🏝️ Poptropica Help Blog 🗺️

The Life of a Lab Tester

January 21, 2014February 25, 2014 HPuterpop

Hi Gs,

Poptropica Houses? Naw, that’ll neve–

I was using a suggestible wifi hotspot on the parking lot of Pizza Hut today. I had to make my post about Mocktropica for everyone. I went ahead, and just for fun, logged into my Poptropica account. What did I see on the homepage? Something new:

new

Poptropica Labs is a new feature for members that allows them to test new and unreleased to the public features. Believe me, I am super excited to see how this turns out. I’m sure most of Ohio and some of Kentucky heard my girly scream when I saw the promo screen.

The newest test is called “Lands”, and is a sort of island maker with cool new features.

So, let’s see what this island maker can do!

The Lands

Guess what? These labs are in the old format! I’m starting to conclude that Poptropica will never be fully converted into SUI. The main hub of the game will stay the same. Anyway, this was a pretty wild experience! As a beta tester, I couldn’t save my “lands” that I created, but I still had some fun with it.

In a nutshell, this new feature makes Poptropica sorta like Minecraft. It is endless.

The idea is that you can create your own land from scratch. This land can be rainy, volcanoey (is that a word? Google doesn’t think so. 😛 ), crystally, or paradise. You can jump from pregenerated island to pregenerated island, each one different in it’s own way (Note: the blimp goes way too slow on the map…). Generate your own here: http://static.poptropica.com/popups/Demo/landPrototypeMap.swf

When you find an island that suits you, you can start customizing and developing it. Actually, I think that the term “island” should not be used… instead, just use land. Because running around and jumping on platforms is not an island.

The Pets

pets

Sadly, instead of narfs, Poptropica gives us pet rocks. They have eyes that follow your cursor, sometimes are evil, and did I mention narfs? We need narfs. All these pets do is jump around, run away from you, and act depressed. You hatch these little angels for 10 pop coins each, and they are not worth it. xD

When an angry rock happens to hatch, just blow it up before it chomps on you. Those guys are really annoying. 😛

The Pop Coins

gold

You probably have been questioning my mentioned “pop coins”. Guess what! Mocktropica is turning into a reality! In labs, everything costs money. When you’re all out, blow up stuff and mine for more! Actually, this feature turns out to be a lot of fun! Although it is a little hard to mine with bombs, I still enjoy this feature. Until you run out of land to blow up and the only place left with money is under the thing you are building… >.<

When you see a sparkling in the soil under you, you blow up the land until you reach it to earn money. Sometimes you’ll only get 15 pop coins, sometimes you’ll get hundreds in big bags. And sometimes, just sometimes, a bag of money will fall out of the sky, and you will have to chase it to the end of the screen to get it. I’m not even joking.

The (Fail) Houses

When you finally get around to making a house after trying out all the new features of rocks that move and blowing stuff up, you are going to fail. Miserably.

Turns out, when your environment is rainy, your house will not block out the rain. I guess I didn’t get the memo while creating my house, because I actually made one that you could go into…

So… yeah. You can also do some pretty awesome stuff with the backing of your house:

I put air vents to blow me up the second floor, and mattresses covered the floor when you get there. Don’t ask why that rope is there… Anyway, you can make windows and wood/stone/bamboo backgrounds, etc. I also didn’t get another memo, which was that you can rotate your items with the left and right arrow key. 😛

The Tools

As you can see in the picture above, the tools that you can build with are limited. You can have a rope, a mattress, an air vent, a door, adjust the water level, an egg that hatches a rock, a stupid basketball that gets stuck in places, a bomb, a ground pile, a stone pillar, a crate, a bunch of building supplies, and that’s pretty much it. Not much to play with it you ask me.

The Survey

After you finish your fun, you can take a survey and tell them what you think. I’m not going to give the link to everyone because that would definitely mess them up, but I can and will tell you that according to the survey, they have big ideas for this thing:

Those are all great ideas! What do you think about those possibilities?

I think “Lands” needs a little more work. The pets need toys, the tools need additions, the rain setting needs to be able to be turned off, and the angry pets need to appear more. 😛 Those guys are fun. And sorry if I was a little critical in my review… I was expecting something a little different. 😉

If you want to give the Poptropica Creators some advice about this new feature, you can tell them in the comments and I will put it in the post! 😀

Viewer’s Thoughts

SamWow5 – I wish u can do all 4 sides of the house instead of one….

Smart Leopard – U should be able to completely make a house. Just dreaming here, but what if u could design the outside of a house and Enter it and design the inside with furniture… I guess that’s a bit much 😛

Silver Wolf – I, personally, despise it. It teases me with it’s mocking one-layer. I love building and a variety of other things, but there’s nothing to build if there’s only ONE layer. I want the mattress to go behind the wall sometimes, so it would look as if a door was really opening into a house. I mean, they’re only letting us make it in Poptropica’s style. It would be nice to have another style; we’re all original, and we all have different styles, which can be much different than Poptropica’s. I just…love it and hate it. I love the idea, but hate how little detail they put in it. You can make plenty of things with the few materials they provide; YOU JUST CAN’T MAKE IT WITH ONE LAYER. >.<

Comical Turtle – So cool! I think it’s a really good idea even though it’s not perfect yet…….

renaldiinfernus – Pop coins? Pop Coins? Pop Coins. REALLY?!?! That may be one of the most aweful parts of Mocktropica. DONT LISTEN TO FOCUS TESTER HES A JERK!

—

-HP

Daily Pop, Labs (Land), Monster Carnival Island

Nightmares of the Carnival & release of Poptropica Labs

January 18, 2014January 19, 2014 HPuterpop

Hi Gs,

The Poptropica Creators have really been piling it on lately — first Mocktropica, then Mythology SUI, then Poptropica Labs, and now Monster Carnival Island!

Just after I posted that gif of Thirsty Whale deleting MCI. Perfect timing. This island is old but new. If you want the whole story of Monster Carnival Island, be sure to check out the PHB article where we explain the happenings. One thing about it; the mystery of Monster Carnival will be solved very soon. In fact, it’s coming out next month!

I realize that this is the first prediction I made that has come true. Which is sorta sad. xD Personally, I am really excited for this. I never would have guessed it (until just about two weeks ago, when the Daily Pops became suspicious.) I have high expectations, and I have faith that this will be awesome!!

What I don’t get is that in the teaser trailer, the ringmaster* is wearing a Mardi Gras mask, that was already proven to be for Night Watch. Will this be about Mardi Gras as well? Or is it not a mask? O.o

*I say that this is a ringmaster because 1) they generally wear a top hat, and 2) the cape is also a general ring master accessory. Just check out the preliminary sketch for MCI’s ringmaster. Pretty similar.

Also, there’s the question of sound or no sound. One thing unique about the teaser trailer is that at the end, where the logo is shown, something is not shown. It has been shown in the newest islands trailers thus far:

They both have the text below them saying “Now with sound”. The MCI trailer does not have that in it. There is a chance that they didn’t put it in because this is just the teaser, and there’s also a chance that the “Now with sound” phrase is obsolete, since everyone has sorta gotten used to it. But what if it wasn’t that? What if they’re releasing Monster Carnival classic?

It would sure be a tribute! Would you enjoy it? Or would it be a nightmare?

Also, a heads up to the Daily Pop on Monday:

Vandals — Just trash the place, why don’t you.

“We’ll eat you up, we love you so!” – Maurice Sendak. That’s how I feel about Poptropica at the moment. But MCI will take us down a different route. Instead of being wild things, we will save them!

In other news that’s not so scary, the card for Poptropica Labs just came out in the Store, and it’s currently for members only.

I want to let you know I am aware of it, and will be posting a review of it soon next week. 😉

-HP

Monster Carnival Island

Monster Carnival confirmed as the next Poptropica Island!

January 18, 2014January 22, 2014 AW

Haha! Finally! You guys were right! It’s the dream of Poptropicans everywhere, the island we’ve all been waiting for – and it will be ready starting February 2014…

After all these (five!) years, it’s finally happened. The great mystery of Monster Carnival Island will be revealing itself. Hallelujah! This is going to be VERY exciting.

Tell us what you think in the comments!

Mocktropica Island

I Declare Mocktropica Free to Play!

January 17, 2014January 19, 2014 HPuterpop

Hi Gs,

It snuck up on all of us, but nonetheless Mocktropica is now free to play! Head over to Poptropica to play now — and tell me what you guys think of this one of a kind quest. If you’re in need of some help, be sure to check out our Mocktropica guide (with pictures 😀 )!

You are very right, Bucket Bot. Kudos to you. 😛 You can also see what I thought of the island in my review. I think you may agree. 😉

-HP

Mocktropica Island, Reviews

Mocktropica Bonus Quest Review

January 14, 2014February 25, 2014 HPuterpop

Hi Gs,

The Bonus Quest for Mocktropica, or “Bonus Bots” as everyone has been calling it, was released very recently. I have played it, and my feelings are mixed.

The Story

banana

The premise is that one of Poptropica’s best programmers, Mark Hertz, has been lost to the game Mega Fighting Bots. When I say lost, I mean he has become obsessed with it, and won’t do anything other than it — I discussed the same issue concerning Minecraft in my live stream. 😉 Anyway, not only has he become obsessed, he has morphed into the game, and become evil. He is the final boss you have to battle.

The picture to the right is an email sent from Mark. A little easter egg is hidden in the email. Mark’s outro is “-Sent from my SmartTec Bananaphone“. Bananaphone is a fun, popular kids song, you should really check it out. 😛

The Gameplay

Well, here’s the deal — all you do in the bonus quest is play Mega Fighting Bots. There is a cool “real life” Bucket Bot, that is animated, but other than that, that’s all it’s got! But what do I think of it? I thought it was actually pretty fun! You see, when you hack into the game, you get unlimited coins. That means that you can respawn after the three rounds! Infinitely! And, you get to battle different bosses than just Safety Bot. Also, the bots have commentary! Little remarks before and after the rounds appear, and most of them are pretty humorous. Each bot has a different difficulty and style of fighting. To best these bots, the tips are below. 😉

– Safety Bot

The first bot you are to battle. Surprisingly, this was the bot that took me the longest to finish. He is very cautious, and avoid most attacks. Very annoying. Here’s a little tip I used to best not only him, but all the bots (click to animate):

Wait for him to come around the bend, then attack! Even more, you can lure him by standing in the corner, and then when he starts to come toward you, go down a square, to where I was in the gif. (actually, he is the only bot that the tip doesn’t fully work on… >.<)

Repeat this again and again — it really works! Believe it or not, I didn’t die ONCE in the whole game, and after Safety Bot, I only spent two rounds on all the bots (you have to beat the bots two rounds to win — I only had to go into the final round ONCE)!

– Ad Bot

Ad Bot is quicker than Safety Bot. She is also not the smartest in many ways. If you keep attacking her from a corner, she’ll keep coming back for more. Although, she can be tricky. Be sure she is in your target zone before you attack — she changes directions quickly.

– Shredder Bot

Easily ticked. Has a bit of a temper. She hurts… a lot. Hard to defeat. She will come at you with different angles. She has a broader strategy.

– Focus Bot

He is very smart. Out of them all, he’s really easy. Just use the corner tactic. He is not hesitant like Safety Bot. When he comes at a different angle, he will follow through.

– Mega Bot

Surprisingly, this bot was the easiest for me. He is the lost programmer, Mark Hertz. Of course, he is the biggest, fastest, strongest, and smartest. And he is appropriately named. 😉

Once you defeat Mega Bot, he will get thrown out of the ring! You have brought back the lost programmer!

So the question is: was this bonus quest worth the price of Membership? Is it a bargain?

After you both are transported back home, you get a little present from the now famous Bucket Bot. It’s a terrific Bucket Bot costume!

The fun is the quality here, and I had fun. I also got a rocking costume. I rate this bonus quest 3 stars. Unlike the VHI Bonus Quest, this didn’t have a separate soundtrack. It did, however, have an awesome real life Bucket Bot, and a new background. And, you get unlimited coins. Not that I used any. 😛

Also, there is a little symbolism in the bot’s rank.

The Safety Inspector is on floor 1. Safety Bot is the first bot you battle.

The Ad Sales Manager is on floor 2. Ad bot is the second bot you battle.

“Slash” is on floor 3. Shredder Bot is the third bot you battle.

Then, the whole thing flips around —

The Focus Tester is on the main floor. Focus Bot is the fourth bot you battle.

And, to make sense of all of this, Mark Hertz is in the basement. Mega Bot is the final bot you battle. Well played, Creators. 😉