Club Penguin | a Review
originally published on 13/12/2024;
Hello everyone, I am the nostalgia-ridden G.E.M.Simov, a being so similar to a penguin that it is eerie, and I’ve gone back in time to present you with a review of “Club Penguin”.
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it.
Gameplay
Club Penguin is a very weird game, in the sense that it, itself, is not that much of a game but is, instead, a funky chatroom… But then only some servers have chatting functionality, because the game is geared towards children. Regardless, Club Penguin features almost no gameplay - aside from clicking to move one's penguin, which is the Player Character(PC), around a ‘room’, clicking to move the PC from one room to another, and clicking to engage with the shops that the game features.
Those shops sell ‘equipment’ for the PC, which can be equipped in one of eight slots - there’s a color slot, feet slot, a body slot, a head slot, an arm slot, an accessory slot, a background slot, and a pin slot. By equipping items in those slots, the Player gets to customize their penguin and make said penguin stand out or be uniquely theirs.
Now, some of the items mentioned can be obtained by simply clicking here and there, but almost all of them require interaction with a shop, which, in turn, requires the use of Coins. More on Coins later, but the main thing here is that Club Penguin is, essentially, a glorified chat room that happens to, in some cases, not have a chat option at all.
Instead, what is available is a menu with a number of things that can be ‘said’, as well as another menu with emoticons that can also be used to communicate. In addition, there are a few ‘emotes’ that the PC can perform - waving, sitting down and dancing - which can also be used as a means of communication.
As a result of this, the game is all about social situations and interactions, providing backdrops for said interactions. There are also a few other things that can be a source of entertainment in this game. Each Player has their own Igloo, which is a custom room that they can go to at any time, which can also be visited by friends or other Players, determined by a toggle. By going to the igloo, Players can get a measure of privacy.
As mentioned, there is a friend functionality - Players can click one another, to inspect each other, and they can send friend requests. When a Player gets a friend request and accepts, their will have a particular outline underneath their PC, indicating that they are the Player's friend (to the Player), whenever the Player is picking out a server to play on they will see an icon indicating that friends are playing on that server, if they are. In addition, the Player is able to go to the room their friends are in with ease, whilst also being able to send them postcards with rudimentary, preset messages.
Now, igloo customization is not all that sophisticated, but for a flash game from years ago, it is very entertaining, if the Player has access to lots of furniture, which… Well, which requires Coins to be obtained.
The last thing, before going onto talking about Coins, is the pet system. In Club Penguin, the Player can purchase and own a Puffle (or other, weird Puffle-esque creatures that also resemble cats, dogs, rabbits, deer, etc). Puffles can be taken on walks, but, normally, they reside in the Player's igloo and wobble about.
In addition to that, the Puffle must be cared for - it has a number of needs, shown off by a number of indicators. The Player must make sure that their Puffle doesn't go hungry, does not spend too much time without having fun, gets cleaned or groomed, and gets its sleep. One of the things that Puffles provide is additional means for customization, for there aren't just many colors and types of Puffle, but there are also accessories for them.
But, one of the main draws of having a Puffle, and one of the actual mechanics associated with them, is the fact that the Puffle will, occasionally, or when commanded (as when taken out on a walk, a menu filled with commands, similar to the menu filled with emotes, becomes available), dig up treasure. That treasure can be an item or it can be some amount of Coins.
The last neat mechanic about Puffles is that some of them can join the Player while playing mini games - which are the mean of obtaining Coins.
Club Penguin features a vast plethora of mini games, more than twenty of them, and most of them are very different from one another. Each provides the Player with a different engagement and decides what kind of reward the Player gets in a different way. Regardless, Club Penguin is a hub for mini games and chatting with people, rather than being a proper game, as a result of which I find myself challenged with how to proceed.
The goals in the game appear to be whatever the Player wants - get Coins for that item, or that piece of furniture - and then get it. It's based almost exclusively on intrinsic motivation, and the social element is incredibly important. If the Player manages to get to interacting with other Players, the conversations that might ensue, could be entertaining to no end, but at the same time they could be very underwhelming, or there could be none of them.
There is something else, though - the game offers extrinsic motivation, in the form of collectable Stamps. Doing something, such as playing through a mini game in a particular manner, might grant a stamp. Alternatively, the stamp might be granted for going somewhere, in some particular room, and clicking on something.
These stamps are a good way of motivating the Player to linger and engage with the game, but, again, the main point of the game is to chit-chat with other Players or play the mini games to get Coins. At one point, the Player may wind up having so many Coins that they no longer need to engage with the mini games, which might, in turn, make the rest of the game less appealing.
Still, there was thought put into the game, and a gameplay loop can be discovered - “visit room, see new mini game, play mini game”. Alternatively, it could be: “see a new shop, take a look inside, see something cool, go get Coins by playing mini games”. However, what winds up happening is that the game becomes incredibly reliant on the mini games themselves to be made fun.
Here's where an issue presents itself - many of the available mini games are not completely accessible to the Player. Similarly, almost all, with a very small number of exceptions, items are also not available. Additionally, there are only two types of Puffle available, whereas the others are not.
Around eighty percent of the content in Club Penguin is gated behind a membership, which requires monthly payment. Now, granted, some things are accessible by non-Members, and some mini games are fully Playable without a Membership, but others are nearly unplayable, or are so thoroughly limited that it can hardly be said that the Player has played them at all, if they haven't played the Member-only component.
Additionally, many of the stamps in the game require a membership to be unlocked… And then there is a particular set of mini games, which allows for competitive multiplayer, in which set of games Members can pay for an advantage. Thus, the game’s monetization scheme is not just predatory - seeing as it is marketed towards kids, who will want to play the mini games and will beg and whine at their parents, but also predatory in the sense that it's not just access that is being sold - it is power.
And when a person is taught that to win, they don't need to be good or smart, they just need to pay? That's not good, and it even normalizes the dreadful monetization of other games, which have come following Club Penguin.
Already, that is a huge negative, and that is definitely not how to introduce monetization into the game. Oddly enough, Club Penguin does monetization properly, in one regard, but then in almost every other regard it is dreadful. The right way to monetize is shown off in a mini game (called “Ice Fishing”), in which the Player catches fish - more on that later. If the Player is not a Member, the game does not get limited by some arbitrary wall. It's just the game. If the Player is a Member, however, they can purchase an item which adds onto the game, introducing new mechanics and raising the reward for playing the mini game.
That's how a membership should function - it should expand upon what is already available, it should provide more, but in an additive manner, not in a restrictive manner. Because it could be argued that limiting half the mini games to only their first level, for non-Members, is actually expanding the mini games for them when they become Members, but that's not it.
The mini game does not change when a Member plays it - the Member just gets to play it. The way that this monetization scheme should have been done is just like with the “Ice Fishing” mini game - allow Members to get an item that changes the game slightly, instead of simply excluding non-Members from even playing.
With that said, there are a few other issues - mainly related to the management of the Player's inventory. The more items the Player gets, the more bothersome navigating their inventory will become. There are means of filtering through items, allowing for some alleviation of the issue at hand, but it remains that when the Player has 50 pairs of boots, and they can only see twelve of them at a time, there is going to be lengthy, annoying browsing in some situations.
A similar problem arises with the furniture inventory, and with the Puffle inventory. There are some filters that can be applied, but they're a bandaid on a missing leg.
With that out of the way, I will now start listing off the mini games, in alphabetical order, excluding one particular set which is more complex. I will perform “mini reviews” of them, as they are integral to the gameplay of Club Penguin itself… Starting with:
“Aqua Grabber”
Starting off strong, this is one of the most interesting mini games on the list. In it, the Player gains control of a submarine, which can go in four different directions (Left, Right, Up and Down) and can also extend a grabber by pressing and holding down the Spacebar. The goal in it is to find a particular item, while traversing an underwater level and being careful not to bump into anything or run out of air.
This game is, as stated, one of the more interesting ones on the list, due to the fact that it is very straightforward and all the stamps associated with it rely on skill, and are very clear cut. There are two particular levels in Aqua Grabber, and both, once completed, unlock challenge modes - a timed variant, a variant that requires the Player completes the level without losing a life, a variant that requires the Player discovers a secret treasure, aside from the item that needs to be grabbed and brought to the start of the level for it to be complete, as well as a variant in which bumping into anything kills the PC instantly.
Unfortunately, this game could have had its Member elements be the challenge modes, but instead it decided to keep one of the two levels exclusive for Members. The only issues that this game has would be the wobbly controls and the odd collision boxes (which determine whether two objects collide or not). There are times when it becomes impossible to control the submarine, such as whenever the PC bumps against the wall of a narrow passage, in which case it is almost certain that the Player will have to start over. Another issue is related to some mechanics in the second level, which are simply far too much to be manageable - such as the crab’s speed, or the balloon fish in the “don’t touch anything” variant. Regardless, it is more good than it is bad, even if it has some issues.
“Astro Barrier”
This is a very simple arcade-ish game in which the Player takes control of a ship, which can go left and right, and can shoot a number of bullets dependent on the level. In each level, the Player must shoot a number of targets to proceed, with the targets having different mechanics to them. Some simply move around at random speeds, others must be hit twice, others expand when they are hit.
When a target is hit, it stops moving and becomes solid, which can sometimes cause impossibilities for the Player to hit a target behind that one. Those issues are very rare, or, rather, are intended to be game-over conditions that are to be avoided. The whole gist of this game is that it is a puzzle, in a sense, as the Player needs to figure out which targets to shoot first and how to approach the situations, but at the same time it is a reflex/timing based game, which somewhat conflicts with the puzzle element of it.
The main problem that it has is that only the first 5 levels are available for non-Members, while there are 45 additional levels for Members only. A good way of going about doing this game’s member addition would have been to make the secret levels, of which there are 20, be the thing that only Members get, and make it be tied to a particular item that the Members can buy, rather than blocking 90% of the game off.
Another issue that Astro Blaster has would definitely be the insanity of some levels, in which there are either tiny little targets that move at incredible speeds or normal sized targets that move at around two times faster than that - and, considering that there is no level selection, failing to get the target (and running out of lives) means that the Player has to go through all the previous levels one more time. The stamps associated with this one are very bothersome - such as completing all 30 levels without missing a shot, which is a feat that might require ten or more hours to be put into that particular minigame.
Still, it is not bad, but it has one too many issues to be very good.
“Bean Counters”
Now this game is a really simple one. In it, the Player controls their PC by moving their mouse to the left or to the right. The goal is to catch bags of coffee beans, thrown at random from the right side of the screen (the Player’s right) and to deposit them, by standing at the leftmost side of the screen (the Player’s left) and clicking the Left Mouse Button. There are five levels, and each level becomes more difficult than the previous, as aside from being able to get overburdened - carrying more than 5 bags at once makes the PC fall over and lose a life - the PC can get crushed by an anvil, slapped by a fish or be clobbered with a vase.
This game is almost perfect, in the sense that it has almost no issues, but, unfortunately, it does have issues. There is no counter indicating how many bags have been collected, and how many bags need to be collected, which is a small problem, but still is one. The bigger issue would be that, sometimes, all three possible obstacles appear, forcing the Player into a situation where they need to lose a life.
That is owed up to the fact that there are roughly three spaces on the screen, between the Right side and the Left. On the first third, anvils fall. On the second third, the middle section, vases fall, and on the third section fall fish. To avoid getting hit by one of those, the Player needs to move the PC to one of the other sections - but when all three obstacles are thrown out at the same time, that becomes impossible.
Additionally, this issue sometimes occurs when an anvil and a fish are thrown in conjunction, as even if the Player positions the PC in the middle section, where they should be safe, they get hit by either the fish or the anvil. Those are issues with visual clarity and collision detection, but they are quite minor.
Incredibly, this game has no Member exclusive stages or mechanics. In fact, it has a second, secret mode - which features more mechanics, more challenge and a different appearance - but said mode is not for Members only, which leaves me a bit perplexed. That particular gamemode introduces colors, making it so only certain bags are accepted, and requiring that the Player throw wrong color bags back on the Right side of the screen.
Additionally, the Player must not let bags fall, as that incurs a penalty. This additional gamemode is much harder - allowing for the selection of a difficulty level, ranging from hard, through expert and all the way to extreme, which is a bit too difficult. Bean Counters is good fun, though, and it has very few issues.
“Bits and Bolts”
This one is very simple. There is a field with squares in it. On occasion, a number of squares with a bit or bolt, or multiple, will fall onto the field, covering some squares. These new squares with bits range from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6. The Player is given a number over their cursor - as an example, 13 - and so the Player must click on squares with bits that come up to that number - as an example, a square with 5, a square with 4 and another square with 4. The Player also has another task - to build robots.
The way robots are built is by following a certain type of instruction that appears on the right side of the screen, which typically indicates that the Player will only progress in building the robot if they use exclusively, as an example, squares with 4 bits or bolts on them to get to their number. If the Player makes a mistake, another set of squares falls on the field, and the required number changes. Additionally, if the Player takes too long, another set of squares will fall onto the field.
If the Player runs out of space on the field, the game ends. If the Player runs out of squares with bolts of the field, another set of squares falls onto it. Upon building a robot, the Player advances a level, which increases the difficulty of the game by asking for bigger numbers and providing more squares.
This one is fine. It’s not all that engaging, and it has no stamps associated with it. It’s a potentially endless stress maker, as there is no end in sight, and the Player is always up against the clock. It does not have that many issues, but it sometimes breaks and stops receiving commands - making it impossible to click and, thus, to continue playing.
“Cart Surfer”
In Cart Surfer, the Player’s penguin is put in a cart. That cart moves forward and, on occasion, there are turns. The Player must make their penguin lean in the appropriate direction so as to turn successfully, or they will collide with a wall and lose a life. The goal is to make it to the end of the track, and, while doing so, to perform some sick tricks.
These tricks are performed by inputting commands with the arrow keys - mainly Forward and Backward - as well as the Spacebar. Performing a trick earns the Player some score, but performing that same trick again will give the Player half of the points they would otherwise get. As a result of that, the Player is incentivized to mix their tricks up, which is not bad at all.
However, the game has an issue - that being its lack of responsiveness. After performing a trick, the Player might be unable to input commands for a second or so, which can spell disaster for their penguin. Alternatively, the game might not read the Player’s command properly, failing to interpret an input as what it must be and thus performing another trick, or not performing a trick at all. Those are very annoying and, sometimes, get in the way of the Player’s progress.
Still, this is not too problematic - and, on top of that, there is no Member exclusive element here either, which is a bit odd, but, at the same time, it’s quite neat. Though, one of the game’s issues - that it ends at one point, and sometimes it feels as though it has ended too quickly - could have been used as inspiration for an expansion for Members. Adding an endless mode, accessible by putting on a special hat or a special suit, could have been pretty easy, I’d wager. Regardless, Cart Surfer is not bad at all.
“Catchin’ Waves”
This game is, conceptually, really cool, but when it comes to its execution it fails. Catchin’ Waves is a surfing game, in which the PC is given a surfboard and dropped onto a massive wave. The Player must maintain momentum by moving up and down the wave, with the downward movement increasing their speed based on just how steep the motion is. While doing so, the Player has the ability to perform tricks by using the WASD keys (or the Arrow Keys), which tricks will grant them some points. The more points the Player gets, the higher their score.
Similarly, there are three other types of tricks the Player can perform. One of those is to “shoot the loop”, which involves them purposefully slowing down so as to be under the wave, which gives them points based on how long they’ve been under the wave once they come out from there. Another one is to jump and perform flips, which are done by spinning the mouse either clockwise or counterclockwise. Additionally, doing a flip might destabilize the PC, in which case the Player should end a flip session by pressing the Left Mouse Button, which stabilizes them and enters a grind.
Grinding is the third type of funky movement that the PC can perform, which happens so long as the Player is holding down the mouse button and the PC is situated on top of the wave. Each of those three moves, as mentioned with the “shoot the loop”, awards points once it is concluded - so whenever the Player fails to manage an exit from underneath the wave, falls in the water while flipping, or slips off the wave’s top while grinding, the accumulated points are lost.
This is, arguably, the most buggy mini game out of those available in Club Penguin, due to the fact that flash simply fails to keep up with it - or so I assume. There are times when incredible slowdowns occur, or whenever slightly bumping the mouse down causes the PC to slam themselves into the water. There’s an incredibly sensitive margin for error here, and it is far too thin for it to be much fun.
Additionally, doing tricks is very, very… Wonky. There are additional modes in this mini game, which are available only for Members (well done, frankly, as the free-styling mode is available to all players, and it is more than enough), and in one of those there are instructions on how to perform particular tricks. None of those instructions make much sense, and the trick winds up being performed via completely different inputs than what is shown in that game mode.
On top of that, tricks award tiny amounts of points - 10 or 20 per trick - but some stamps require obtuse numbers of points, such as 1000 or even 5000. Getting that much is a herculean effort that, frankly, is not worthwhile.
Then there’s the most problematic element - sometimes, the wave just washes over the PC. Regardless of how intensely the Player is trying to gather momentum, shooting the loop is very much a matter of random chance.
Still, the game is very ambitious and presents a very interesting concept, whilst also doing its Member exclusive elements quite well.
“Dance Contest”
This is guitar hero, but in Club Penguin. The Player must press their Arrow Keys in the order that appears on the screen - sometimes more than one at a time, other times one must be held down - at the appropriate moment, no less. This one is very simple, but it does one thing very wrongly. It has a multiplayer component, but that is limited to Members only, which is just baffling. Additionally, there are three available songs to pick from for non-Members, and three additional songs, for a total of six, for Members. That is not as big an issue as the fact that the multiplayer element is exclusive to Members, as on the highest difficulty (out of three possible), all inputs are randomized, which ultimately means that the Player does not need more than one song… Though, at the same time, it is the same song over and over again, so that might become grating.
Lastly, the game suffers from latency issues, making it feel as though the Player is missing the buttons, or pressing them too early, or, simply, as though something is off. This might be coupled with the insufficient “hit” feedback, but alas. It could be fun, it could be good, but it doesn’t really get as far as it should want to be.
“Find Four”
This one is literally “connect four”. Two Players (another Multiplayer game) take turns putting down different colored circles. The first Player to get four in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line wins. It’s a simple, none-too-inspired game, but it can be played with a friend, which gives it a little push.
Regardless, connect four is a bit wack, and so is find four.
“Hydro Hopper”
Hydro Hopper is a game in which the Player controls a penguin on a tube. The control occurs by moving the mouse to the left or to the right, whilst also being able to issue a jump by pressing the Left Mouse button. The goal is to last as long as possible, by jumping over or dodging the many oncoming obstacles.
This one is very simple, but it is plagued by that same simplicity. There are, simply, moments when it is almost impossible to dodge or even jump over obstacles. There are certain situations in which the only way to proceed is to be abusing the game’s programing, which allows for the Player to press the Spacebar continuously, instead of clicking the Left Mouse Button, and to force the PC to constantly jump, and do so as soon as possible, creating situations in which the PC is vulnerable to obstacles for so little that they’re almost invincible.
Even so, there are times when the PC lands and gets knocked off by an obstacle that does not seem as though it should have hit them, and then there are times when the PC lands and does not get hit by an obstacle that looks as though it should have definitely hit them. Another problem appears in the case of Presentation - as there is a horizon and a boat on that horizon, with obstacles appearing a lot earlier on the horizon than they do behind the boat, which, in turn, leads into them being able to pop up out of nowhere and cause the loss of a life.
There is no special Member only mode, but the Player, if a Member, can purchase an item that changes the way they look while in the game, replacing their tube with a wakeboard. The game is what it is - a bit of fun for a bit of time, but it is nothing special, and it has more infuriating elements than gratifying ones.
“Ice Fishing”
This is one of the better, if not the best, mini games in Club Penguin. The Player controls a fishing pole - more precisely, the position of a fishing pole’s hook. That is done by moving the mouse cursor down, to move the hook down, and then moving it up, to bring the hook up. The Player must catch fish, while avoiding obstacles, such as shoes and barrels, which knock the fish off the line, or jellyfish, sharks and crabs, which remove the line, costing the Player a life.
The game is relatively simple, but maybe that is what makes it so pleasant. In addition to that, it features one of the best implementations of Member content - if the Player is a Member, they can buy a fishing pole. That, in turn, allows them to encounter special fish which, unlike the normal ones, do not swim directly forward, but, actually, try to avoid the lure. That introduces a new mechanic and makes things a lot more interesting.
Great stuff, overall, though there is one issue - sometimes, the game spawns a fish and a number of obstacles in such a manner that the fish in question is impossible to catch. Still, relatively minor.
“Jetpack Adventure”
As the name implies, this game features the PC getting a jetpack and going on an ‘adventure’, traveling from point A to point B, managing their fuel reserves, avoiding obstacles and collecting coins. The game relies on the Arrow Keys for movement, with Up and Down making the PC move up or down, while Left and Right move the PC to the left or to the right, but, if not combined with Up, also slightly downwards.
Moving up, left or right drains the Player’s fuel reserves, as does the act of not inputting any command, as the jetpack on the PC’s back will keep working, slowing the PC’s fall but not entirely negating it. Going down turns off fuel consumption while the PC is going down. The goal, as mentioned, is to avoid running out of fuel - which happens naturally or when bumping into obstacles - and to reach a particular spot.
The game is simple and features five levels, though only the first of them is available for non-Members. It has an issue in regards to how it deals with collision detection, but that’s an issue shared throughout the entirety of Club Penguin’s repertoire, however it also has a very particular issue. This is one of the games in which the Player can bring a Puffle along, and in this game the Puffle has the greatest amount of stuff to do - whereas in other games it just sits there and is neat, in this one it can pick up coins and other pick-ups, such as extra lives or fuel canisters, making it incredibly useful.
The issue is that the AI managing it is incredibly stupid - sometimes it will rush towards coins in the vicinity of the Player, other times it will go offscreen for a lengthy amount of time, with no rhyme or reason to its actions. It is more infuriating than not, because if it were a consistent helper, it could be argued that having the Puffle is a great way of making the game easier or more entertaining.
Oddly enough, this one has no challenge modes, aside from one that requires the Player pick up no coins and reach the end of level five. There is no time trial mode, there is no instant death mode - nothing, and those could have been added as Member only incentives, while the 5 total levels should have been available for non-Members. Add in the Puffle functionality as a Member treat and it would have been stellar.
As it is now, however, it is relatively middling.
“Mancala”
Dude it's mancala, I'm not going to review it here.
“Pizzatron 3000”
This is one of the greats, if not the greatest. The Player uses their mouse to make pizzas - being given instructions on what kind of pizza must be made and fulfilling it, by clicking, dragging and dropping ingredients over to the pizza.
It is simple, but it’s more than enough. It’s incredibly reminiscent of those flash games which were all about making some kind of meal item and selling it, and it also scratches an itch, because it has some very calm, chill vibes about it. The goal is to make 40 pizzas, with each consecutive pizza becoming slightly harder to make, on account of the speed of the conveyor belt increasing and more and more ingredient combinations being in play.
There is also a secret mode, similar to Bean Counters, in which the Player makes sweet pizzas, which gamemode is more difficult, with even more ingredient combinations, but has a different look entirely. There is no Member exclusive element to this game, which is great, but if there was great need for one, it could have easily been the secret mode.
Pizzatron 3000’s only issue would be that the speed at which the pizzas need to be made in the latter stages is so great that the experience becomes a bit stressful. There could have been an endless mode, or something along those lines, in which the Player can set the speed and just make pizzas. Even so, it is great.
“Puffle Launch”
This is a mini-game in which the Player controls a Puffle as it is launched out of cannons, collects “O-berries” and must reach a big, flaming O-berry at the end of each level. The Player presses Space to launch the Puffle out of certain cannons, whereas other cannons fire the Puffle automatically. Then there are also other, weird cannons that function like slingshots.
Additionally, the Player can control the Puffle, slightly, while outside of a cannon by pressing the A and D keys (alternatively the Left and Right Arrow Keys). This becomes very vital to progressing, as there are sections in which the Player would be stuck in infinite loops if not for the ability to slightly alter their Puffle’s trajectory. There are also balloons, which can be bounced off of with a high degree of control, and then there are also obstacles, which send the PC flying in a nearly random direction.
The game is simple and entertaining to experience once, as there is an enchanting element to watching a “Rube Goldberg Machine” at work, however it becomes more and more tedious as the Player has to struggle with the relatively unresponsive controls. In addition, there are three sets of levels, with only one of them being available for non-Members… Though I’d need to do a bit of thinking to figure out how to make additional modes for this particular game, so I’ll just leave it at that.
It’s not terrible, but it’s not good either.
“Puffle Rescue”
This one is a top-down, grid based game on which the Player controls a penguin with the Arrow Keys, with the goal of reaching a certain set of locations and returning to the starting point.
The game features one type of threat - falling - and a number of obstacles that can make the PC fall. The game works in a manner similar to Frogger, with the Player needing to make it over a set of platforms, some moving, others falling, and then make it back through the same obstacles.
Puffle Rescue works on a stage and level system. There are three stages that the Player can pick, with two of them being exclusive to Members. Then, the Player completes one level, a second, a third, and is presented with the first level, but expanded. That happens another time, with levels seven through nine being levels four through six, but expanded, and then levels ten through twelve are the same as levels seven through nine, but things move faster (except the PC).
Ultimately, the game becomes impossible to complete, or at least very, very difficult, on account of the ever present latency that Club Penguin's games feature, and on account of some random values that, occasionally, show up to mess with the Player.
It's not too bad, but it isn't great either. It lacks replay value and also has issues with its responsiveness and the limiting way Membership benefits are implemented.
“Puffle Roundup”
This game is incredibly simple and quite interesting. There's a square in the middle of the screen with its topmost side missing. There are Puffles spread out around the screen, and the Player must move their mouse so as to round up all the Puffles and make them go into the square.
The way that happens is by having the Puffles “run away” from the mouse cursor, moving in the opposite direction of it. Some Puffles make small movements, others make large movements.
The game is incredibly simple and has no differentiating elements. There's always the same map, the same number of Puffles and the same mechanics, with what is already present being unsatisfying to play through. Probably one of the least engaging and entertaining mini games in Club Penguin.
“Pufflescape”
In this one, the Player needs to own a Puffle. That Puffle is put into a ball and the Player controls said Puffle, with it being able to go left or right, with the Left and Right Arrow Keys respectively.
In addition to that, the Player can use the mouse to click and drag certain objects that appear in the levels, either to move them out of the way, to put them in the way, to use them as platforms or to adjust them slightly, for the goal is to get to the end of the level.
To do that, the Player needs to collect a key, which is where interaction with these particular objects in the level comes in play. There are also special items that can be collected, though they have no effect aside from being collectibles.
The game is, in theory, quite neat, as it allows for some puzzle-platforming, with the Player being under threat of falling in a bottomless pit or simply being unable to solve the level. Aside from that, the only other challenge is to collect the special items… And to wrestle with the controls.
The game’s movement is very slippery, as if the PC is constantly on ice. There are times when there is actual ice underneath the PC, in which cases there is no controlling the PC’s movement, but in every other case the PC does not simply go left or right, dependent on the input, it generates momentum that, by itself, is not bad.
However, coupled with the ever present latency issues of Club Penguin, this type of movement becomes incredibly bothersome and unmanageable. Another problematic element is that some of the level layouts are just… Kinda bad. Lastly, there are three stages, and two of them are, as could be guessed, Member exclusive.
Oddly enough, there is an additional mode - the time trial mode - in which the Player must collect the key (and any optional items) in a short amount of time, which is very neat, but instead of making that mode the Member exclusive benefit, it's just the second and third stage of the game.
Nasty monetization practices and some failures of the game itself make this one not that good, but still passable. In addition, it has no great replay value, so it's just a one and done type of thing.
“Sled Racing”
This is a multiplayer game in which the Player races against up to three other players down a slope. They use their Left and Right Arrow Keys to avoid obstacles and position themselves in such a way that they might be able to go over an ice patch.
The game is very simple and relatively entertaining, but the only way to win is by hoping that the other Players make a mistake. That is accounted for by the stupendous speed at which the PCs move, which winds up great enough to challenge the Players to adequately avoid the obstacles, but in a situation in which both Players are as good as one another, there really is nothing that determines who wins or loses… At least nothing within the Player's hands.
This one is neat. It is heavily based on chance and the stamps associated with it also really ask the Player to play it a lot. In addition to that, the Member exclusive bonus is being able to ride a wooden sled, or a green/pink sled. It does not get as far as it could, but it is something pleasant.
“Smoothie Smash”
Now this is what I would call garbage. Whereas other games suffer mainly from issues relating to the novelty of the idea or latency, this one suffers from being poorly designed overall.
In Smoothie Smash, the Player controls their penguin while the latter smashes fruits. They start off in the air and fall down - the downwards movement can be accelerated with the Down Arrow Key, allowing for clutch landings on fruits. Alternatively, the Player can hold down the Up Arrow Key, which will make their PC bounce up into the air, a lot higher than they would otherwise, once they collide with a fruit. Lastly, the Player can make their penguin go left or right by pressing the Left and Right Arrow Keys.
With that said, it is important to note that the movement in this game feels bad. It is not only incredibly sluggish, but it also features the trademark Club Penguin Latency associated with most of its games, as a result of which Smoothie Smash is already at a disadvantage, because even if the rest of it was perfect, it is already bogged down by the unresponsive, sluggish movement and the built in lag.
But that is not all. The game has two modes of play - Survival and Normal. In normal mode, the Player is presented with a particular sequence of fruits they must crush. Upon doing so, they gain points. In addition to that, crushing the correct fruits in succession increases their ‘combo meter’, increasing the number of points obtained from crushing fruits. The more fruits in succession the Player crushes, the faster the conveyor belt along which the fruits move will move, making it harder and harder to hit the correct fruits.
However, one of the game’s most egregious issues shows up here - it does not give the Player the opportunity to actually keep a combo going. If the Player misses a fruit, the likelihood of them getting another option to hit that particular fruit is very low, when the conveyor belt is moving at high speeds, because the game is not designed to produce the remainder of the fruits needed for the recipe in random order, and is, instead, designed to produce fruits for that particular recipe, and the next, in succession, as a result of which missing one fruit often leads to not simply failing to get back onto a combo, but losing a lot of time until the next correct fruit shows up.
That is problematic, because in normal mode the Player has limited time - 2 minutes to be exact - and the more time they waste being unable to increase their combo, the worse things will get. That is, in part, owed up to the fact that there are options for time extension, but those are bound to the number of fruits that have appeared on screen, or to the number of consecutive fruits crushed, as a result of which if the Player loses a high-count combo, they will, likely, be unable to recover and just lose the game - partially of no fault of their own, because at one point the speed at which the fruits on the conveyor belt move is greater than the speed at which the PC can descend upon one of them, even with the Down Arrow Key pressed.
On top of that, the collision detection in the game is incredibly wonky. Instead of hitting fruits with the Penguin’s legs or lower body, the Player must aim at the fruits so that they are between the penguin’s legs precisely, otherwise, even if the sprites for the two intersect, the Player will not get treated as having crushed the fruit. That is not good.
Then, there is Survival mode, which suffers from similar issues. Instead of there being a time limit, or a recipe to follow, there is a health bar. The Player loses health whenever they hit a bomb, hit an anvil or hit the conveyor belt itself. Running out of health nets the Player a ‘game over’.
Additionally, hitting the conveyor belt itself knocks up all the fruits (also happens in Normal mode), which makes them nearly impossible to crush, thus leading into a nasty domino effect of missing a fruit and then being rendered unable to hit a fruit. Hitting a bomb destroys all other bombs and fruits on screen, functioning, in a sense, like hitting the conveyor belt. Hitting an anvil, on the other hand, has no effect on either fruits or other obstacles, and does a much smaller amount of damage to the Player’s health bar.
In Survival mode, the Player must keep their health as high as possible (recovering a smidgeon of it whenever they crush a fruit) for as long as possible. The game ends when the Player runs out of health, and the Player gets points for every second that they survive. Alas, the game becomes harder and harder as time goes on.
At first, it is just one obstacle every few fruits, with the obstacle being either an anvil or an empty space. Then, the obstacle becomes either an anvil, an empty space or a bomb. Then, the obstacle becomes more and more frequent. Then, the obstacle starts taking up two slots, one after the other, and bombs and anvils start jumping. Then, the obstacle starts taking up three slots, then four… All the while the conveyor belt moves faster and faster, ultimately leading into the same issue as with Normal mode - things on the conveyor belt move faster than the PC, there are either no fruits or there are bombs and anvils arranged in such a manner that they are impossible to avoid.
The game also stutters. The faster the conveyor belt must move, the more gratuitous loss of smoothness is on display. Ultimately, this game has a lot of replayability, but seeing as it is not fun at all - on account of movement in it being bad and the way fruits are pumped out is also just not well conceived - this is one of, if not THE WORST game in Club Penguin.
“SoundStudio”
This is not really a game. It is an interface that allows the Player to make a song - with Members being able to save their songs. There’s nothing that can be described as game-y here, as a result of which I will refrain from saying more.
“Spy Drills”
This is a very odd game, because it is actually a set of 10 tiny mini games… Nano games. The Player can either pick one of the 10 and play through it as a means of practicing, or they can pick a “Challenge” option, which presents them with 3 of the 10 nano games and has them win at all three in succession, at which point the Player is awarded a special currency - not coins.
The odd element here is that most of these nano games are just mechanics. A single mechanic, that does not have any expansion upon itself, that gets to be interacted with by the Player. One of them, as an example, requires that the Player matches a box with another box out of 5 in less than 2 seconds. Another requires that the Player clicks at the appropriate time. Another requires that the Player clicks at the appropriate time, but the visual cue is different. Yet another requires that the Player clicks at the appropriate time, but while the instructions indicate that the Arrow Keys must be used, the game does not work with them and must, thus, be played with the WASD Keys.
Some of the nano games are neat. Others are dreadfully unpleasant. It’s a generally mixed bag that is, overall, unimpressive, but the only way to obtain certain items - due to the fact that the game awards a special currency. It’s middling and also contends for the title of the worst game in Club Penguin, but it is beaten out by Smoothie Smash.
“System Defender”
System Defender is a rudimentary Tower-Defense game in which the Player has access to 5(6 if the tutorial is counted) different map layouts which they need to protect. There are three types of towers, with three types of enemies, and each tower being upgrade-able up to two times.
The towers have different stats, such as range, damage done and rate of fire.
The three types of enemies are supposedly countered by the three types of towers, and are color-coded for ease of distinction, however the game itself does not agree with that sentiment, as there are times when certain enemies of a particular color render the towers they are supposed to be weak against totally useless in dealing with them. An additional issue of the game is that it does not function like a “proper” tower defense game, in the sense that each level has a multitude of solutions, but, rather, it functions like some kind of puzzle game in which there is only one solution to the problem, and the Player needs to brute force their way through many possible combinations until they figure out the proper one.
It is neat, but it is not that cool, and also the way Member exclusives work is that a number of the available levels are only for members. In addition to that, there is no endless mode, which is a missed opportunity.
“Thin Ice”
This is one of the cooler games from Club Penguin’s repertoire, on account of the fact that it is exclusively a puzzle game. In it, the Player controls a flaming Puffle which must get to an exit, but every step the Puffle takes (with the Arrow Keys, possible directions being Up, Down, Left and Right) melts the spot previously occupied by it.
The goal in it is to get to the exit by also melting as many spots as possible (ultimately all of them), which requires that the Player chart their path and figure out how to best move about. As the Player makes it through levels, additional mechanics are introduced - such as bags of coins, keys and walls that open up if the Player has collected the key, blocks that can be moved and must be moved so that all meltable spots can be melted, and even teleportation spots that do not get melted and transport the Puffle to another spot.
This game is really fun and enjoyable, allowing for replayability until the Player has finished all its levels, but at that point playing it anymore becomes more than a little pointless. An unfortunate element here is that most of the harder levels are gated behind a Membership, which is a shame, as a time-trial mode could have been added as a Member-only benefit.
There is one other… Game? It’s quite odd, but it exists and is all about typing. The goal is obvious - it’s meant to be used as a way of learning how to type on a computer. It is very simple, requiring that the Player only presses the right letter - any Capitalisation, punctuation and even spacing is done automatically. The game element of it is that there are times when the Player is presented with an option, being able to write out one of two, three or even more words, which changes the course of the story by a little bit.
The ‘game’ is neat, but it is very… Well, it’s not that good at teaching anyone how to type on a computer, because spacing and punctuation are incredibly important, as is Capitalization, and if those are not involved, then what is even the goal of the typing game? One last, big issue - making a mistake just does not write the wrong letter, so there’s no learning to use the Backspace key either. Very weird and half-hearted.
There are also two other sets of mini games I did not mention - those are the PSA games and the “Card Jutsu” games.
I will first go over the “Card Jutsu” games, as three of them are based on the fundamental “Card Jutsu” itself. In it, the Player uses a deck of cards (with each Player starting off with the same deck of cards and Members being able to buy packs of 3 extra ‘Power’ Cards to increase the number of cards in their deck, as well as its general strength and quality) to play against another Player with a deck of cards.
Each Player draws five cards and plays one. The cards are differentiated by whether they are a Power card or a Normal card, by what the number associated with them is, by what their element is (there being Fire, Water and Snow) and what their color is (there being Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Purple, Orange).
When both Players have played a card, the cards are revealed (the opponent’s card is unknown until that moment) and they are compared. If the card is Fire, it beats Snow and loses to Water. If the card is Snow, it beats Water and loses to Fire. If the card is Water, it beats Fire but loses to Water. If the cards are the same element, then the one with the higher number wins.
If the card is a Power Card, upon winning it applies its effect, which can be that the opposing Player cannot play a card of a certain element in the next round; that the opposing Player’s next card will be treated as having a lower number; that the next round, if down to which card’s number is higher, will be won by the card with the lower number; that the opposing Player loses 1 “won” card of a particular color or element; that if the opposing Player plays a Snow card it is treated as a Water card, and so on.
One of the two Players wins whenever they win three rounds with different colored different elements (as an example, a Blue Snow, a Yellow Fire and a Red Water), or whenever they win three rounds with the same element in different colors (as an example, Blue, Red and Green Water).
With that said, as was previously mentioned, being a Member allows the Player to buy Power Cards, with some of them having numbers that go over 10, and with them having powerful effects, means that this game is, simply put, pay-to-win. There is no great limit to how many cards the Player can buy, and that means the Player can get at least 60 Power Cards to supplement their 30 card deck with, as a result of which their chances of winning a match are far higher, because, ultimately, the strategy is to play cards with big numbers.
There are opportunities for actual strategy, such as trying to play around a certain element, once the Player has lost a round or two, and the most obvious winning condition for the opponent would be to get their third element, but still it is not all that manageable, due to the existence of cards that turn an element that beats them into an element they beat. Lots of random chance, lots of paying-to-win, and, ultimately, a tiny smidge of thinking.
The fun part of this whole thing is that by playing matches, the Player gets progress towards their next belt, rather than getting Coins. The Player starts off as a white belt and progresses through colors until they get to the Black belt, at which point they can challenge the sensei, to take part in the only available fight against an AI, and, by winning, get a ninja mask, which grants them a special emote. It is important to note that the AI is programmed to win by default, as in cheat, against anyone who does not have a black belt.
The fact that this game is so heavily skewed in favor of those who have bought a Membership, that it relies so much on random chance, that power cards have lengthy animations that become annoying after the second time they play, and that it MUST be played against other Players make “Card Jutsu” relatively middling.
However, it wound up spawning a number of additional games that make use of the card deck the Players have and the elemental system itself. The first of those is “Card Jutsu Fire”, which, unlike normal Card Jutsu, can be played by up to four Players at a time.
In it, the Players win by being the only one remaining with Energy, of which all Players start with 6, and every turn that the Player loses makes them lose 1 Energy. The turns start with the Players drawing 6 cards and being asked to click one of six stones in the middle of a circular arena - those stones act as a die, revealing their numbers after one is clicked. Based on which number was on the clicked stone, the Player doing the clicking gets to move their Character to a space that is as many spaces as the number away from their current space.
There are 16 total spaces on the game field, with 12 of them being split into ones with Fire, Snow and Water, and the remaining 4 being 2 “Pick an Element” and 2 “Card Jutsu” spaces. Upon moving to a space, if the space is occupied by another PC, the two Players who are on the space engage in a Card Jutsu battle (functioning like the “Card Jutsu” space, which allows the Player to pick an opponent, whereas in these circumstances the opponent is the Player on the space).
A Card Jutsu turn is won in the same way a normal Card Jutsu turn is won, and as a result of a Card Jutsu turn the winner gets 1 extra Energy, while the loser loses 1 Energy. If the space the PC lands on is not occupied, a card with the element of the space must be played - the Player whose card has the highest number wins, and if a Player does not have a card of that element, they must play one of their cards (and they lose). The winning Player does not lose Energy, but everyone else loses 1 point. If two Players play a card with, as an example, 12 as their number, they do not lose Energy, but everyone who has played a card with a lower number loses 1 Energy.
This game is neat, on account of the fact that it takes the game of Card Jutsu and puts a weird spin on it. However, at the same time, it does not just take Card Jutsu’s interesting elements - it takes all the bad, too. Now, there’s even more reliance on chance, because not only must the Player get lucky with their roll, not only must the Player get lucky with the cards they have drawn, but the Player also has absolutely no means of injecting ANY strategy at all into this game, especially the Card Jutsu segments, because there’s no way of even hypothesizing what card the opponent might play.
Not only that, but the Pay-to-Win element here is even more ludicrous than it was in normal Card Jutsu, as a result of which there’s something incredibly dissatisfying about playing this one. Unfortunately, it also features no options for AI fights, and it culminates in a manner similar to Card Jutsu - collecting a set of items and then getting to challenge sensei in a one-and-done AI battle.
Then there is Card Jutsu Water. In it, the Player, along with up to 3 other Players, starts off at the edge of a set of stone platforms that are constantly moving towards a waterfall. If the Player’s stone platform falls off the waterfall, they lose. The goal is to reach the other end of the stone platforms, which has a big gong, and by reaching it the Player wins.
To do so, the Player must click a card out of their hand, which is constantly cycling through cards at a rate about two times greater than the speed at which the stone platforms move, and then must click one of the three stone platforms ahead of their own. On those stone platforms are situated either clumps of snow, fires, or water fountains.
To jump onto a stone platform, the Player must click a card of the appropriate element (Snow beats Water, Water beats Fire, Fire beats Snow) and then click the appropriate stone platform. Depending on the size of the obstacle, and the number on the Player’s card, they might need to play two cards instead of one. Upon clearing a stone platform of its obstacle, the Player’s Character will automatically jump onto it, and the process is repeated until one of the Players reaches the gong.
If the Player plays a power card on a heap, all eight heaps around it will be affected by it - those of the same element will grow, and those of the opposite element will shrink. It is possible to clear more than one stone platform with a single card. While this game is a lot less dependent on chance, on account of the fact that the Player constantly has access to changing cards, it is still dependent on chance, because the Player might get only Snow and Water cards, when they need a Fire card.
In addition to that, there is still a great advantage that is to be had by having more cards in one’s deck, which cards are all power cards with high numbers, thus providing the usual pay-to-win element of the game. It is interesting, and it features a lot more thinking and reliance on one’s skill than either normal Card Jutsu or Card Jutsu Fire, but it is still heavily based on random chance.
Lastly, there is the Card Jutsu Snow game. It is the least reliant on random chance - in fact, it is so free of it, that it is a game that can barely be called a card game. Instead, it is a tactical, turn based combat game in which 3 Players team up to go through 3 (or 4, dependent on their ability to complete a random bonus objective) fights against a number of enemies.
There are three Characters that the Players get to pick from, one being a Snow based penguin, another being Water based and a third being Fire based. They are not only based on different Elements, they also have different abilities and stats - such as the Snow penguin being able to attack other Players and healing them by doing so, but doing the lowest amount of damage out of all three, or the Water penguin being able to deal about two times as much damage as the Snow penguin, but being able to only walk one space at a time.
All of these Characters make use of the Player’s deck by depending on the number of power cards of their element that they have - as an example, having a total of 3 Fire based power cards means that the Fire penguin, if played by the Player with those 3 cards, will have access to up to 3 uses of their special ability.
That special ability becomes available after a number of turns have passed, and it has a powerful effect. In addition to that, if more than one Player uses their special ability during the same turn, they get an additional beneficial effect, such as a shield that negates the next enemy attack or a debuff that does damage to all enemies at the start of their next turn.
Now, a turn goes as follows - the Players pick what their Characters will do, be it attack an enemy or move, then their Characters do that, after which the enemies have their turn, moving and attacking. That repeats until either all enemies run out of health (and die) or until all Player Characters run out of health.
One other thing that the Player can do, if they are a Member, is make use of a special card that heals them, or revives them, completely. Thus, there is still a pay-to-win element in the game, but due to the fact it is a cooperative game, rather than a competitive one, it is quite alright.
With that, the Card Jutsu games are done. What’s left are the Spy missions, the PSA, the Secret Agent missions. Those are, essentially, point-and-click adventure games in Club Penguin, based around particular Characters. There are 11 of them, and, unfortunately, due to being what they are, there are sometimes incredible leaps of logic that are required for the successful performance of the required tasks.
However, at the same time, they are still made for children, as a result of which the insanity is a lot more toned down, instead relying on the Player finding the things that need to be clicked. This is where some issues arise, due to the fact that there is no distinction between items that can be clicked and items that cannot be clicked - or at least the distinction that is present is incredibly difficult to be made, due to the fact that everything is drawn in the exact same style.
That is more of a Presentation issue, but at the same time it is part of the game itself, it being one of the main challenges of the PSA missions - requiring that the Player is thorough in their analysis of the environments they end up in. Now, that said, a bit more on the mechanical side.
The Player starts off in a particular room, and can look around by clicking arrows that appear on the left and right sides of the screen. There are times when there are also arrows on the upper and lower sides of the screen. In addition, hovering the mouse cursor over something that can be interacted with turns it into the ‘hand’, which indicates intractability. The means of interaction with items are three - either a line of yellow text shows up in the middle of the screen, giving the Player some information, either the object is actively interacted with, or the object is picked up.
Picking up objects has them replace the mouse cursor with themselves, and they can then be put in the Player’s inventory, which has more than enough slots. By clicking an inventory slot, while an item has replaced the mouse cursor, that item will be deposited in that inventory slot. At a later time, the inventory can be accessed by hovering the mouse’s cursor over the left half of the screen’s lower side, which brings up the inventory.
That’s about as much as there is to the game. The Player clicks things, solves puzzles every now and then, and also makes use of a funky cypher, at least once, in every mission. They are very neat and entertaining, and feature lots of little mechanics that make them pleasant to experience. All in all? They’re one of the highlights of Club Penguin as a whole.
With that said, everything has been presented, with the exception of Coins. As stated, the Player earns Coins for playing mini games, with the exception of Card Jutsu, Card Jutsu Fire, Card Jutsu Water, Spy Drills and PSA missions. The latter two award a special currency that’s used for Secret Agent outfits, whereas the former three award progress towards their respective items.
Unfortunately, some games award far fewer Coins than others, as a result of which, when playing through mini games for the purposes of obtaining Coins, there are some clear winners, which is a design oversight - all of them should be, relatively, evenly matched when it comes to profitability, otherwise why would anyone bother with Playing, say, Puffle Roundup?
Ultimately, those are all peripheral elements. The main thing of Club Penguin is for it to be a social experience with some extra bits of fun to be had. It falls short in some regards, but it is, overall, relatively solid and engaging enough to warrant continued play-time, if only because of the existence of Stamps, which are a very good extrinsic motivator. 2/3
Presentation
Club Penguin has a vibe to it. It looks a little silly, it looks a little odd, but then it also has an incredible amount of goodness to it. The Player Characters, the Penguins, are 3D models that wobble about with minimal animation, and the clothes and items they put on appear as similarly 3D models on them. However, their Puffles are 2D sprites with detailed animations.
The environments are also 2.5D, top-down areas that are clearly drawn by hand, with there being some elements in them that are animated to have a little, funky interaction whenever moused over. Those particular environments, those sets, are absolutely amazing, especially when they are more packed with stuff than not, such as the Coffee Shop or the Pizza Restaurant.
That thing - the environments - are one of the most enchanting things about Club Penguin. Now, a similar thing could be said about the games of Club Penguin, because most of them have different appearances. Some, such as Sled Racing, feature the 3D penguin models, which gives them an extra oomph that the other games do not have. Others, such as Catchin’ Waves, have a roughly 3D background, mainly the wave, while featuring a 2D sprite for the PC.
Others yet, most of them, have exclusively 2D sprites that move about on 2D backgrounds. Most of the games look good, and are very stylized - with particular standouts being the Arcade Games, Astro Blaster, Thin Ice and Bits and Bolts. Some games, and some areas, have a musical accompaniment, which can vary from being quite nice, such as the soundtrack of Aqua Grabber, to being brainrot-on-a-note-sheet, such as the song that plays while playing Hydro Hopper.
The number of sound effects in the game is quite scarce, even by comparison to the number of musical tracks, but those that are present are good enough at doing what they do - in fact, some of them are very, very good, such as the gong or the sound of the bags in Bean Counters.
One other thing that Club Penguin does quite well in regards to its presentation is how it makes sure that every one of its mini-games has an understandable tutorial, or at least a set of instructions that can be accessed before the Player starts playing the game. That is with the exception of the PSA missions, which vaguely inform the Player of what options they have, but then only so, and it is not clear enough that some things are clickable and others are not.
There are some oddities about the game, though, such as the introductory ‘cutscene’ as the Player actually enters Club Penguin for the first time. In it, the Player is left with the impression that there will be a lot more extrinsic motivation - via the medium of quests - whereas in actuality there might be one quest every month, and even then it is not something all that time-consuming. On top of that, it introduces the idea that interaction with non-Player Characters will be a thing, and that it will be done via JRPG-esque text bubbles. However, what turns out to be the case is that there is only 1 non-Player Character (that being the Sensei in the Dojo, related to Card Jutsu).
Overall, Club Penguin has some very good vibes to it, but at the same time it also struggles with consistency and the holistic goodness that one ought to expect from a good game. In addition to that, it has issues with its Presentation that affect Gameplay, as is the case with collision detection in most of its games, which is very problematic. 2/3
Story
Club Penguin has a story, but it is told in an incredibly unconventional manner. Some is told through Newspapers, which can be found in a particular room. Some is told through books, which can be found in another room and are, straight up, just short stories. Some is told through cutscenes, unlocked through Card Jutsu Snow, and a large amount of it is told through the PSA (Secret Agent) missions.
Most of the stories told by Club Penguin are very simple and innocent, due to the fact that the game is made for kids. Even so, the two elements that are accessible via the more complicated bits of Gameplay - those being Card Jutsu Snow and the PSA missions - are a bit more palatable, evidently thought up to be engaging, or at least interesting, for tweens and maybe even teens.
The nature of the PSA missions, as an example, allows for the telling of an overlapping story that features a very neat mystery that gets uncovered as the Player progresses through the missions, while also featuring bits of worldbuilding, as well as the introduction of likable and even interesting Characters who do things every now and then.
However, ultimately, even with those two additions, and the fact that there are books that regale the Player with the story of Club Penguin, everything is quite bare-bones. There is no Character development to be observed within the few Characters that are present, the motivations of the villains are impressively nonsensical and the means of getting to some of the story are obtusely convoluted or bothersome, with the main example being the monstrous grind needed to be performed in order to unlock all the Card Jutsu Snow cinematics.
What is here is good, it’s neat and interesting, but it isn’t as good as it could be. 2/3
Legendary Point
Does this game get the Legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? Yes, definitely, though perhaps that has something to do with the fact that Club Penguin is, technically, no longer existent. Or, perhaps, it has something to do with the fact that this game was something distant and yet present in a long gone part of many people’s lives.
Alternatively, it could be because of the mystery that swirled about it. The way the story is presented is through a secret set of challenging mini-games, and the game creates this feeling of being full of secrets - as a result of which it occupies the mind in a very mysterious, intriguing manner.
Regardless, there is something about it. No matter how wonky and clunky it is, no matter how reminiscent of meager tech-demos its mini-games are, no matter how skewed and weird its monetization system is, Club Penguin gets the Legendary Point. 1/1
Conclusion
7/10. Club Penguin winds up being a surprisingly competent social game for children that has a bit of everything, even if it is bogged down by predatory monetization practices and some odd design choices. Alas, Club Penguin no longer exists, as a result of which I cannot recommend it to anyone. That said, there are Private Servers out there, and one might be able to get to play a modified version of the game, in which case I would invite everyone to give it a try. It was regarded as a cult classic.
I tuck it under my belt, another shining achievement that I proudly display, and I weep for what was lost. Where were you when Club Penguin died?