Ah, yes… the Christmas story. You may have heard it before: the nativity, the birth of Christ, the “reason for the season.”
Well, with all due respect no matter what your beliefs may be, perhaps you’ll enjoy this retelling of a traditional Christmas tale portrayed alongside some Poptropica imagery…
The Christmas Story: Poptropica Style
So there’s this young couple, Mary and Joseph, and they’re traveling to Bethlehem*, where they’re going to register for the census ordered by the government. *totally not Vampire’s Curse Island, by the way. Despite being a virgin, Mary’s expecting a child at any moment (the son of God, no less!), but there’s no room for them anywhere, and poor Joseph is trying his best to pull himself together… yeah, life hasn’t been easy for them.
Finally, they find a spot, and Mary gives birth to her son, Jesus. She wraps him in cloths and places him in a manger – quite a humble beginning for the king of kings!
Out in the fields nearby, there are shepherds watching over their flocks by night. An angel of the Lord appears to them and brings them the good news of the Savior’s birth.
The fluffy-haired shepherd boys decide to go check this out for themselves, and they are duly amazed, so they go out and praise God for all that they’ve heard and seen.
It’s said that some wise men (or “Magi”) followed a star and visited Jesus too, bringing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh (fancy rich things!). This would’ve been some time after his birth, but we can’t forget them, now can we? So there we have it.
Merry Christmas, everyone. 🙂
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.
Merry Christmas & happy holidays from the crew here at the PHB! We hope you’re enjoying a wonderful break, or at least, enjoying Christmas Day off! Now’s a great time to catch up on any islands you may not have completed yet with our full walkthroughs for every island, all with pictures. Or perhaps you feel like flexing your joints with some head-to-head battles, which we have game guides for too.
Whatever your reason for coming here, thank you for visiting the PHB and we hope to continue bringing you quality Poptropica greatness. ‘Tis the season for spreading the joy!
Hello all! Was 2013 a crazy year, or what? I know for me it was! With a new year looming on the horizon, it’s always good to take a look back at what has happened in the previous year, and see what you may have missed! Between now and New Years, I am going to take you on a journey into the past, looking at Poptropica’s great leaps this year!!
January 2nd: Daily Pop posts (which later prove to be part of Night Watch Island) spark suspicion that Monster Carnival Island may be an upcoming island.
January 10th: It’s official. Zomberry Island is now out for everyone to play! Grab your flashlight and go find the cure for those zombies!
January 14th: After speculation of a “Mall Island” began to run wild, the newest Poptropica Island was announced, Night Watch Island.
January 16th: The trailer for Night Watch Island is released, with a first look at the island, including the burglar and snake.
January 17th: The Members Only items for Night Watch Island are released in the Poptropica Store.
January 18th: One of the most tragic events in the history of Poptroica, it is announced that the Poptropolis Games will sink!
March 29th: The prizes for the LEGO CUUSOO page reaching 5,000 supports are previewed, but not released, on account of the page only having around 4,000 supporters.
Check back soon for Part 2 of The Year 2013 in Poptropica!
For some of you viewers, your ultimate goal is to get featured in a post for finding a glitch, or alerting us about something new… but some of you never get the chance — the once a month Viewer’s Showcase doesn’t require anything but some handy hands!
I will be showcasing some of the most awesome art, stories, and blogs in the Poptropica universe on these posts — but I will be the one deciding! I’ll scour the web to find the best, then let these geniuses have the spotlight!
Art
Silver Wolf, PHB viewer and PTFP owner has took off lately with her sensational new art. It is quirky but cool, and you can marvel at it for hours.
Looks like I have some competition. 😉
Stories
Comics qualify as novels, and novels are stories. Cool Berry the Unicorn Cat has been hard it work creating funny little gems that are awesome!
Blog of the Month
This month, We-Love-Poptropica deserves some credit. It’s not a regular blog, it runs on DeviantArt, and can also be called a group. Or, a cool and artsy community. It’s really awesome and I suggest you check it out. 🙂
A while back, Poptropica and Ubisoft released a DS game called Poptropica Adventures. I have a feeling this was an experiment, and also a feeling that this is the first and last one. This was one of the first things that started to get Poptropica to what it is today in a drastic way. Not many online games can say, “Yeah, we have our own DS game.” I finally got to play it, and the results are in! Let’s get to it!
Design
The fact of the matter is, Poptropica didn’t make this game. Ubisoft did. And even if they are game designers, it doesn’t mean they are the Creators.
Character Design
My take on it is, it’s adorable, but it’s not quite right. The placement of the eyes are strange, and their creepy smile gets to me. But I think it’s adorable because I can’t believe Poptropica has come this far. I don’t know why, but these avatars sorta symbolize that.
Material Design
Nothing much to say about this except it’s the same as the islands. One thing that’s nice, though, is that the background isn’t pixelated like the actual characters. I’m not a big Nintendo fan, so I don’t know if this is normal, but it’s still pretty cool.
Story
One thing I can say about the story — it’s definitely Nintendo. Even I know enough about it to recognize it. It doesn’t feel like Poptropica, and the quests are very – not simplistic, but not as intense as the online game. Instead of finding the six magical items for Zeus, you deliver packages for Hermes. Instead of an epic battle between you and Zeus, you have a race with him. Then he’s all like, “Boo hoo, you’re faster than me.” I do see an effort made here, though, like they wanted the connect-the-dots sort of game play to be in there, but just to drown it with little quests…
If you’re wanting the stories for each island, here they are –
Museum Island – A museum is in crisis. You have to travel to three islands to find artifacts and things to put on display while the curator cleans up.
Super Power Island – Someone has stolen Ned’s comic books. You battle different villains, who each give you a comic book if you defeat them. But none of them are the ones who stole the comic books. You finally figure out who this thief is… Betty Jetty, after finding pieces of a picture of the thief that were torn up (but by who?).
Mythology Island – Hermes (Zeus’s son) has lost his flying hat. He is the postman of the mythology world, so you get sent to deliver packages to Hades, Poseidon, and lastly Artemis — but she can’t take the package until she can catch and give a deer back to its owner. When you catch it, you will obtain Hermes’s hat, which you bring back to Hermes. Then Zeus will show up, and you will race him, and that’s the end.
Astro-Knights Island – The king has been acting strange ever since a strange visitor from the sky visited. You are sent on a mission to find out why. He turns out to be a robot droid, and you have to rescue the real king from Binary Bard (who is totally cute in this version!). You defeat him by, you guessed it, racing him, then leave the king there, because he won’t go back… then you have to deal with the robot king that does a little dance when you talk to him… yup.
Controls
The controls are surprisingly similar to the online game. They are exactly like they should be for a Poptropica arcade game. They use the control pad (obviously), and the character bounces around perfectly!
Soundtrack
This was the first time that Poptropica ever had sound affiliated with it, not counting trailers! I think it may have sparked some ideas leading up to present day, but what about the soundtrack itself? The word that describes it best is “lonely”. I don’t know why, but it just feels lonely. They are good soundtracks, but 1) they get annoying after a while, and 2) there are not many. They are awkward, but they seem to fit in a sad way… but let’s just say that Jeff Heim does a better job.
—
So there you have it! Is it worth getting? It depends on who you are. If you are a die-hard Poptropica fan, then yeah, you’ll enjoy it. If you are not… I advise getting something else. I finished it in two days. Did I enjoy it? Slightly. What do you think?
🦄 Ponytropica 🦄 