Poptropica

Poptropica is a 'free' online game aimed at children. Better Than It Sounds. You start by customizing a character with a randomized name and then hop into a blimp, where a map appears. There are currently[when?] (as of January '12) 23 islands you can explore, and more keep being developed and added. You will need to accomplish a quest on each island, ranging from finding villagers' lost possessions, rescuing space princesses, jumping through time and space to fix a Bad Future or defeating pirates on the high sea.

Every time you finish a quest you get a medallion and 100 credits to spend at the Poptropica store, where you can buy costumes and whatnot for your character. If you want more credits you’ll need to buy them with some real cash, luckily none of the stuff you can buy at the store is necessary for defeating the game. You can also (with your real money, of course) buy a membership, which will give temporary access to all the stuff in the store along with early access to islands that aren’t out yet.

If you like the game you can save your character and choose a username and password so you can come back to it later. You can also choose to start with a new character every single time you visit the website, along with resetting any progress you’ve made on your quests. Up to you. Check it out.

The current[when?] islands available are:

  • Early Poptropica Island
  • Shark Tooth Island
  • Time Tangled Island
  • 24 Carrot Island
  • Super Power Island
  • Spy Island
  • Nabooti Island
  • Big Nate Island
  • Astro-Knights Island
  • Counterfeit Island
  • Reality TV Island
  • Mythology Island
  • Skullduggery Island
  • Steamworks Island
  • Great Pumpkin Island
  • Cryptids Island
  • Wild West Island
  • Wimpy Wonderland
  • Red Dragon Island
  • Shrink Ray Island
  • Mystery Train Island
  • Game Show Island
  • Ghost Story Island
  • SOS Island (coming soon[when?])
Tropes used in Poptropica include:
  • Action Girl: If you play as a girl, then you're this.
  • All Players Like Ponies: On Wild West Island, one of the first things you do is get yourself a horse.
  • Amazing Technicolor Population: There's a vendor in early Poptropica that sells skin pigments. Also in 24 Carrot Island, you can get a drink that changes your hair color.
  • And I Must Scream: When you beat Mordred and take the gem from him, he is trapped in the realm he created forever with no way out.
  • Art Shift: For Big Nate Island, the art changes to the Big Nate art style. The same thing happens when you go to the Peanuts-themed Great Pumpkin Island and Wimpy Wonderland Island.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Dr. Hare's giant rabbot on 24 Carrot Island
  • Awesome McCoolname: If you're lucky, the name you get when you register can be this, such as "Golden Dragon".
  • Badass Damsel: The princess on Astro Knights Island. At the end, when you defeat Mordred and the Orb drops out, he comes out to claim it, saying "The Orb is mine!!!" but the princess, now free, yells "I don't think so!" and jumps down and punches him, knocking him out and giving you two the chance to escape with the Orb.
  • Bad Future: A possible future on Time Tangled Island
  • Bag of Spilling: Items and skills you earn from specific islands don't carry over to the other islands. This is justified by the fact that not implementing this rule would make entire sections of quests skippable.
  • Big Bad: Different ones on different islands. Examples include Zeus on Mythology Island, Mordred on Astro-Knights Island, Dr. Hare on 24 Carrot Island, Director D on Spy Island, and Black Widow on Counterfeit Island.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Ned Noodlehead on Super Power Island.
  • Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: On Cryptids Island.
  • Bilingual Bonus: The signs in Red Dragon are all in Japanese, and Counterfeit uses French; one sign even reveals the island's villain, even though it's spelled wrong. "Noire," not "Niore."
  • The Cake Is a Lie: On Mythology Island, after you give the five MacGuffins to Zeus, he declares that he has everything he needs to rule all of Poptropica, instead of granting you the immortality he promised you earlier.
  • Cats Hate Water: On 24 Carrot Island, you get Charlie's pet cat, Whiskers, out of the bathtub by turning the tap on.
  • Chain of Deals: As with many other games, trading various items to NPCs is an instrumental part of the game.
  • Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: You can change your clothing by looking at other people and copying it onto your skin, basically.
  • Character Customization: You can change your character's basic appearance at the beginning, you can use a customization device to take clothes/hair/etc. from other characters and players, and on 24 Carrot Island, a smoothie maker mixes colors and when drunk, will change your hair color, to a variety of odd colors.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Everything you find, whether you find it randomly or it's given to you by an NPC. Everything.
  • Child-Hater: Everyone at Leisure Towers except for Greg's grandpa on Wimpy Wonderland Island, as your avatar finds out first-hand.
  • Chupacabra: On Cryptids Island.
  • Continuity Nod: In one part of Counterfeit Island, you go back to Early Poptropica.
    • Big Zeke from Nabooti likes movies from 24 Carrot Island.
    • A character from Time Tangled Island goes on vacation to Shark Tooth Island.
    • Characters from the Spy, 24 Carrot, Counterfeit, and Super Power Islands appear on the reality TV show.
  • Cruelty Is the Only Option: Destroying Little Billy's snowman while following Manny on Wimpy Wonderland Island.
  • Did Not Do the Research: Red Dragon Island is set in Japan, but there's a Chinese New Year parade dragon near the fish shop.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The final battle on Mythology Island. You vs. Zeus. Do the math.
  • Damsel in Distress: The Astro Knights Island princess, though she makes up for it with a moment of Badass Damsel at the end of the quest.
  • The Dragon: The mysterious man on Counterfeit Island
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: So you've arrived on Super Power Island. You get your superhero ID, and proceed to beat the ever-loving shit out of all six villains with a little help from Ned Noodlehead on the last one, and what happens? Ned Noodlehead gets the island medallion instead of you! However, that isn't the end. See Easy Come, Easy Go below.
    • This gets a Lampshade in Red Dragon Island. When you help trap the Kappa, the Ungrateful Bastard won't give you anything. Your avatar even says, "Hm, don't I usually get something for doing good deeds?"
  • Dystopia: The Bad Future on Time Tangled Island. This is also what 24 Carrot Island looks like when you first arrive.
  • Easy Come, Easy Go: After Ned Noodlehead pulls the Big Damn Heroes moment on Super Power Island, he gets the medallion that you usually get after finishing an island's quest, but he will trade it to you for a hot dog.
  • Drunk on Milk: Seems to be a common possibility on Poptropica. All the kegs and barrels are labeled Soda, Grape Juice, Root Beer. The crate marked Loch-Pop on Cryptids Island is even called "The Strong Stuff" by your character...
  • Egopolis: Big Nate Island
  • Empathic Environment: When you first arrive in 24 Carrot Island, a town with a failing economy, the sky and hills are depressing shades of brown and tan. The trees have practically no leaves on them, and the water that surrounds the island is green. After you finish the island's quest and the carrots stop disappearing, the sky and hills turn blue.
  • Everybody Hates Hades: Averted on Mythology Island
  • Every Japanese Sword Is a Katana: Averted. The two samurai guards on Red Dragon Island have naginatas.
  • Everything's Better with Plushies: There are real-life Poptropica plushies of various NPCs out there if you want to buy them.
  • Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: Booga the shark from Shark Tooth Island.
  • Evil All Along: A common trope. Examples include Mordred on Astro-Knights Island, Zeus on Mythology Island, the inspector on Counterfeit Island, and Director D on Spy Island.
  • Expy: The reality TV show is an Expy of Survivor.
  • Face Heel Revolving Door: A mysterious man on Counterfeit Island tells you to sneak into the museum and guard the Scream - but it turns out it was a setup, allowing him to steal the painting and you to be arrested. Then when he, too, is betrayed by Black Widow, he has a Heel Face Turn and helps you.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink
  • Flight: On Super Power Island, Betty Jetty has this. You also get it in Early Poptropica when you find a jet pack in the Airplane Graveyard, and on Super Power Island, given by the retired superhero.
  • Fragile Speedster: Speeding Spike from Super Power Island.
  • Funny Afro: Included with one of the costumes in the store. And it's a blue afro!
  • Gender Blender Name: The lady who runs Charlie's Carrot Surplus Co. on 24 Carrot Island...well, guess.
  • Global Airship: Every player gets the iconic yellow Poptropica blimp at the start of their journey.
  • Goggles Do Nothing: Dr. Hare
  • Gotta Catch Em All: On Nabooti Island, you have to find the five jewels to put them back in the Nabooti Totem in the museum. Good luck finding them all without help, though.
  • Guide Dang It: Too many of the island quests fall into this to count.
  • Hair-Raising Hare: Dr. Hare on 24 Carrot Island, although this trope comes from his Animal Motifs rather than actually being a rabbit.
  • Heavy Sleeper: Once you put the humongous shark on Shark Tooth Island to sleep with a coconut potion stirred with an old bone, he never wakes up. Never.
  • Heel Face Turn: The mysterious man on Counterfeit Island.
  • Heroic Mime: Averted. You can talk to other players (albeit through pre-recorded questions/responses like "Can you juggle?" and "Do you want to play head-to-head Paint War?"). You also talk to NPCs, and to yourself in some cases (e.g. "I don't think Snoopy has much to say").
  • In a Single Bound: Your character's awesome jumping skills. This skill is very, very useful for getting on top of buildings and such. *wink wink*
  • Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons: Simultaneously inverted and played straight on Red Dragon Island - at the climax, the Ax Crazy Red Dragon goes on a rampage to destroy the city of Edo. On the other hand, there's the benevolent Cloud Dragon, who's controlled by you to stop the Red Dragon from burning Edo to the ground.
  • Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja: The Midnight Red Ninja outfit, which is free for members only. On the other hand, there's another ninja outfit in the store, which only costs 75 credits.
  • Jerkass Gods: Played with - on Mythology Island, Zeus is one, while Athena, Poseidon and Hades most certainly are not.
  • The Jersey Devil: He's on Cryptids Island, and is a major source of Nightmare Fuel.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: One of the outfits you can buy in the store is an ancient Chinese/Japanese soldier outfit, katana and all. The aforementioned ninja outfit also has one.
  • Mega Manning: Not with abilities or powers, but with clothes - you can use the Costumizer to copy an NPC's outfit onto your avatar. It doesn't work for the NPCs on Wimpy Wonderland, Great Pumpkin Island or Big Nate Island, though.
  • Me's a Crowd: Copy Cat's power on Super Power Island. The clones disappear when you touch them, though.
  • Mind Control Device: The robotic bunny ears ("rabbot ears") that are worn by the people who disappeared from 24 Carrot Island.
  • My Future Self and Me: On Time Tangled Island, you meet your fifty-years-older self twice: once at the beginning when you use the time machine to find out about the future, and when you've finished Time Tangled Island and use the machine again to visit your fifty-years-older self in a much better future.
  • Name's Almost The Same: Ratman, one of the villains from Super Power Island, has a name similar to Doug Rattmann.
  • Nice Hat: Included in too many of the store costumes to list. There's a football helmet, an astronaut helmet, a baseball helmet, a baseball cap, a Robin Hood hat, a tiara, various hats shaped like animal heads, and many more.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Astro Knights.
  • Not the Fall That Kills You: Your character can walk off the top of a frigging lighthouse and land without a scratch.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red Dragon and Cloud Dragon on Red Dragon Island.
  • Pirates: Skullduggery Island
  • Plot Induced Stupidity: No, you can't use the leaf blower against the Whirley Street Kids' snowball barrage on Wimpy Wonderland Island.
  • Police Are Useless: The ones on Super Power Island.
  • Princesses Prefer Pink: The princess outfit. Guess where you can buy it.
  • Prongs of Poseidon: On Mythology Island, Poseidon gives you his trident so you can take down Zeus.
  • Robeast: The robotic owl you befriend on Astro-Knights Island.
    • Also the robotic mouse you use to bribe the robotic owl to joining you.
  • Sadly Mythtaken: Averted on Greek Mythology Island.
  • Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: "Out of my way, little lady!" In fact, this trope applies to ALL of the old people at Leisure Towers, save for Greg's grandparents. Watch what happens when you knock on a series of doors:

Senior #1: You must be in the wrong place!
Senior #2: Hey! No kids allowed here!
Senior #3: Go sell your cookies somewhere else!
Senior #4: I'm taking a nap!
Senior #5: Not interested!
Senior #6: Go away!
Senior #7: Take a hike, kid!

    • Notably subverted in the bingo game scene. Instead of yelling at you to get out, the lady running the game allows you to play after you obtain a blotter.
  • Shout-Out: The entirety of Big Nate Island.
  • The Silent Bob: On Great Pumpkin Island, Snoopy never says anything, not even in thought bubbles.
  • Shown Their Work: Wimpy Wonderland Island,. The creator of Poptropica is the writer of Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
  • Soft Water
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: "Vince isn't looking, let's make a run for it!"
  • Surprise Creepy: Can be a source of this, with things like the Jersey Devil on Cryptids Island and the voice saying "Looking for someone?" on Ghost Story island. Although the latter is mainly because Poptropica very rarely has sound or music.
  • Taken for Granite: Hercules. He's fine with it, though.
  • Time Travel: The theme of Time Tangled Island.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: Inverted. 99% of the time, helping out an NPC will earn you a crucial item and their thanks. Hell, even Lucy will reward you for helping take care of Linus in the pumpkin patch!
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: No matter how cool/awesome/ridiculously flashy your costume is (you have the option to dress up as a hamburger, a princess, a ninja, and a pop star if you wish, among other things), the island inhabitants don't take notice of it.
  • Utopia: The good future on Time Tangled Island
  • Water Is Blue: Everywhere (Poseidon's realm on Mythology Island, the sea surrounding Big Nate Island, etc.) The only exception is the aforementioned green water on 24 Carrot Island.
  • We Need a Distraction: On 24 Carrot Island, you do this to give yourself time to deactivate the hypnotized carrot factory workers' rabbot ears.

You: Look! A flying buffalo!
Worker: Where?

  • You Dirty Rat: There's a really big rat in one of the pipes in the Carrot Cake Factory on 24 Carrot Island.
  • Your Head Asplode: People's heads usually pop off when they get angry.
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