Opinion

Retirement from Club Penguin Island, and a Huge Island-Sized Thanks

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Yes, I have decided to retire from Club Penguin Island (CPI). A whole year has passed since CPI opened publicly. I have planned for months to retire after their first anniversary. Club Penguin Island, as of now, has not been my favorite game to play. That being said, I understand it is still a young place where many things have yet to come.

But for me, I don’t enjoy the game at the level that classic Club Penguin did for me. After all, while it is Club Penguin as an entity, CPI is all-new. Though, in any stage of Club Penguin’s longevity, I EMBRACE the idea that Club Penguin is trying entirely new things for their new game. I truly hope that CPI will become more and more popular as time goes by. Keep up the lovely work, CP team. And to the CPI community, continue to do your splendid work in growing the island. You all amaze me with your talents, whether you play or work at Club Penguin.

It is time for me to move on. Now that I am older, my responsibilities and obligations have grown in importance and amount. I spend much more time offline than online. Despite having a hectic schedule, I enjoy new experiences and challenges. But I don’t want this blog post to be just about me retiring from CPI.

Club Penguin’s Legacy

You know by now that Club Penguin has immensely influenced millions of lives all across our planet, even those who have stopped playing Club Penguin. It teaches us to be altruistic in your own communities. When we donate to Coins for Change or help a new penguin get adjusted to the Club Penguin atmosphere… and many more actions… we are already stepping into others’ shoes to give our time for others.

Club Penguin may have inspired us to invest our time in a specific career. Maybe  as graphic designers. Or video producers. Or writers. Or computer programmers. Or music composers. Or managers. Club Penguin may have actually prepared you for a job more than others around you. I certainly think that Club Penguin has done that to me.

The Club Penguin attitude has always been about having fun, even if you could take five minutes out of your day to do so. Just because you are a teenager or adult does not mean that you can’t have fun. I will always cherish the little kid part of me. And you should too! Fun should not be defined by age.

Clarification

Again, I have retired from Club Penguin. But NOT quit Club Penguin. You can read more about what I really think “quitting Club Penguin” means. It is one of my most popular posts. In essence, quitting Club Penguin is NOT the same as coming back once in a while to play and chat with friends in the virtual world. And that’s the very thing I plan to do later on. If you decided to read that old article I wrote, you noticed that I said that I was never going to stop playing Club Penguin. Well, that was written almost three years ago.

It is likely that there are some players who previously thought they were going to play CP forever. Later in life though, based on countless aspects of the changing times, they have had second thoughts on that, as I have been.

So Where Will Tech70 Be After CPI Retirement?

I will still be on Twitter with the same account, same handle. You can always send a tweet or message to me. In my feed, I won’t be talking about Club Penguin stuff that much. I want to make my profile more Epic Snails-themed. It is a new game created by Club Penguin’s creator, Lance Priebe/RocketSnail. I only play about twice a week, this game, but I really do enjoy it. I hope you consider trying Epic Snails. You are a snail who can chat in a chatroom, battle in the backyard, and dress up your snail (some clothing items are flashbacks from old CP!). When I am playing games in my little amount of spare time, it is on Epic Snails.

Most of my time will be offline, as it has been for a long time already.

Club Penguin community, penguin pals, Club Penguin team, thank you for giving my childhood something that no experience can replicate. Thank you for lending a guide towards my career in mind. Thank you for the fun times. Thank you for your friendship.

This is in no way a goodbye, but more of a good-ol-fashioned waddle on.

Island Inhabitant #5: How Games in Club Penguin Island Can Improve

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Club Penguin Island is getting a start as a game-filled island. As an avid gamer, I see that there is much room for improvement with games. That is understandable because CPI is in its early stages, just as the Flash version was, so don’t be too hard on CPI. Based on the status of CPI’s games at the moment, please read the following advice I would like to suggest to the Club Penguin team. 🙂

Suggestion #1: User input outside trackpad and action button: There are several games in CPI currently: Ink or Swim, Tilt-o-Tube, Marble Hunt, Sea Cave Races, and Tube Races. Even though they are all very different and distinctive games, they all have one thing in common: players use the trackpad and/or the action button to play. I feel quite limited since there are just two user inputs. The exception is the Crate Co snowball game that uses the snowball button too. However, I still feel limited with user input. Let’s move outside of these buttons. There are many possibilities for user input, so I feel this is the greatest fault for current CPI games.

Suggestion #2: Leave the island world: The games of CPI all occur while you are on the island, in the rooms. Let’s leave the rooms for an environment made just for the game. To clarify, it would be the likes of Cart Surfer, Jet Pack Adventure, Bean Counters, etc; you are actually leaving the rooms so you can be enclosed in the game. Creating games with their own atmosphere will take much more time for the CP team. However, it is more interactive and immersive for the player.

Suggestion #3: Incorporate games that get jobs done: Role-playing has always been a CP standard. Why not continue to role-play with games? Games include making pizza, serving food, mopping the Migrator decks, inflating tubes that have gone low with air, etc. There are many ideas to make the island an even more lively place with games.

Suggestion #4: Have several levels in the game: Make the games more of a challenge and fun to last a long time! Introduce difficulty levels and modes.

Suggestion #5: Have achievements available: This is pretty much a throwback to stamp books in the old days. I mean, I will be frank, who does not want to show off what cool things they have accomplished in the games? Plus, players will have more incentive to play and improve themselves.

You may have noticed that all of my suggestions are simply common attributes of Flash Club Penguin mini-games. It’s true, these are what made them great, memorable, and super fun. I have strongly felt that the gaming experience of Flash CP has surpassed CPI by a landslide.

See, I am a bit confused. Are CPI games trying to be different from CP games? Or is there simply not enough time to create full-scale games in CPI? Anyway, I completely understand that CPI is only a couple of months old for the public. I hope to see these improvements with CPI games in the upcoming months. 🙂

Island Inhabitant #4: Losing My Marbles Over Marble Hunt

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Is there a such thing as limitless parties on Club Penguin Island? If you ask me, I don’t think so. As if this place couldn’t any more party-amplified, well guess what? Marble Hunt introduces a new type of party supply called Games. Learn more about Marble Hunt here.

Games definitely enhance the experience you can have on Club Penguin Island. Marble Hunt has started off Games in a very nice fashion. What makes Marble Hunt so great?

  • Play multiplayer
  • Make new friends
  • Earn Rookie XP points quick (if you win)
  • It presents challenges for both the hider and the seeker. Who will outsmart the other and be victorious?
  • Players stay online for longer sessions because of this game. Great news for the Club Penguin team’s player statistics!

Because Marble Hunt costs 75 coins, which can be considered kind of pricey, and only members can purchase it, then there could be a swarm of players trying to join your game if you host it. This makes Marble Hunt even more exciting.

There were quite a few bugs that caused irritation, especially the one wherein the seeker cannot move after the hider finishes their job. Therefore, the hider would always win, in this case. These bugs have annoyed me and many other players. However, I am not letting them ruin the Games experience.  If you overlook the hindrances that the bugs have caused while Marble Hunt was new, Games in CPI have so much potential.

I am looking forward for what is in store for Games. I hope there will be classic games from Flash Club Penguin returning to CPI, such as Find Four and Mancala. And with Marble Hunt being a brand new game, it will be no surprise to see new games the community has never played before to be initiated into Club Penguin Island.

Bring on the Games, Club Penguin team! As an avid gamer, I am totally pumped up for additional games that present real challenges, following in the footsteps of Marble Hunt.

Flash(back) Club Penguin #3: Sled Time, All the Time

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It seems to be that no matter how often the Club Penguin universe changes, sled racing always sticks around. Sled racing in Club Penguin history has evolved and jumped to different platforms.

Sled Racing: The First to Start it All

No Club Penguin player should ever forget Flash Club Penguin’s classic multiplayer mini-game, that was, Sled Racing. It came all the way from beta testing in 2005 and became the fundamental experience of classic Club Penguin for over 11 years, before the Flash-based game closed. And those old blue penguins clapping endlessly for all the finishers (until Flash CP shut down) will always be remembered. The gameplay was super simple, just use the arrow keys to move to the left or right in order to avoid obstacles which are all obvious, and speed up using ice patches. This sled game was the standard in Club Penguin culture and still is, even if we cannot play it anymore. It has paved the way for new sled racing experiences in the future, which we will explore up next.

Test Run: Sled Racing’s EPIC Extension

Thought Sled Racing was too easy? Then try out Test Run, which literally tested your ability to sled. This was a fun part of Mission 2 of the Penguin Secret Agency, released in 2006. You used the mouse to control your maneuvers to the left and the right. Extra obstacles attempted to knock you off the sled. On top of that, the obstacles appeared much quicker than in the multiplayer mini-game that the CP team based this fun, little game from. So, you had to react much quicker. If you hit enough obstacles, you will crash right there and then where you last hit one. Even if you are a pro at this game, you will eventually crash at the end. I remember entering PSA Mission 2 just to play this game. Sometimes, I made it to the end and sometimes I didn’t. Test Run was a second-person player game (I think), which means you controlled your sled as if you got caught in all the action right behind your sled, rather than from a bird’s eye view from Sled Racing. This made the Test Run gameplay exciting, fast-paced, and full of thrills!

Sled and Slide: the Overlooked Sledding Game

Both of these images came from Club Penguin’s commercial for their Game Day video game for the Nintendo Wii. In the first image, who do you think is more determined to win, the kid on the left or the right? Or maybe the question should be who is the better actor for the commercial?

When Club Penguin players talk about mini-games, I believe that those from the Game Day video game are often overlooked. Sled and Slide is a mini-game from the Game Day Nintendo Wii video game, released in 2010, that allowed players to have the only bobsledding experience that Club Penguin had ever offered. The gameplay involves moving the Wii remote to the left or right to move in the direction where you want to go in the bobsled.  It is definitely different from other sledding games. First, this is an exclusive for the Nintendo Wii. Second, this is a teamwork-based game. Your team members participate in your bobsled race. Everybody should do a good job in order to achieve the fastest time. Third, at the start of the race, you have to run with the bobsled by furiously shaking the Wii remote to get it going before you could hop in and start steering. Fourth, the obstacles includes things like large snowmen and ice sheets. Fifth, you have very long tunnels to ride through. There are more differences, but I think I have covered the majority. It is a challenging game that provided Club Penguin fans a different type of sledding experience.

Sled Racer: More Than Just a Jump to Mobile

Let’s fast forward to the era of Club Penguin history in which the great emphasis on the mobile platform was beginning. Sled Racer was an app all on its own, launched in 2014 for iOS and 2015 for Android. It was still a part of the Club Penguin universe, but could not be played in the Flash version of Club Penguin nor the Club Penguin app. Sled Racer maximized the potential of sled racing. Simple sleds and downhill slopes were not enough. You had to deal with avoiding sabertoothed Fluffy fish, cacti, and other crazy obstacles. Logs just did not cut it. The game had no end, so you could go as far as you could before you crashed into something. It was a second-person game like Test Run. What made this game very special from other Club Penguin games was that although you could not ride alongside other players, there were public leaderboards showing players’ best scores. You could even earn the Golden Goggles for being at the top of the Friends’ Leaderboard. You could wear this special item on your penguin in the Club Penguin game and show off just what an amazing sled racer you were. The gameplay, in my opinion, was superior. The controls were simple and easy to use. You also had exciting and absurd power-ups (just for the members) that could help you on your danger-filled and thrilling sled race. It was one of Club Penguin’s several apps that they stopped developing due to Club Penguin Island.

Club Penguin Island’s Response to Sled Games

After classic Club Penguin closed its doors earlier this year, so did the old Sled Racing game that was more than a decade old. No fear! Your thrills down the mountain slopes as a Club Penguin player did not leap off the cliff into extinction. The latest Club Penguin Island update brought the sled racing experience back, here in 2017. I don’t know if there is an official name for it, but the sign in the game placed before the sled racing says “Tube Races” so I’m just gonna call it that. I’m sorry, but I am not a fan of the gameplay part of Tube Races.  Here is my opinion and explanation from my Mt. Blizzard review:

The tubing game is only okay, in my opinion. This is because the controls are not as friendly as they could be. Think of the old Sled Racer app’s controls. They had left and right arrows to steer. You have a trackpad on CPI, which makes it harder to control the tube. That being said, I never was cut out for mobile platform gaming. I would love to play this tubing game on a computer (oh, how I miss you, arrow keys) or even a gaming controller. Still, it is a very fun game and a fantastic way to spend time on the island and make friends. The tubing competition could get hot for such a cold place. 😉

The best parts of Tube Races are the multiplayer experience and ease of access. You can play with as many players as you want and enter the game smoothly and quickly. Gameplay is only acceptable; partly due to reasons that I stated above from my Mt. Blizzard review and that there are not any obstacles that actually slow your speed down very much. You depend on maneuvering quickly through turns. There could be more strategies, but I’m not aware of any others, at this point. But what makes this game stand out from any of Club Penguin’s other sled racing games is the fact that you can wear all your clothes while you are playing. And that’s seriously awesome! Riding with style. You also have an assortment of tubes to ride. They are all the same speed, but they have a different personality and appearance for each one.

Sled racing has come a very long way. Starting from a humble, little, Flash game called Sled Racing from Club Penguin’s beta party, and now to the Unity 3D, fast-paced, and quite different Tube Races of Club Penguin Island, sled racing has undergone changes for Club Penguin players throughout the years. This Club Penguin activity has kept up with the times and let the fans have constant fun, whether it be on a computer, a mobile device, or even a Nintendo console. Despite the evolutionary changes to sled racing, what has remained is competitive fun and challenges for players (oh, and snow and tubes/sleds. Can’t have sled races without them.)

What is your favorite Club Penguin sled race game? Will there be new ones in the future?

I have an idea for a belly slide sort of game. Penguins in real life are known for belly sliding, but Club Penguin has not made this action evident for its penguins. What if there were to be a belly slide game someday?

Island Inhabitant #3: CPI is More Similar to CP Than at First Glance

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Some say CPI is super different from CP, but I think that statement needs looking into. Club Penguin Island is arguably similar to its predecessor: classic, Flash Club Penguin. A couple of hints are obvious; perhaps with the ability to fish, original mascots starring in adventures, and other traces from our previous home. How else is Club Penguin Island more similar to the original Club Penguin than at first glance?

I hope I do not spoil this for you, dear reader, but while I was playing this swiping game in the Aunt Arctic adventures, it reminded me of a particular Ye Knight’s Quest game from the Medieval Parties from the old Club Penguin.

From CPI’s Aunt Arctic adventures.

From Quest 2 of Ye Knight’s Quest (CP Medieval Parties).

Both require the swiping/sliding of an object or objects in order to get to a specific destination for the game to be won. Both require strategy and problem-solving. “If I need to get this object to that place, then which steps do I take to move it there?” I am not surprised if Club Penguin Island will contain more similar games in a similar fashion as this example.

Another reminder of the old Club Penguin is the soundtrack. Some musical pieces are like remixes of original songs, others are exactly the same as they were in classic Club Penguin.

Here is CPI’s version of Operation Blackout:

Here is the original Operation Blackout song that most players are familiar with:

The following song was not changed when it moved to Club Penguin Island. (It is also one of my favorite CP songs ever. I do not think it was played often enough during the original CP, so I am glad it is being played in CPI!):

These are just some instances of wonderful reminders of our first home through the power of music.

What is another tie to classic Club Penguin? Landmarks and objects here and there! Need examples? The Lighthouse (which is currently under dilapidation, just like from classic CP) and green buoys scattered around the island. Another well-known example is the belt that helps the ski lift run, which was present in old CP and now in Mt. Blizzard.

I agree that in quite a few aspects, Flash Club Penguin and Club Penguin Island are different. However, between the two, there are more similarities if you look carefully. Admittedly, key elements are missing from CPI, such as Puffles, igloos, and mini-games to earn coins. We should give the Club Penguin team time though. They would never reject the crucial features from our old home that contribute to Club Penguin’s essence!