past all of the creatures and into the center of the forest — you encounter the Elf Queen and discover that the woodland creatures have been the victims of this story all along. All they want is to live in peace. The Elf Queen explains the orb’s importance to us when all of a sudden, the developer and his construction crew raid the forest and destroy the magic orb, leaving the woodland creatures in a vegetative state. Tsk tsk, greedy Poptropicans.

1) Ringmaster Raven’s Story (Monster Carnival Island)

Though this one is more of a series of moments, there’s no doubt that it’s a very sad tale: that of a boy who just wanted to feel welcomed and accepted by those around him, but wasn’t because he was different. Sure, he went about coping in the wrong way as he sought to seek revenge on the citizens (most of whom were innocent) by making them his servants through hypnosis — but really, all he wanted was acceptance, and I think that’s something we all can resonate with.

At the end of the island, we turn him into a laughingstock of a circus act through more hypnosis. So it’s on with the circus life for Raven, now dubbed “The Incredible Chicken Man.” The poor bullied bird boy never got his happy ending. 😢

Need a tissue? No judgment. Anyway, that’s it for this Pop 5! Do you agree with my choices? What other moments from Poptropica do you think deserve to be on this list? Sound off down below! Pop on…

– Lucky Joker 🍀