The top stop for all things Pop
Happy holidays, Poptropicans! No matter what you celebrate this time of year, we hope you all have fun and stay safe with your loved ones.
It’s been a quieter year than usual for Poptropica, but we still experienced our share of ups and downs! Check out our 2023 Rewind post in the Pop Yearbook for a recap on the past year’s shenanigans.
🎉 Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year! 🎆
—the PHB team 🏝️🗺️🎄
As we approach the end of 2023, here’s a look back on Poptropica’s quietest year yet. Without a Pop drop, you could hear a pin drop.
(You might be interested in taking a look back on Poptropica’s previous years, too. We’ve got just the thing over on our Yearbook page!) 📖
2023 kicked off with the monthly costume contest in January, a tradition going back to May 2021. But something was different about this one: we never heard back about the winners, and no further costume contests have been announced since. And not just that…
Without the new costumes meant to be offered on the Red Baron’s airship, the Baron’s ship never made another appearance on Home Island. After all the drama that unfolded the previous year, we’ve been left hanging as to what’s going on with the ship and its constituents.
The silence continues throughout the year — the first year we’ve had no new islands nor mini-quests. Poptropica is quiet with their comms too, with no blog updates since February, and no updates to their most active social media platform, Instagram, since September, after months of memes. They also closed off commenting on their blog in August. 🤐
Still, the game hasn’t been totally dead. Though updates have been sparse, Poptropica did experiment with daily questions, bring back the Candy Crazed Mini Quest for a limited time, re-released Mission Atlantis Ep. 2 for members, launched a few ads including an “island” for Pixar’s Elemental, and celebrated their 16th birthday with sweet gifts. But all that pales in comparison to what they’ve been able to achieve before.
Here on the PHB, we’ve tried to keep the spirit of Poptropica alive with fun content including an April Fools joke on a TV show starring Amelia, Favorite Poptropica Character Tournament, the Poppies 2023 Awards, a Sweet 16 birthday art collab, and lots of fanfiction, including The Villain Saga by Smart Bubbles, Zombies, Zombies, ALWAYS ZOMBIES! by Magic Kid, and PoptropiCon Saga comics by Invisible Ring. 💥
We’ve also shared some nostalgic blog posts as players reckon with the fact that Poptropica’s better days are now behind us. Here’s a selection, with more good reads available in our Greatest PHB Posts collection:
Throughout the year, Poptropica continued trudging along with its routine shop rotations and monthly member gifts — until, in December, even membership was removed with no explanation. 😬 On the bright side, previously paywalled content became free for all and Poptropicans showed their support for the game amidst worries about its future, including a shutdown scare ignited by a false rumor.
The strange turn of events puts an end to the PHB’s membership giveaways that started in 2021. We also said goodbye to another one of our series — Community Creations — in July, after six inspiring years. 🥺
With the lack of communications and updates to the game, the future of Poptropica seems thrown into a free-fall. But whatever happens, we at the Poptropica Help Blog will be here for the ride.
Hold on for 2024 — who knows what we’re in for!
~🩵☃️ the PHB
Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Magic Kid. Enjoy!
Hi there! I’m back with the zombies, the drama, and the adventure! Are they too late to save Toothpick? We’ll have to find out…
(I apologize in advance for the events that take place in this episode. Also, Merry Christmas!) (Catch the last episode here, or first episode here.)
ZOMBIES, ZOMBIES, ALWAYS ZOMBIES!
A Zomberry Series
Episode Fourteen: So About What Happened to Toothpick…
Let’s rewind a few days previously to Party Time Tower, right after unsuccessfully trying to change the past. The flying pirate ship is soaring away, engine sputtering dangerously. Toothpick was left alone. Alone, in the middle of a vast hoard of zombies.
He instantly felt as though something had dunked him in ice cold water. Oh, the fear!
Toothpick didn’t know if this made the situation better or worse, but a black helicopter was on his way towards him.
The zombies had fallen back a bit when the pirate ship had lowered down, but they were now regaining the height at a very quick pace.
The helicopter was now right above Toothpick. A rope ladder unrolled right by him.
Pilot
GET IN!
Either Toothpick is captured by zombies, or he gets on that helicopter.
Continue reading “Fanfic: Zombies, Zombies, ALWAYS ZOMBIES! 🧟 Ep. 14: So About What Happened to Toothpick…”
Yoohoo Poptropicans, it’s LJ here. Today I want to turn the clocks back 10 years and revisit the islands of 2013 with a ranking to celebrate the anniversary. I can’t believe it’s been an entire decade!
I have an inkling my list will differ from most people’s opinions so I’m very excited to get into it and start discussing with you all. Let’s pop in.
(Disclaimer: This is not a full review for each island, so each analysis will be kept brief. Links to the synopses will be included throughout the commentary if you need more context.)
Mocktropica Island was released for all players in January of 2014, but was first available to members on December 19, 2013, so it’s technically a 2013 and a 2014 island. With that said, I’ll be including Mocktropica in this list since 2014 has plenty of islands to rank as it is.
Now, don’t get me wrong ⎯ Mocktropica is a pretty neat island. The concept is wicked cool, and it was executed nicely in my opinion. I’m one to appreciate a good meta reference here and there, so without surprise, an island filled with them at every turn totally appealed to me. Initially, I found this island to be pretty cool and very funny. It’s not so bizarre like Timmy Failure Island, but I think it’s just zany enough to appeal to most players of all ages.
The reason I rank it last on my list, however, is because I’m pretty sure this is the island I’ve played the least from this year, so I don’t remember it as much as the other ones at this point. Plus, the main joke of the island ⎯ “Poptropica is under new management, and it’s falling apart at the seams!” ⎯ so heavily resonates with the current state of the game today, and it just hits too hard. It’s no longer tongue-in-cheek humor and retrospectively thinking, it just feels like a sad foreshadowing of what was to come.
Night Watch Island was the first official island released in 2013, and it was first available to members on February 21. It was released for everyone the next month on March 14.
I’ll be honest, Night Watch was never the most entertaining island (gameplay wise) for me back then. The back and forth travelling felt a little too redundant in this island specifically, and with being released right after Zomberry, this one didn’t feel as epic. The things I do like about the island, though, are enough to redeem it and to not put it in last place.
It was pretty cool having a job in this one, and although you’re pretty much in solitude almost the entire time, it doesn’t feel lonely. I think that has something to do with all of the signs, toys, pets, robot dummies etc. all around you in the mall. I also can’t forget to mention little Eddie, the coral snake. Somehow, he steals the show for me, and I think he’s hilarious.
Also, I just really like shopping and malls in general, and I’m practically obsessed with Scooby-Doo ⎯ so I greatly appreciated the reference at the end when the culprit says “And I would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for this meddling security guard!” Speaking of references, there are loads of them throughout Nightwatch to other Poptropica islands & characters (similar to Mocktropica), but also to real life stores & movies as well! What the island doesn’t bring in gameplay it definitely brings in super fun reference hunting.
Back Lot Island came out for members on April 4, 2013 and for non-members later in the month on April 25, 2013.
This island was fantastic to me since I’ve always been interested in movie & television magic. Every time I played it as a kid, I really felt like I was making a movie. There is a bit of that back and forth travelling like I mentioned in Night Watch, but I don’t think it’s as bad in this island. To be honest, I actually enjoyed driving the go cart in the Grand Majestic Studios lot (in aerial view) and running up & down Sunset Blvd. As fun as a mall can be, I think the scenery in this island is even more captivating.
It was also very satisfying seeing all of your work come together when the movie plays in the theater at the end ⎯ although it didn’t make much sense to me. 😂 On top of all that, the paparazzi photographing me like I was a celebrity when I first landed on the island gave me a huge ego boost. Just kidding!
Zomberry Island was first released on December 19, 2012 for members but released for everyone a month later on January 10, 2013. Because 2012 is the year with the most islands to rank already, I’ll be including it in the 2013 list instead ⎯ kind of like I did with Mocktropica.
I recognize that I may be a little biased with this one, but I don’t think it takes away from the greatness that this island is. Zomberry is the first island I played with my little cousins when I introduced them to the game. It was a proud moment. I’ve lost count of the number of times I played through this apocalyptic adventure (and watched the trailer before its release) so it’s super nostalgic.
The atmosphere is dark and chilling, but the characters are quite colorful despite that. This is a nice contrast that makes for a nice setting. Samuel Brains’ look is a whole vibe and DJ Saturday Night is just as about iconic as Shark Boy Guy in my opinion. Abe may not be as quirky and lively as the others, but he’s certainly memorable, nonetheless.
For me, Zomberry definitely deserves the silver. In fact, it was almost first but that honor went to… 🥁🥁🥁
Virus Hunter Island was released for members on August 29, 2013, and on September 26, 2013 for everybody else.
I’ll admit, the environment isn’t exactly the cure for queasiness (and I imagine anybody with anatomophobia ⎯ or anything similar ⎯ would really not like this one), but it is very unique; I’ll give it that. It’s almost otherworldly even with-it taking place inside a body and all.
Virus Hunter was notorious for many years to be filled with irritating glitches. I remember experiencing some myself, but luckily it wasn’t anything more than any other island, so for that I feel pretty lucky. In addition to the glitches, I think the island was pretty long and challenging as it is; I’m sure a lot of us got stressed out at the time. You’re probably even wondering why this is my top pick of the year.
Well, now that we see what the game has come to ⎯ with islands that feel more suited towards kids who are still learning their shapes and colors ⎯ that stress is sorely missed. I really want new challenging islands like this again! This one was overall very fun, adventurous, and exciting to me. A very grand experience I must say.
That concludes my ranking of these islands that are now ten years old. 🥺 It was bittersweet writing this one, I won’t lie. I’m the type of person who often gets emotional about the past and Poptropica is no exception. Anyway, what is YOUR ranking of the Poptropica islands of 2013? Please share your lists with me! Commentary or no commentary, I’d love to read them.
Pop on!
–LJ 🍀
Short answer: No. But it’s a bit more complicated than that…
Over the past couple of days, a message has been circulating that Poptropica would be shutting down by the end of the month. To address the concerns, Poptropica has put out official posts on Twitter (aka X) and Instagram to assure players that the game is sticking around.
The rumor began with a message posted on our Discord server, the PHC, from an account previously thought to represent Poptropica. It claimed that Poptropica would be discontinued after December 29. However, as Poptropica’s social media posts show, this turned out to be a hoax.
The PHB regrets its part in lending legitimacy to the fake account, which had been given a ‘Poptropica Creator’ role label on our server since their first appearance over a year ago at our 2022 Poppies event. Though we acknowledged then that it was only a hunch, there were reasons to believe in its legitimacy.
Before this incident, the account only made occasional announcements related to the game, which had been documented on the PHB. At no point before this month did Poptropica come out to say that the Discord account was not theirs. The real Poptropica even liked our Poppies 2022 post on Instagram, where we had mentioned “a surprise visit from @poptropicacreators.” More recently, they had announced a Cyber Monday sale that turned out to be true, albeit predictable regardless.
Still, the account has since revealed itself to be an impostor through some out-of-character messages. Again, the PHB apologizes for our lack of due diligence in verifying the account’s status.
Prior to getting debunked, though, the message gained traction all over the internet, including a tweet from popular account DiscussingFilm (later deleted), plus “Poptropica” was trending on Twitter (again!).
A few news sites even got in on the action: some like Delisted Games rectified their posts, while others such as ABC10 in California highlighted the shutdown scare after the story was debunked.
The fake news came right on the heels of a major update that had Poptropicans panicking about a potential shutdown: the removal of membership in early December. As with many of Poptropica’s updates lately, there was no official comms around this news, leaving fans to speculate. Though on social media Pop has since spun this as a holiday gift to all, the game’s own messaging that memberships are “no longer offered” doesn’t ring the same. And why wait two weeks to announce it?
Before the fake news had dropped, Poptropica fan Sleepy Biker reached out to Shan Eisenberg, Chief Commercial Officer at Sandbox, Poptropica’s parent company, to ask about what the membership removal meant for Poptropica’s future. Shan had replied back that he “got feedback from [his] colleagues at Poptropica that they are going to communicate shortly” — only the fraud had beaten them to it.
Meanwhile, the PHB’s Gentle Dolphin also reached out to another Pop Creator, Jon Pitcher, to ask about the game’s current situation. Jon’s response was to redirect back to the official Poptropica Twitter account. Though their individual responses are understandable, it’s a little concerning that Poptropica isn’t speaking much to fans’ worries.
Looking back on Poptropica’s social media posts announcing that they are sticking around, their wording doesn’t firmly push back on the idea of their shutdown — only that it isn’t as soon as we thought. On Twitter they say they are here “on December 31st,” while on Instagram they say they’re not shutting down “at the end of the year.”
Maybe we’re reading too much into it, but the lack of official comms (their last social media updates were in September, and their blog hasn’t been updated since February, almost a year ago) and the removal of membership have definitely rung warning bells in the minds of many. At the very least, we hope that this whole situation reminds Poptropica to keep us more closely updated on their official channels!
Another concerning development is the fact that many pages on Poptropica’s website are not currently accessible, resulting in a 502 error. This includes the Creators’ Blog, Parents Overview, and Help pages. The game is still playable, though players reported getting this error message at the height of the shutdown rumor, so perhaps it may just be an issue of server overload from too many trying to access it.
(UPDATE, Dec 26, 2023: The aforementioned webpages are now back online.)
(UPDATE, Jan 3, 2024: The Creators’ Blog has since disappeared.)
On the whole, we’re relieved to hear that the game isn’t going away this year in 2023. But as for how imminent the end may be — time will tell.
~🐠
🏝 Poptropica Help Blog 🗺 