Poptropica Land has finally graduated out of its alpha phase, and out of it came Poptropica Realms! At first, when you land on it, you'll notice nothing much different from the Poptropica Land of old (except that your Poptanium number and levels have been reset to 0 -- trust me, crashing down from 570 and crawling your way up is not fun.) But there's something new. Realms is a totally new take on the idea of Land.
Instead of being limited to the three biomes of Asgard, Snow and Desert, you have an entire multiverse of worlds at your disposal that you can create, destroy and traverse at will. In essence, you've got as many biomes as your imagination will allow. Not to mention that it's got a kicking soundtrack now, something you can really relax into. Unlike those FREAKING ENDLESSLY LOOPED SONGBIRDS. Alright, sorry for shouting, but those birds had me on the edge.
And there aren't just three world types, either. You've now got your selection of Forest, Ice, Desert, Swamp, Lunar (not quite one-sixth gravity), Fire, and Crystal. The latter four are new, with new hazards and basic land/sky types, and the latter two are members-only. You can also give it a name and specify the size (which only determines the number of scenes it starts with -- you can always expand it by exploring).
As far as I can see, space is unlimited. So create away!
As far as I can see, space is unlimited. So create away!
Poptanium now works very differently. You mine it the normal way, but you get 10 Poptanium points each time you get one piece. Building is no longer free; you spend 1 Pop point for each block. And the act of spending Poptanium, not hoarding it, makes you level up. I can't yet tell if this is encouraging or discouraging more creation.
Oh, and there are also now ad spaces in Realms. Bummer.
Oh, and there are also now ad spaces in Realms. Bummer.
Something else. One of the early features of Land that the Creators had touted was the ability to download a copy of your worlds, serialized into a POP file, which you could then load in again. Of course, the main problem with this was that it was really easy to hack (I feel bad I never got to release my image-to-Land converting app). So that functionality is now gone. However, the Creators now promise that in the future, we'll be able to share individual lands directly with our friends! Possibly (and now I'm just being optimistic) we might even be able to collaborate in a friend's land.
The best part: many irritating bugs, especially the one where you could fly around the scene by going through platforms, have been either reduced or eliminated. Yay smoothness!
Hope you have fun with Poptropica Realms! Nice Hawk out for today (but watch this space this weekend, when I'll be announcing the winners of Hide & Seek!)
