YES! It's every long-time (and current) Poptropica player's dream come true: Monster Carnival Island is the next island! Maybe you don't know it, but today is a part of history. Truly. Excuse me while I go off and celebrate...

The Creators have come up with something insanely unexpected, yet totally awesome. The full story is somewhat unclear, but...

We can finally create our own little mini-islands, right in the game! You use a bunch of different tools to create platforms, backgrounds, and even water. The worlds you start off with are randomly generated, but you can change it and even go to another one via the blimp. One little funny thing in this: little animals, sometimes harmless and sometimes vicious, roam the lands and you can even spawn new ones! Fill out the survey at the end so it can get better. One thing I'm hoping for is the useless finding-gold side-quest is taken out. It's annoying, boring, and gets in the way of building cool things because you have to pay a ridiculous amount to get it. *sigh*...

You can play it by going to Home and clicking on the Poptropica Labs tile (currently the second one). It's officially Members-only, sadly.

Before I get into the details, l's analyze the rationale the Creators gave us, because it is interesting.

To quote a random Poptropican: "That didn't make a lick of sense." But it looks like we're being the subject of some beta-testing by the Creators (again). Did you catch that bit, "a prototype for user-created islands"? This could mean a whole future of players creating Poptropica islands, not just little old scenes! What do you think?

Nobody could forget that unforgettable snapshot to the right, one of the grandest Sneak Peeks the Creators ever revealed. (Click here to read the accompanying blog post). It almost confirmed that they still had an interest in the long-awaited (some say long-gone) Monster Carnival Island. Lately the hints have been increasing, and coming from everywhere: Mocktropica, sneak peeks, some videos they released, blog posts. I posted about some of these in a recent post (click to read), but this time I'm taking a different approach.

Doesn't this look a lot like one of those hammer games at carnivals? (hint: it does). Now take a look at that notebook. Notice something halfway down the left side: "Test of strength (hammer)". Ah-ha!

The actual Problem of the islanders is a little bit confusing, that the carnival workers are zombies--but then the Creators themselves mentioned that "As we developed it a little more, the "Haunted Amusement Park" took on a slightly different form (and name)...", so maybe we shouldn't expect that to be a major part of the story. Though having a moody ringmaster's prized possession be a bullhorn would be pretty Poptropica-esque...

Both these images seem to be from the same room and have the same style to them. They are also filled with mirrors, which not only have we seen before in the Sneak Peeks, but are mentioned in the notebook: "Funhouse mirrors". Though that's not the most strange part...

Recent Sneak Peeks have been having a definite "mad scientist" theme to them (get it? the blocks spell M-A-D?). There are (1) pictures of monster specimens tagged with numbers, (2) images of an apothecary/drugstore with something to do with Osmium, a very heavy element that you collect, and (3) lots of laboratory equipment. This only means one thing... mad scientist come to Poptropica at last! Finally, a good boss fight we can enjoy! Examine:

I'm telling you, if Monster Carnival is re-released, it would make my year.

The long-awaited bonus quest for Mocktropica Island is here. It's the first bonus quest to be released after the start of Early Access. Members, go to your Home Screen, click on the Mocktropica tile, and enter the basement of Poptropica HQ. Then check out my guide by clicking here: Mocktropica Island Guide. But there's more news...

Take a look at this screenshot. Look at it. It's an inter-room advertisement on Poptropica. Well, we've seen those often enough, you might be saying. Well, this one is different in a dreadful way. No friendly island theme in the background, no relation at all to the rest of the game, like the normal interstitial ad spaces had. This one has video that plays by itself. And sound that you never asked for. Not only that, but it shows up between every room, even in places where it doesn't make sense for there to be an in-between. In short, the end of the world. Looks like the dire predictions I made in this post (click to read) are coming true, slowly but scarily.

Further, the game itself is getting harder and harder to play. Sure, the different-but-not-bad new physics engine is bothering some, but this problem is different. (side note: anyone noticed the really erratic cursor behavior? They might as well have kept the crosshair, the classic, fun mode isn't working right at all). Have you noticed that Poptropica is chomping on much more of your computer's power these days? The advertisement loading alone forced me to close a few tabs on my browser--and I'm not using any old dinosaur either, but a laptop I got last year. Sound effects are loading way too late, music tracks are overlapping... I could go on and on. And the worst part is, this isn't even considered beta anymore. The Creators are even turning our classics, like Time Tangled (done), 24 Carrot (done), Mythology (confirmed), and Spy (rumored) into this mess. What can I say? Poptropica is the most awesome game in the world, and the only thing that can destroy it is itself. I hope that's not happening...

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to play Mystery Train. It is my most favorite game in the world.

Just another quick update. The next island to be upgraded is Mythology, not Spy, nor Twisted Thicket. I guess we're getting thrown off because the Creators' plan is to upgrade every island eventually.

The screenshot to the right, straight from the Crawfish's mouth, is proof. And do you notice something about it? Click on it to see the full size. It's the Save button in the lower right! Finally, the Creators realized our pain about losing state. Now we can save our games ourselves. And Mythology will surely be more fun with sound and a bigger screen.

Now, I'm not even going to talk about the music and sound effects. There is no debate about how amazing they are. I could write a whole post praising the sound. Which is why I'm not going to talk about it here.

One thing I noticed about the upgraded Poptropica was that the way you walk to a target is different. For example, clicking on the announcer on Poptropolis Games, you follow two different paths:

In the old Poptropica, you just dropped through whatever platform you were on and then met the person. But in the "upgraded" version, you follow the same path you might follow, if you didn't click on him but just went to him "yourself". And his isn't just for clicking on NPCs/objects/items, it works whenever you click the screen to move your Poptropican.

For example, when you jump almost straight up but aim the mouse a little opposite of the way you're facing. On Classic Pop, you would jump and flip at the same time, which is smoother but when you come to think of it, completely crazy. On New Pop, you would flip first, then after a tiny pause do the jump. What do you think? Good thing or bad thing? I think these modifications make the game more realistic.

One more change in the physics of new Poptropica is that you do not slide very much anymore. Stops and landings are more sudden and less smooth. The Creators seem to have added a little bit of friction and made the platforms more "magnetic", but this is robbing us of the charismatic player animations.

Another deal with the animations: when your Poptropican does slide, the animation is sort of disconnected from the scene. Like, if you slide near the edge of a platform on Classic Poptropica, you drop off the platform. On New Poptropica, your feet actually show up past the edge of the platform you're on and you stay on. Unlike the last part, I think the changes in this part make the game less realistic.

Another persistent little "problem", as many people have found, is that you can't jump as far nor run as fast anymore. Every time you move around, it seems like you don't move as far as you should. I thought this was irritating, too, but I've since discovered the root of the "problem". The illusion: you still jump as far and move as fast in New Poptropica, but the big screen makes it look constricted because it zooms-out the screen. Some proof:

Notice that in both modes, you jump the exact same height.

New Poptropica uses a totally different engine, which is not fully compatible with Classic Poptropica. The physics is different and generally more realistic. However, the animations and smoothness and style that gave Classic Poptropica its charisma are a little bit diminished. Even so, the story and plot and all the abstract elements are as charming as ever. Happy playing! And make sure to post your opinion in the comments!

    Look at the image to the right, taken in Early Poptropica's Soda Pop Shop. Look at it. That's no Poptropican. If you friend him, you'll see he's just an advertisement for Galactic Hot Dogs (which is published by Pearson Education, the same publisher as Poptropica, by the way). Also, he has a green star rather than a normal one--to further the notion that he's special. Actually, this is terrible. (okay, not so terrible since he's Costumizable, but...) NEW: His username is "npc:cosmoe". Now you can keep him as a friend even after the ad's gone and costumize him!

    How long until the rest of the ads start entering the multiplayer rooms? How long until the rampant advertising mocked in Mocktropica comes true? What if Mocktropica wasn't mocking Poptropica, but showing its future? What if nothing is real? What if hot dogs really are from space? What about rights? Mr. President, what's your stance on... okay, rant over.

Before you flip out, let me say that the evidence I have is not definite. And anyway, false alarms have happened (with Zomberry and Night Watch). But have an open mind and read on...

As most long-time Poptropicans know, an island called "Monster Carnival" was announced, alongside Time Tangled. It was to feature a haunted amusement park with monsters. Sadly, it was never released. Yet...

Take a look at these pictures (click to enlarge), then scroll down to hear my theories.

Earlier than these, there are some unrelated Sneak Peeks that I mentioned in another post. Also, the Dream Island contest winner is not yet announced. So this island is probably not coming out next, but after that.

What do you think? Could Monster Carnival return? Share evidence in the comments if you can!