Tips, tricks, and cheats for Poptropica

In The Last Hours of 2013

12/31/2013

Well, it's 12:00 noon on December 31st (in California at least)(when I started typing this). That means we've got half a day until the Earth turns the final 180 degrees of 2013. So, let's try to keep this year alive for future generations. What happened, they may ask, in Poptropica in 2013? And this is the answer...

First of all, let's get the bad news of of the way first with some statistical information. This year, the Creators only released four new islands--FOUR. That's a record, all-time low. In 2012 and 2011 they released 8 per year (counting Legendary Swords in 2011). In 2010 the count is relatively low, five. Do you notice something? Until 2013, the amount of new islands a year was going up; now it's suddenly half as much as last year.

New islands of 2013

The reason for this is probably the release Poptropica 2013, with the bigger screen, sound, and glitches galore. (now, I'm not hating on the new Poptropica, I'm just sayin', this is where the lag is coming from). This will probably continue into 2014 as the Creators keep getting their time wasted by making bugfixes. (Did you know, I never filed a bug report for any Poptropica island, EVER, until Beta Carotene). That said, you can help us all by reporting one now: click here to do that.

Another source of slowness coming from Poptropica 2013 is that the Creators seem to be spending more time on turning old islands that were perfectly fun by themselves, like Time Tangled, Spy, and 24 Carrot, into the new Poptropica. And another thing that will make new islands come slower next year is the Dream Islands Contest, which is presumably still being reviewed. Okay, that's the bad-news part of this post out of the way now.

The Good News

Now, there's a lot to say here as well! Let's start small. One of the shocking things that the Creators revealed is that they still have Monster Carnival on their mind. They showed us the notebook page to the left, made interesting posts on the Creators' blog, showed vague but exciting pictures on the Daily Pop, and teased us in a few videos. (Try adding the friend "MonsterCarnival2012". Interestingly, this is one of the only Poptropica usernames that shows different names in your friend list and in the Avatar Studio). However, we did finally get closure on the topic in Mocktropica:

Image credit Poptropica Help Blog (http://poptropicahelp.net/)

I guess that's the end of that.

Another fun thing was Poptropica's sixth birthday in September. That day, I suddenly realized what a huge amount of time I have spent on this wonderful game. Four years, and it never gets old. (...please wait as the author suddenly takes off for Astro-Knights...)

Poptropica 2013

"Poptropica 2013" is the name I chose to give to the "improved" Poptropica islands; other blogs may use another name, as the Creators haven't formalized one yet.

One of the worst parts of this year was also the best: the new and improved Poptropica engine, Poptropica 2013, which is capable of soundtracks and an HD display. Though many do not agree with the nature of the new game, it is the future, and I for one am willing to accept it. And it has made a few cool things possible, like the return of Poptropolis Games this same year!

New Year's Resolutions

As per tradition, I shall now outline my goals for Poptrickia this coming year:

Blog more. Er... No! We do not use the word "blog" around here! skipping this...
Write more Journal entries. That's better. Lately I haven't been keeping this Journal up to date, which is a shame because there's always something cool happening in Poptropica. My biggest resolution is to go a little bit deeper in providing you with the best Poptropica news.
Make more video walkthroughs. Also, find pictures for the existing written walkthroughs.
Have more contests. Oh, but not those run-of-the-mill costume contests, no sir--something totally original.
Get you, the Poptropicans, to have a voice on this website. Try commenting on my walkthroughs or journal entries, or talking on the forum. I will try to give you more opportunities this year.

And remember: you, the loyal readers and loyal Poptropica players, are the ones that got Poptrickia where it is now; and I'm eternally grateful for that. I'll need your help to make these things come true!

So, waste no time in telling me: what new feature would you like to see on Poptrickia in 2014? You can get some ideas from other popular Poptropica blogs, and I'll see what I can do to make your dreams come true. (Also, I will try not to construe my thoughts into bad rhyme for you).

Now, I'm off to try to get one last-minute Poptropica goal done this year: collecting the last 11 photos.

2 Comments

Spy Island Upgrade Coming Soon!

12/30/2013

4 Comments

Spy Island is the next island to get a bigger screen, a full soundtrack, and a buggier gameplay! (Actually, just ignore those last two words). This news isn't exactly official, but I can infer this because a soundtrack for Spy Island has turned up. Click here to play it: Spy Main Theme. (Also check out the Spy Island Guide!)

Jeff Heim is Poptropica's new sound designer. (And, may I add, is an artistic genius). You can hear some more of his music here (click to hear): https://soundcloud.com/jeff-heim/sets/poptropica. There is one called "Twisted Thicket Main Theme" that suggests that Twisted Thicket Island is also going to get the upgrade (from now on, I will call it Poptropica 2013). Sounds exciting? I think so too, except this has been on for a while now and there's no mention of it from the Creators.

Stay tuned for my review of Mocktropica and Poptropica 2013, which will be released either tomorrow or the day after. It will probably also include a whole bunch of bonus features, like what appeared in the old Poptrickia Magazine.

Also, the winner of the last Guess Where I Am competition is Speedy Cheetah! Congratulate him for correctly guessing that scene. UPDATE: Guess Where I Am is now being renamed to Poptropica Hide-and-Seek! I hope you like the new name better.

4 Comments

Mocktropica Is Here!

12/20/2013

0 Comments

The wackiest, most hilariously glitchy island is here for Members to play! In my opinion, this is a totally new, yet very interesting type of island... so interesting, that I am going to post a review of Mocktropica on New Year's Day! Stay tuned till then! Click the link below to see Poptrickia's guide. UPDATE: Guide is now complete!

Click here for the Mocktropica Island Guide

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Time Tangled Island, now with sound and a bigger screen!

12/10/2013

2 Comments

Looks like all of our favorite classic islands are getting the new Poptropica update! Time Tangled is next, as expected. It now comes with music and sound effects and a bigger screen. But that's not the most important news today. No, the most important news is... sort of disturbing.

Captain Crawfish (who shall henceforth be referred to as "Captain Crawface") has left the post of main Creators' Blogger! In his place is "Gamer Guy"... you know, that kid from Zomberry who's holed up playing Alien Vegetable Wars or something. And he has no sense of Poptropica, nor grammar... I might as well have opted to receive Poptropica news in text messages. A sample:

anyways captain crawface wanted me to tell you that the new and improved time-tangled island is now available for everyone to play in poptropica. he said to say it has music and sfx but like most games have those things so i dunno y this is so great.

its not really my thing, no shooting aliens or racing cars or fighting robots or anything like that. i prefer online games where u can fight other people and let em know that ur better then them. but maybe u would like it.

A few things I've noticed: Captain Crawface's reason for giving up that job are "bugs, glitches, errors". Hmm. Finally, someone seems to have taken notice. Stay hopeful, Poptropicans! We have in sight, at last, a future of full sound effects and HD gaming in our favorite online game without having to restart an island three times to win, without having items mysteriously dropping out of our inventory.... could it be?

And another thing: Captain Crawface apparently spells it "Time-Tangled" with a dash in the middle. Call me neurotic, but that is a little curious to me.

2 Comments

Mocktropica Island

12/7/2013

3 Comments

The next island may be the scariest one yet. Because remember when, in Spy, you could just open up your inventory and use the handy bow-tie? In Mocktropica, the next island, you may not even have your backpack to trust:

Poptropica is under new management, and it's falling apart at the seams! The newest Island isn't finished, the staff is nowhere to be found, and you can't take two steps without running into a game-breaking bug. Get ready to go behind the scenes for your most important adventure yet — because this time, you've got to save Poptropica itself!

Well, the newest island better be finished! Mocktropica is supposedly a scenario where Poptropica's coders have taken a hike and bugs and glitches are running loose. Sometimes game bugs and glitches are cool, though... when they're on accident. I think the Creators have realized how terribly buggy the newer islands are, and decided to turn that around by making a new island glitchy on purpose. The last island with a good storyline was Lunar Colony or Zomberry. Remember the magnificent Astro-Knights or Steamworks? Those islands were good balances of fun storyline and cool game gadgets/mini-games. Now it looks like we won't be getting much of those quality islands as the Creators tinker with wider screens and obsess over sound tracks. Sigh... Sorry for the rant of cynicism!

Mocktropica, though not expected to have a great story, should be a pretty interesting island. Maybe a bit wacky in a fun way. Maybe we'll find something out about how Poptropica works, behind that cloudless light blue sky.

Looks like we may be able to modify the island as we're playing it to help complete it. And in the second picture, are those wacky things in the sky just glitches, or are they part of the game? This picture suggests that they're part of the game. I think the floating rocks in the right are this:

Even so, the island promises to be riddled with embarrassing non sequiturs, as you might have guessed. How do you get off of the floating islands?

This island seems to be a little bit of everything, but I think it may take place near Yellowstone (the American national park). There are geysers and the woodland trees in a lot of the pictures. Also, a lot seem to be about going underground and mining. See the Daily Pop as well as these: