Just weeks after promising big changes, the Creators have surprised us with: a brand-new Island Map!

Poptropica has gone through a few revisions of the map over the years, but this one is important. First of all, it uses the same engine as the newer SUI islands! That means it loads faster, has sound, and you don't have to go through the classic engine if all you want to do is switch islands. In that way, it's now more similar to how it is on the mobile app. On top of that, there's a huge amount of new features...

Personally, I think it looks great to have them all be in color! Also, the brighter colors all over the map looks cheerier, and it has a lot more appeal to newer/younger players. But I do have one gripe, something that's hard to see unless you look too closely: the artists who made the originals did not have color in mind, so they used a lot of small details that looked great in outline. But when color is added, it makes them look slightly... brittle. Take a look at the image above: the windows on the Super Villain island logo's tower look really thin and (unintentionally) shimmery, whereas the Mission Atlantis one has much better shapes and proportions. Also, the newer island logos just look too small; this may be out of necessity, but it kind of exacerbates the small-details issue. In general though, I think the actual choice of colors is done pretty well and looks awesome!

The next big change is the new island info screen that now appears when you click on an island. It shows you the level of difficulty for the island, how many times you've completed it before, the official description of the island from its Island Tour Page, and--the coolest part--a progress bar that shows you how close you are to finishing the island! (The progress bar for each island is also shown in front of it's icon from the map screen).

How the difficulty is calculated is a mystery to me (you can see my own ratings for all the islands on the Walkthroughs page), but I'm sure that the Creators have access to a lot more data about player behavior, and they probably based this on analysis of how much time it actually takes the average player to beat that island for the first time. (Also, older players will remember that on the even older Island map -- the one before 2012 -- the islands would show difficulty ratings when you moved your mouse over them). On a similar note, the new order/organization of the islands across the 8 pages of the new map may look completely random at first glance -- but according to the Creators, it's actually based on how popular each one actually is among players. Personally I feel that the order should be mixed up from time to time so that newer islands are still at the top, but the lesser-known ones still get cycled to the front occasionally, letting players rediscover them.

The progress bar is the most interesting addition -- there's never been anything on Poptropica like it. Or has there? A long time ago, classic islands on Poptropica all had a map (a map of all the rooms on the island itself). At first all of the rooms had question marks over them, but as you got through the island, they would be revealed and you could see the names of the scenes. Also, the map showed the links between the rooms, so you had a rough idea of how far you were. So the new progress bar is quite similar to that feature.

​Behind the scenes, the gameplay of all islands is split up into things called "events." Basically, whenever anything changes in the state of the game, like collecting an item or getting past a certain point in the story, the game is automatically saved and an event is added. When all events are completed, you get the island medallion. So the new progress bar is probably visually showing you how many of the total number of events you have completed for that island or episode.

Wow, that's a huge amount of new changes! Another recent change that's related: now, when you log in, instead of going to the old Home screen (with the quizzes and the "Return to Game" button and the news slideshow), you go straight to Home Island. From there, you can click the "Return to Game" icon floating underneath the bridge.

I think this change makes a lot of sense because, for one, most of the important features for the old Home screen were already obsoleted (the quizzes are also on the Friends page, you can see recent Poptropica news from the homepage now before you start playing, etc.) So it was just getting in the way. Also, with the new change, you go straight to the SUI engine when you log in. If all you want to do is play the recent islands, you never have to go through the classic engine.

So this appeals to newer players, and also brings Poptropica one step closer to phasing out the classic engine and moving towards the more modern one. But aside from that, the Creators recently told us that later this year there will be an even newer Poptropica engine -- and this time they'll be using Unity, not Flash!

In case you aren't familiar with Unity, it's a game development program that is mainly used to make 3D games. Unlike Flash, which creates a SWF file that your browser then runs, Unity can either create an app (for desktop or mobile), or a webpage with your game in it. This means that the new Poptropica, built in Unity, will still run in browsers and on mobile apps -- hooray! And since it'll be compiled, it'll run even faster. But all this Unity stuff raises an even more intriguing possibility: will the new Poptropica be in 3D?

Although Unity can do 2D just fine, it's mainly used to create 3D games. Will the Creators basically be porting the old Poptropica to Unity, or will they actually be re-imagining it in 3D? I think now that they're making such a large shift, they have a perfect opportunity to redesign Poptropica from the ground-up. I'm not sure what sorts of features they're thinking of, but whatever it is, it's sure to be very new and different from anything we've seen so far!

A surprising total of 3 sponsored islands were released this year: Galactic Hot Dogs, Mystery of the Map, and Timmy Failure. Interestingly, all three were based on comic books (Mystery of the Map was based on Poptropica's own comic book series of the same name). Add this to the fact that Poptropica's been closely tied with Funbrain in the past, and you can see that a lot of Poptropica's target demographic is heavily interested in comics and reading, which probably influences how even their original islands are developed.

As for the islands themselves, the reactions were fairly the same for each: good art and music, but weak storyline. Galactic Hot Dogs in particular got called out for its laughably easy gameplay.

Although by now, all indications are that Poptropica is recovering well. The Creators kind of paid us back in their own way with the many giveaways of Credits this year (e.g. tripling the amount of credits given for winning islands, all the freebies leading up to Timmy Failure Island, and the Daily Pop-in Prizes). Credits can't buy Early Access to new and locked islands anymore (not since 2010 I think), but they do give non-Members much more access to the Store (which Members can just borrow infinite items from).

And finally to finish off 2015 on a high note, the incredible and original Escape from Pelican Rock Island recently came out for all players after what must have been the shortest Early Access period of all time: a mere three weeks! I gave it a review that you can read in detail, but suffice it to say that Poptropica has set a new bar for the quality of the storyline, music, and general development of their future original islands :)

Last but not least, the mobile app got quite a few upgrades that brought it close to the quality of the desktop version, including many multiplayer features and importing desktop looks. No logging in has been implemented yet, though, and islands no longer cost money, so it looks like the app is going to be free for all. And Poptropica Realms has also come along quite well, adding many immersive features as well as sharing.

Hello Poptropicans! Enjoying Pelican Rock Island this past week so far? It's coming out later this month on the desktop version for everyone, and non-Members can already play it on the app. I'm actually impressed with it, against my first expectations, so here are my brief thoughts on the island...

One of the first things that struck me this island was the high attention to detail, in the art and soundtrack, that I felt were missing from some of the more recent islands, especially Timmy Failure, Mystery of the Map, and Galactic Hot Dogs. The soundtrack and original music were well-mixed and matched the atmosphere perfectly.

Although the consistently drab colors dampen the mood after you've been playing for a while, they are appropriate for the atmosphere of the prison, so there. Even the outdoor rec yard manages to have a gloomy air somehow :).

This is the first time Poptropica really went into a prison setting in such detail and realism; previous prisons in Poptropica were mainly jokes that either set up some part of the plot (Super Villain, Ghost Story) or were simply very easy to get out of (Super Power, Wild West, etc). The story of Pelican Rock was all focused on that.

The story itself was somewhat unoriginal: you're framed for a crime, thrown in prison, and team up with your fellow inmates to break out under the prison guards' noses and clear your name. However, that's not to say it wasn't executed well, which it sure was! All the different prison characters were fairly well-developed, with different personalities, and you even come to like Marion, Patches, Van Nostrand, and Flambe by the end of it.

I give it a 4.5/5. I'll admit it, I was pleasantly surprised. If you haven't played it yet, what are you waiting for? Make sure to check out the Island guide!

Before the post is out -- has anyone noticed Poptrickia's new profile picture on Twitter and YouTube? It's based on the site logo designed by HPuterpop that's been up on Poptrickia for a while.

What do you think? Eh? Comment if you like it! And expect another post from me before the year is out, having to do with some very interesting sneak peeks...

It's been a little more than a week since Mystery of the Map Island released to Members on Thursday. It was also the first island in a long time to have a demo for non-Members. The demo is actually of a nice length — you can get as far as rescuing Octavian — so what did you guys all think about the island? Something about it (and OK, the long weekend too) made me want to write a short review. So, here it is!

The first thing I noticed was the theme music (click here to listen or download). It fades into the background at first, but eventually it grows on you and it's an extremely fitting piece for the "island mystery" sort of theme. (Of course, technically all the islands are "island mysteries" but this Mystery of the Map is even more so — more on that later).

Next striking feature: the map. The map is a magical device that not only shows the current state of the island, but allows you to travel anywhere on it with a single click. The attention to detail and quality is pretty stunning. Objects on the map are constantly moving, making it seem even more realistic.

Some more general quality notes: the animations were fairly good, and there were few bugs. No complaints there.

Frankly, the story didn't make very much sense. Sure, if you've read the graphic novel you can follow along, but its mediocre on its own at best. And not even an island that's based on another story should be like that; look at Nabooti, Big Nate, and Red Dragon. Main complaints:

• Several important plot points seem to happen automatically, and the player feels sort of cheated. For example, the Viking on the beach is guarding the gunpowder at first, but then suddenly goes to sleep later.
• The whole gunpowder scheme didn't make sense either. Why would you needlessly demolish a mountain, create a landslide, and change the course of a river, just to get into the fortress? Aren't we as Poptropicans cleverer than that? The island would have been so much more fun if the way to get in was more creative, e.g. distract the guard with the gunpowder and then sneak in through the door. Well, I'm no good at designing an island, but you get my drift.
• Side note: causing a rockslide is dangerous at best (more likely suicidal) and changing the course of a river will definitely destroy the ecosystem that is living there. Not trying to ruin your fun, but I wonder if they should include this in a children's game.
• You're never given a good motive to find and rescue Oliver, Jorge and Mya. In fact, those characters hardly matter at all to the story, whereas they're supposed to be the stars of the show. Neither did they mention anything about the map. I was honestly sympathizing with Octavian the whole way, since he seemed the most human, realistic character.

Still, some parts were nice and interesting, like catching a fish in a goblet, escaping in an oversized costume, and the goblet trials. Depends on your perspective (have you read the comics yet) and your ability to suspend disbelief. All in all, I would give this island a 2.5 out of 5. It's severely lacking, but not quite abysmal.

In other, slightly more exciting news... The Creators have announced something new, the Poptropica Hall of Fame. Every week, people who have earned medallions are entered into a raffle (the more medallions you have earned, the more raffle entries to your name). Every Friday, some winners are chosen and their avatars will be put into one of 6 islands. So you basically become an NPC in an island quest for that week, as I understand it. Sweet! Start replaying islands and dressing up in your most unique costumes. As always, check out Poptrickia's walkthroughs for straightforward help on Islands.

Welcome to the end of 2014! Among other things, it's officially too late for us to get our hoverboards and flying cars now. Now that the year is basically over, I want to go over the things that gave this year its reputation for Poptropica. Not to mention Poptropica's 7th birthday this year and that epic costume!

Poptropica's been growing up a lot and changing in ways that the first players in 2007 could have never imagined. First, the most infamous of all -- episodic islands. Introduced with Survival Island this year and continuing through Mission Atlantis, PoptropiCon, and Arabian Nights, this is the system of breaking up an island into smaller sections that are released over a longer time period.

Though the intentions of the episodic island system were good, and it personally didn't bother me very much (it actually made it easier to create guides and videos), it caused quite a bit of dissent among the majority of Poptropicans. Maybe that's why, starting next year, Galactic Hot Dogs Island (and following islands) will return to the full-length style!

Of course, one of the most amazing things to happen in Poptropica's history happened in February this year -- Monster Carnival Island was released! Monster Carnival was actually one of the oldest islands to be designed; it was announced that it would release some time in 2008, after Time Tangled, but was mysteriously pulled and replaced by 24 Carrot Island. Well, six years later, it returned in all the glory of the new Poptropica engine with a soundtrack and some of the best animations of any island before! One of the oldest mysteries of Poptropica put to rest -- you can read about it on the Wiki and also the Creators' explanation.

Lately Poptropica has also become involved in social media, Twitter especially, and taking an interest in the activities of Poptropica fans online. They're also releasing sneak peeks and other fun stuff on their Twitter. You might want to follow them (and me)!

My favorite thing from this year -- Poptropica Land! Very early in this year, Poptropica Labs was released for Members, in which you could drag around pre-made props, adjust the sea level, and blow things up in small themed sandbox-like scenes. It was an experiment that would lead to the more full-featured Poptropica Land. It's a world that constantly generates randomized scenes as you explore, and with the help of a magical hammer, you can build and destroy the world at will. For a couple weeks, it was open to the public during the land contests, but next year it'll come out of beta and everyone will get to have a piece of Poptropica Realms (the new name)!

And that covers the major events of 2014! It was a fun year, full of crazy changes and brilliant islands, and already it seems like we can expect even more from 2015 -- Galactic Hot Dogs Island, an old island idea being revived, Poptropica Realms, and so much more. Plus, Poptrickia is going to turn five years old in April! Let me know if you have any party suggestions. This year, I resolve to post frequently and make island guides within 36 hours of the island's release. I also want to maybe find some other voices from the community to post on Poptrickia some of the time, just to shake things up; we'll see about that later. Happy new year!

Survival Island, Poptropica's first episodal island, has been wildly popular so far; there's 61 comments on the guide, compared to 8 (!) for Mission Atlantis. And why not? It's got plenty to love about it, including one of the best villains Poptropica has ever came up with. Here's my review of the entire Island, all five episodes. Though I have a reputation of being negative, I tried to be fair and there's actually a mix of ups and downs here. Also a lot of words, fair warning :)

Let's just say, not the most positive start. I was really irritated by the endlessly looping dry wind sound and the fact that you couldn't stay in one place -- let alone switch to another tab -- without resetting that scene. That's not to say that it was glitchy, just some poor choices from the Creators. The music, on the other hand, was awesome as usual. All five of the episodes had great music.

Also, the episode had a reasonable difficulty. You had to really think in order to get each item required for the fire, even though there was only one real goal in the episode: make a fire. Not to mention the super creepy and exciting binocular zoom-out at the end! That was the highlight of the episode. I give it three out of five stars.

Ouch. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and call this episode a waste of time and a weaker copy of Episode 1. Sorry. First of all, the premise was pretty much the same as Ep. 1: you're lost, survive by doing one specific, obvious thing, in this case catching a fish, in the last episode making a fire. But Episode 2 was much easier and way too obvious: you go to the left, pick up a convenient fishing pole, find all the items you need, then return to the place where there's obviously a lot of fish (no need to look for them), and press SPACEBAR. The beaver dam mini-game was pretty easy, but besides, why are you destroying their natural habitat and punching innocent animals on the head? Sheesh.

Also, it was a little bit less polished too. Maybe these bugs have been fixed now, but fish flying out of the water and through the air? The boulder strikes ice but doesn't crack it? On the other had though, the music was even awesomer than the last episode. You can't go wrong with Poptropica music. All in all this episode gets a two out of five stars. If only for obnoxiously getting in the way of the more exciting episodes.

Talk about a turn-around! This episode would have to be one of my favorites. The mystery around the wreck area was pretty chilling: why is there a huge, broken plane lying here among the trees? Whose items are these that have dropped all over the area? What is Max McGullicutty trying to say on the cargo manifest? And the important one -- "Who is MVB?" This is the episode where the real fun starts to begin. To top it all off, the background music goes really well with the mood of the episode.

The highlight of the episode is the animation. I loved the plane as it crumbled and fell through the trees, and especially the part where you try to leap out of the plane hanging over a ravine. My other favorite: the radio tower scene. Climbing the radio tower was not too stressful and really fun, to see your Poptropican shrinking smaller and smaller as you rise above the trees and into Van Buren's realm. Little things here and there about the animation really appealed to me. It was all very entertaining.

Some downsides: there were initially a lot of bugs (its launch was even postponed a day to fix them but some slipped past), the part where you jump off the see-sawing plane wing seemed a little too impossible to be intentional at first, and it wasn't as difficult as I would have liked. Still, it gets five out of five.

Cabin Fever was definitely the climax of Survival Island. And it was a good one, at that! The thing that made this episode work really well was the atmosphere -- it starts off welcoming but tense: you're finally rescued, but you're getting lots of unpleasant hints about MVB, until, BAM, you're poisoned and locked in a room. From then on, you go through the curious experience of skulking around an insane game hunter's personal cabin, with a myriad of stuffed and mounted animals everywhere (such as Winston), and persons willing to stuff and mount you (such as MVB, the chef and Winston). And of course, the music was brilliant once again, especially at the last grand reveal. I loved it. A full five out of five stars.

This episode carried over almost the same atmosphere, music style, and scene appearance from the amazing Episode 4. Which was a pretty bad choice. Don't get me wrong, I loved the atmosphere, but I didn't like how they re-used it. And there was another problem: the climax was supposed to be episode 4. Why, then, are we still sneaking around Van Buren & company?

Still, it wasn't a total flop. I liked how we're finally on the offensive, that even though we're oppressed by a pretty overpowering enemy with traps and hounds reaching across the landscape, we're still sneaking under his nose and launching a "secret revolution" of sorts. I also appreciated how Max McGullicutty was integrated into the story, but I thought he could have done more than magically show up riding a bear.

Oh, and how could I fail to mention my most favorite part of all? The opening Chase scene was, in my opinion, one of the most powerful scenes in Poptropica, suspenseful and how you're thrown right into it before you catch a breath. Even though it was frustrating when you jumped instead of ducked, the music was pretty darn awesome (and the upgraded "Tally-ho" call was quite a relief). This episode mostly gets 3 out of 5 stars, but including the chase scene I'd have to up it to four out of five stars.

First of all, Members, get the new Poptropica Land from the Store this instant. It's too awesome to miss, and free! (If you already got the Prototype version of Land, it's already in your Store Items). Click Launch on the card to start creating!

I created a guide for Poptropica Land! Click here to read it. It's going to have a full reference guide soon, too. There's also a tutorial.

In Poptropica Land, you use a magical hammer named Svadilfari to create and destroy the landscape. The Creators listened to us and removed the ludicrous coin-mining part of the game; instead, you have to mine Poptanium (looks like blue bubblegum). Every 15 pieces of Poptanium, you level up, getting more building types or biomes, until you collect 150. Building and creating is now free.

Strangely, going underwater causes you to lose health rapidly, as does lava (which is always under water). Even stranger, the only way to remove water and lava is to put TNT near it (to trigger TNT, switch to Mining Mode and zap it for a half second). The pic to the right shows the even stranger consequences of that.

I recommend disabling sound. The incessantly chirping birds will drive you mad.

Pretty awesome, right? The Creators seemed to have made good on their promise to listen to the survey results from the prototype version of Lands, and the new one is a lot more enjoyable, not to mention polished. Some parts are still mechanical, like the arrangement of leaves (PLEASE, Creators, you should randomize them), and how you can actually slide into the landscape and then get slowly pushed up. The selection of creating tools is awesome, Poptanium never gets in the way after everything is unlocked, the max jump height is pretty reasonable, and I'm satisfied.

Also, did you notice the label in the top left: "alpha v2.0"? Obviously, the Creators still have ongoing plans for more versions of Land. Tell me how you liked it in the comments! Click here for the Lands guide!

Many of you, especially long-time Poptropicans, are disturbed by the new episodal island format being tested in Survival and Mission Atlantis, and soon to come to PoptropiCon and Arabian Nights. I was horrified at first as well, but it's here to stay, and I'll tell you why that's not such a bad thing.

An island takes skill (minigames, etc.) and it has a story. These are the things that make an island. The thing is, you can memorize a story after the first play through, and then the island holds little for you. Historically, this has been okay, because Poptropica was very story-oriented and an island was like watching a movie: you don't replay it for months, maybe a year.

Then came the Island Restart feature, and the popularity of Poptropica grew, and it needed to be more challenging in order to appeal. But how to do that without sacrificing the story that makes Poptropica? Split it up, of course. Make each goal more and more tangible, and you the player will gladly put up with the toughest of puzzles. They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step -- an exaggeration, but it helps if you can see the steps (a.k.a. have episodes)! Thereby increasing the skill-to-story ratio and replayability without sacrifice. And let's face it, a slow burn increases suspense and delays gratification, as well as removes pressure (if you're trying to make the Players' Map top lists). All makes things more fun in the long run.

According to this Twitter thread, Poptropica will be releasing 6-12 more new episodes this year! We already knew about the last episodes of Survival and Mission Atlantis, not counting Poptropi-con. That leaves 3-9 more episodes this year of completely new island(s)... which leaves some room for another new island, after Poptropi-con, "unexpected tech problems" willing. Arabian Nights, perhaps? We can only wait and watch. And play.

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!