In other news, the Main Street preview for Pelican Rock Island is open to all Poptropicans. If you go to it from the map, you can explore the (still unfinished) Main Street of the upcoming island, and there are a number of free things you can get by walking left and talking to the characters, namely these two:

That dog's gotta be the funniest and most creative Follower ever in Poptropica :). And last but not least, if you go all the way right on the preview, you can check out the Photo Booth. This is just like the Photo Booth on the Home Island, but with prison-themed items and backgrounds. All this elaborate pre-Island hype, plus the Creators' promise that Pelican Rock is like no other island, is definitely getting me intrigued!

Quick interesting aside: many people aren't impressed with Poptropica's new homepage (well, it's almost a year old now, but it's new in relation to the 8 years of the game's history). Yes, it looks great aesthetically, but there's a lot more distracting clutter, links, and ads that you have to load and see before clicking on the Play Now button, which some older players don't like. But there's a way to get the old homepage back!

The following link takes you to a clutter-free "Poptropica Login" page almost like the classic main page. After you log in, things continue the way you're used to. It's at http://www.poptropica.com/play-poptropica.php I don't know how long it'll be here, but might as well bookmark it while it lasts!

If you haven't won the Hide & Seek yet, what are you waiting for? There's a new image and a new challenge up already, go check it out and give it a try! And if you're up for something more like this, check out the Stolen Snapshots game on my friend Slippery Raptor's blog; the format's similar, the games are harder :)

Ever wish there were even more ways to connect with the Poptropica community than Twitter? Well, now there is: HPuterpop and the Poptropica Help Blog team have recently released the new Poptropica subreddit! Older Poptropica players can post and comment on all things Poptropica over on r/poptropicahelp, so come join and help the forum grow!

Anyway, that's all for today! Enjoy the month of holidays, and I hope I'll get an opportunity to post more often; at least once before my traditional New Years' post. :)

And also, I'd like to apologize for the massive, inexcusable delay between the games. I've always been bad about updating but I'm mad at myself for missing a 2-week deadline by 4 months. Sorry. I won't forget again (this time for real!) Click Read More to keep going.

While playing the Poptropica app the other day (by the way, the Android app is delayed again), I noticed something new and strange on the map...

That's right, an ad space! But it's almost on an island of its own, unlike desktop ad spaces which you can only visit through islands. To be honest, I think I prefer this format. It keeps the islands themselves clean and the map is a logical place to put it.

Before I get into the ad space itself (Galactic Hot Dogs), I'd like to point something out -- so far, ad spaces on-line have been using the classic Poptropica engine (small screen, no sound) even if you get to them through a modern island. And we also know that only islands on the modern engine can run on the mobile app. So that means the Creators will start making regular ad spaces using sound and the big screen too!

Right, on to the ad itself. Go to the right of the ad space and start the game -- you have to jump over or shoot obstacles with two gray robots chasing you. The gun shoots automatically, so the strategy is to just run directly towards things smaller than you, and climb on top of/jump over things much bigger than you. Very easy. At the end, talk to the Princess, who has the Mega-Dog (I'm lost too). You get the prizes pictured above.

So those were the good ads. Now, on to something more alarming: the Creators' Blog now has an ad in the sidebar. Not so bad in itself (hey, even this blog has an ad in the sidebar), but their ad pushed the whole site into a wider look. The extra width misaligns the Poptropica logo and the text wraps for far too long. Also, accidentally leave your mouse on the ad for too long and it expands to take over the screen.

Also, don't know if I mentioned this already or it's stuck among fifteen other blog post drafts, but the Creators' Blog has a new search bar and tag cloud in the sidebar (for a while now). A quicker/better way than what I was doing, typing "site:blog.poptropica.com <search query>" into Google.

While I'm here: the latest Creators' Blog post shows a selfie taken on Poptropi-con Island (which, as we knew, is about costumes, fashion, and not much meta-Poptropica-ism, closer to Poptropolis Games than Mocktropica). The man in the picture is the same as this guy from Poptropica Land. In addition, we know that you have to retrieve a Mjolnir for a wizard-like person in the island. So, Poptropi-con will have a distinct Norse Mythology theme as well as Land and possibly Legendary Swords. What role this has in the island, I don't yet know. Anyway, that was a long post and we've got a good week to look forward to in Poptropica!

UPDATE: Poptrickia got mentioned on the Poptropica Help Blog recently! Congrats on their 13M hits! I believe Poptrickia just recently hit 3 million -- but that's over four whole years. What an honor!

Observant Poptropicans have probably already guessed this, but the next Poptropica island is going to be called... *drumroll*... Deep Dive Island! As I talked about earlier, it might take place in Yellowstone National Park. There are plenty of underground caves, mountains, and geyser pictures in the Daily Pops. And of course, we're going to be underwater. But we have absolutely no clues about the story behind Deep Dive. Also, the island is only about half-uploaded to Poptropica; so expect it to take a while to release. This is probably the Create Your Dream Island winner, because it's the newest island and the Creators have been teasing us lately.

There's a new mini-quest coming to Poptropica: Survival. It seems like a limited-time thing, because there's a card in the store that says "Survival - Episode 1" on it. So it's going to come out in little episodes, like a TV show. *Ahem*, haven't we already had Reality TV? If you get the card, you can't use it from the Store Items. This means that it's for a New Pop island that you can use from the new island itself. And of course there's another card that doesn't even load...

In Survival, you are stranded on some deserted land after a storm. We don't know much about Survival yet either, so I encourage you to browse the Sneak Peeks. How to tell which is Deep Dive and which is Survival: Look at the sky and trees. The Survival moon looks like the one in the image to right, and the leaves look like the leaves in the picture above. The sky is a dark blue gradient, and there is snow on the island. Click on the images below to enlarge, and comment if you have news!

    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.

There's been quite a buzz around the newest advertisement on Poptropica, Disney XD.  Usually I don't even enter the ad spaces because I don't agree with Poptropica being invaded by commercials but... I played it today and thought I needed to write some pointers here.

Kickin' It
In this game, you are on the blue bicycle on the right, racing the red one. The indicator at the top shows the distance to finish line. The green triple-arrows are a speed boost, and every other graphic on the track slows you down. The first few times I played this, I lost, because I couldn't get to the boosts faster than I reached the obstacles. Then I realized that I won if I stayed to one side of the track. That way, there is only one way to go -- this increases your concentration.

Lab Rats
This is a classic matching game with a twist: not only is it timed for sixty seconds (and themed in some sort of freakish 'virus cleaning' UI from the nineties), the cards are 'rearranged' every time you make or fail a match... or so the flashy graphics lead you to believe. In truth, this is how it works:

• You click on a card (no, I REFUSE to call it a hexa-tile!), let's call this row ROW 1
• All the cards in ROW 1 are disabled.
• You select a card from the opposite row, ROW 2. (and probably fail)
• NOW, the interesting part: The cards all start flashing. Then you select a starting card from ROW 2.
• ROW 1 is now simply a copy of what ROW 2 was in the first try. This means you can use your memory from that one to make this match work. Continue until all four matches are made.

Sounds complicated? That's why I made a video (see above).

Crash and Bernstein
Do I really need to say anything about this one? Except that it makes me lose faith in my entire generation, and all of humanity, if this is what we accept as entertainment. Disney must be pouring serious money into this campaign!

...for a Steamworks Island Video Playthrough at last! Today I'm revealing my first full-island video guide in a year, for one of my most favorite, classic islands. Also check out my detailed written guide! Here's the video: