Music Jam 2016 Critique

Hello penguins! Welcome to my critique of the Music Jam 2016. I know I'm late, so I should begin my discussion as soon as possible.

The art of the latest Music Jam party is amazing. While a decent amount of the art is returning, a lot of it is remade or new for this party exclusively. Since there are many categories of rooms in this party, I'll discuss them all.

First, we have new rooms. this includes all rooms that are made new for this party. My favorite of these is the Beach.

It has some really nice art design. The Orca Straw looks really fine and well-polished. The design on the Lighthouse (which is a remake of the design from the Music Jam 2012 Lighthouse) is a really good recreation and works really well. The interview set looks really good, even though it looks like it may be copied and pasted with a bit of recoloring.

My least favorite of the new rooms is the Snow Forts.

This room is okay, but it has one isue that annoyed me for the entire length of the party- the stage does not have any shadows. That's the only issue I have with this room. If that isn't a testament to how good these few new rooms are, I don't know what is.

The next group of rooms is old rooms. The old rooms are very few, which means we get a bunch of new content. The old rooms chosen are good. We get the Backstage, Casa Fiesta, Coffee Shop, Pizza Parlor, and some of the rooms on the Music Cruise. My favorite reused room is the backstage.

This room was certainly a surprise. It's slightly modified in a few ways too; you can no longer buy instruments, and the door leading outside shows the night sky now. It's good to see this room reused; I really like how it was designed and there's a ton of details.

The Coffee Shop is also a good example of reusing rooms correctly.

This room was originally for the Hollywood Party back in 2013. I think it fits; the general aesthetic and color scheme work well for the Music Jam. The room uses a lot of blues and purples, just like the original Music Jam Coffee Shop from way back in 2008 and the newer one used from 2009 to 2012.

Music Jam 2008 - Coffee Shop

Ultimate Jam 2012 - Coffee Shop

A bad example of reused rooms at this event would be the Bridge from the Music Cruise.

Despite the fact that the rest of the party was at night only, the game designers neglected to realize that they left the daylight cycle on for the Music Cruise. So while a majority of the rooms are in the evening, the ship can be experiencing morning, afternoon, evening, or night. This was a big oversight and completely kills this room in particular. I'm clearly not a programmer, but I feel like it would be very little work to remove the daylight cycle. This is a big issue.

Another big issue with this party is that part of the island is experiencing the evening while other parts are as bright as day. Rooms like the Ski Village, Cove, and Iceberg are victims of this. In total, they would have to replace the SWFs of 7 rooms or so. If they had used the files from the Fashion Festival for those rooms, I doubt anyone would even care. But it's the same issue we experienced with the SoundStudio Party back in 2015. It's just lazy and it should have been fixed; but they went out of their way to make it worse by adding a gradient to the Beach and Forest showing that only parts of the island are lit in such a manner.

Being the Music Jam, you'd think it would have some good music, right? Well, you'd be correct. All of the music in this event match the context pretty well. A good example of this is the Beach. The track that plays is not new, nor was it designed for a previous Music Jam. It was made for another event, but it sounds orchestral; and orchestral music is the theme for the Beach. It's a good way to reuse content while making it seem new by putting it in an entirely new context.

This party has a lot more to do than some of the previous events such as the Finding Dory Party and the Zootopia Party. Many of the parties in 2017 were based on very specific things; Zootopia is about the movie. The world of the movie was rich and diverse, so I think they could have expanded further than they did. The Finding Dory Party however.... Most of Finding Dory takes place under the sea from what I understand. It's hard to make a lot of rooms based on Finding Dory without it getting stale quick. I know I got sick of the underwater room after a few weeks.

Turns out it's called the Reef. I guess you learn more every day.

The Music Jam, however, has more interesting rooms. They all look different and diverse; and most importantly, there's tons of stuff to do in all of them. The Forest has a rock stage. The Plaza has a big red carpet event and a limo. The Snow Forts has a pop stage with Cadence and the Penguin Band. The Town has Times-Square type billboards on the buildings. The Dock has the Casa Fiesta and the Music Cruise. The Beach has the Orca-Straw. All rooms have something new and interesting added to them that makes them unique. No room is bland or uninteresting. (Okay, maybe the Arcade's decorations weren't very special. But that's one out of 22 or so.) It feels like each decorated room has its own purpose, like they were designed to be played with in a very specific manner. And for that, I commend the art team.

And finally, the collectibles. Does this party even have collectibles? Of course it does! It has mascot backgrounds- 2 of them. You can collect one for meeting DJ Cadence and another for meeting any individual member of the Penguin Band. And that's all.

Wow. That's a disappointing amount of collectibles.

What would have been cool is if they had put free item boxes around the island in rooms that normally aren't that interesting- The Arcade, the Ice Rink, and the Mine Shack, for example. This party would have been much more interesting and much more appreciated if they had done so.

So that's what I thought of the Music Jam 2016. So how does it rank? Well, you'll see when I release my new ordinal scale at the end of the month. Until then, see ya later!

Sources: Club Penguin Wiki Archives

Halloween Party 2016 Critique

Hello penguins! Last year, I introduced my party critiques by discussing the Halloween Party 2015. This year, I will go into more depth and discuss different elements that changed this year. So let's begin!


The art is pretty good. My favorite room has to be the Ski Lodge. The pumpkins are placed in locations that feel good, almost strategic. The hanging lights and the fish skeleton are really cool graphics, and the Ski Lodge just looks magnificent in the dark.

Another favorite of mine is the Dance Club. The pumpkins look really cool, especially the Astro-Barrier pumpkin by the stairwell. The candelabras are interesting, and the large pumpkin by SoundStudio is very detailed. The tiles behind the large pumpkin have great coloring.

The amazing art doesn't come without a few issues, though. For example, the pumpkin next to the Lighthouse door has a few issues. The shadow erases part of the doormat, and the right side of this Jack-o-Lantern appears to be in front of the support beam when it really should be behind it. This issue has been present at every Halloween Party since 2011, but every year it goes unchanged, and every year I lose my patience just a bit more.

Another glitch is the Pizza Parlor glitch. This problem presents the pumpkins behind the counter instead of atop it in the Pizza Parlor.

This clearly wasn't intentional, because the .SWF file didn't have this issue.

It's just the actual display in the game that's off.


The Halloween Party often has some of the best music, so let's examine what is on the table this year.

The main theme for this party is 1035. It is a remaster of a track from the Halloween Party 2008 titled Under the Cover of the Storm. It is a great song to listen to; I love it. It even includes a triangle.

The track 1055 is a remaster of an older song called Halloween Jam. It features some great instrumentation from the piano and the violin, and the background of the track even includes a triangle and sandpaper. At one point, all of the instruments cut out and all that's heard is the sound of thunder. It's really fun to listen to.

My favorite song from the party is 1036. The only instruments I can recognize are an 808 drum and possibly a harp, but trust me, it's really good. The last track fit really well with the Nightclub from the Halloween Party 2007, but this one fits best with the flashier, bigger, more animated and interactive Nightclub from recent Halloween Parties.

The Nightclub from the Halloween Party 2007

The Pizza Parlor track, 1033, is also an entertaining tune. It is basically a looping instrumental of Gotta Get the Gotcha from Halloween Panic. My favorite part is when the piano starts to play, just before the hook. The main part of the song, the chorus, is essentially a remix of random voice samples to a tune. It's wonderful. I would say this is a wonderful Club Penguin track, but sadly, this song was not made by Club Penguin. It appeared in a YouTube video by Thomas Ridgewell in 2014. I will not name it here, but if you ask me by clicking this link and sending me a tweet, I will tell you.

The Mine Shack's theme (1041) is alright. The only instrument it is an organ, which would be okay if the song didn't have a bunch of sound effects in it, but since it's still very spooky and interesting to listen to, I don't mind it too much.


Since most of the rooms are the same as they were last year, there isn't much to say here; but I'll try.

Transformations from 2012 and 2013 returned, including three zombies, three vampires, three werewolves, and a new ghost that has not been seen before. They are all very cool, but unfortunately, they are completely randomized with no way of choosing which creature or color you mutate into. The system is flawed, but still enjoyable and interesting.

Just like they did in 2015, the tube tables at the Dance Lounge have returned as well. I think these are quite neat, and I would not mind seeing them used yet again in the near future.



Aside from that, penguins with the Miner's Helmet or Hard Hat can turn the Iceberg into a Jack-o-Lantern. This is a good deal more fun with friends, for it takes longer to achieve this alone.

But aside from all of that, the main quest is a new scavenger hunt. This quest is quite basic, just requiring the player to find and collect all three of a specific variant of spectral sweet hidden in a room. There are sweets of other colors in order to confuse you, though, so beware.

This quest is very simple and doesn't provide me with a decent amount of content. Another thing is, unlike trick-or-treating or the hotel quests from former Halloween Parties, these cannot be redone at any point; but other than that, these quests are harmless. I tend to overlook them.


The story here is quite simple. Spectral sweets have appeared all over the island, and it is your duty to collect them all to provide a power source for the aforementioned Monster Maker 3000, located at the Beach. I see no problem with this, but I wish the team had explained us why these candies had been placed where they were.


This Halloween Party was great. I can't say it's as great as good as 2015, but it is a lot more enjoyable than the 2014 Halloween Party. It involved great returning elements and decorations, some new and old music, and some exellent activities. This Halloween Party ranks in as an 8/10. Goodbye!

Thanks to the Club Penguin Wiki, the Club Penguin Wiki Archives, and Pokebub for information and assets.

If for whatever reason you want to read the unedited version with typographical and factual errors, please, be my guest. Click here to read it.

Frozen Fever Party 2016 Critique

Hello penguins! Today I will be critiquing the last takeover of 2016, the second Frozen Fever Party! Let us begin!

The decorations at this party were not good. The rooms that were decorated intentionally were medicore, and I don't much to say about them, but it's the rooms that were modified unintentionally that had issues.

Minor nitpick, but the archway at the Ski Village was missing for the duration of this party.

The Ski Village regularly, as of June 2015

The Ski Village during the Frozen Fever Party 2016

Another nitpick, but the fireplace located inside the Ski Lodge seems to have frozen unexpectedly throughout this event.



This is more of a serious problem. For the first four weeks of this event, the PSA Missions and the EPF Handbook were completely inaccessible.

What the EPF Command Room is supposed to look like

What the EPF Command Room looked like during the
Frozen Fever Party

Another major issue is that the Puffle Berry Mall was inaccessible from the Plaza for the first 2 weeks of this event.

Not to mention the Mall being completely shut off to anyone without a spy phone and the fact that this complete rehash that will last weeks.

— Chilly573 (@Chilly573) August 17, 2016

The party rooms also had frozen variants. Let us now discuss those..

The Town is my favorite frozen variant of them all. The pattern on the ground is completely concealed under the ice. I especially like the coloring on the fish. It is amusing how the sign on the Coffee Shop was modified to "Iced Coffee" after it's chilled. The coloring on the Dance Club windows is especially interesting here.

Another great room is the Cove.

I really like the coloring on the snow fort, especially the floor and the pointy tops on the towers. The umbrellas have wonderful shading, and the ice is, as usual, very elegant.


The music at this party was a positive overall.

The second song was 909, and it is quite peculiar. It is clearly a 2014 track. It features a xylophone, just as the original Town Center theme from the day after this party. but unlike the first Town Center music, this one is controlled and quiet most of the way through, and the Town Center music is just loud and unpleasant.

The next track is 1131, and it's really cool. It fits the theme of ice quite a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if this would play at an upcoming Festival of Snow or an event similar to this. It also has a style similar to the music from Plants vs. Zombies with the string instrument (which I cannot put my finger on at this current moment) and the chimes that play every ten seconds or so. (Here's the Plants vs. Zombies link, even though that music is better.)

The main theme, 1132, is decent. It has some respectable instrumentation, including a good selection of wind instruments and a violin. This is exactly what I would imagine the main theme to a Frozen Party would sound like. It's extremely peppy and fun. It works a lot better than the Town Center's music from the previous Frozen Parties, for those sound a bit too much as if they were trying to make me feel really emotional for a simple party. That song is 910.

My favorite song from this party was definitely 1133. It has really nice instrumentation, and has a slightly more important tone. It sounds like it's from the Marvel Superhero Takeover, but it also has a very Frozen sound to it. It also brings back the horn from the Card-Jitsu party theme, and you can't go wrong there. It's great fun, and I love to listen to it.

The final track is 1135, and I'm not a fan. For a decent length of the runtime, the only instruments are a piano and a tambourine. There is also some harp and various string instruments in there, but they are in the background for just a fraction of it. This song also gets extremely repetitive quickly. It has 2 parts to it, and they are both different. There's a definite split in the track between them. They don't flow together nicely, and it is extremely bothersome.


The items available were very hit-and-miss. On one hand, we have Snowgies, which is extremely hideous, and the low-polygon count of their eyes make them look like demons.

On the other hand, the Solid Ice encored. The Solid Ice is a gorgeous item that transforms your penguin into ice. It has many different shades of blue and indigo, with snowflake prints and really unique shading. I love it.

The playability at the Frozen parties is like no other. Penguins had the ability to freeze rooms, which has only been seen in small doses with the Holiday Party 2012. The rooms were then unfrozen using the heart emote. This was an interesting concept, but without at least 2 people actively freezing and unfreezing the room, it got quite dull, very quickly. They should have introduced a type of secret reward system that would grant you 500 coins for freezing 2 entire rooms, or something along those lines.

Rooms such as the Beach, Snow Forts, and Town Center do not have many elements to interact with. All of the other rooms, though, have an abundance. The Forest, for example, has many elements in Oaken's shop, as well as the Reindeer Puffle stables. The Dock has many pins, paint, and Oaken's Cloakens, graphical glitches aside.

A problem with the Dock's .SWF file

The story at this party is, if the definition of "story" allows for it, Anna's birthday. There isn't much else, except the collection of pins. This category will not be considered in the ranking.


This party was yet another disappointment. It had some decent elements included in it, including good music and some great items; but due to many graphical and technical glitches, as well as an unwarranted 6-week runtime, this party sadly gets a 3/10.

What did you think of the Frozen Fever Party? Is it better or worse than the Frozen Party 2014? Goodbye!

Thanks to the Club Penguin Wiki for info and the Club Penguin Archives for use of files. To read the unedited, uncut version of this post, with bonus material that was removed from the final version, click here.

Blast to the Past: The Leis

Hello penguins! I don't know if you noticed, but there is a new lei available in the Penguin Style catalog this month, and looks exceptionally great.

This lei is actually a new version of an older lei. So let's look at all of the past leis, shall we?

In 2006, the first party of the year was the Winter Luau. At this party, one free item was given out. That item was the Hawaiian Lei.

The Hawaiian Lei, commonly dubbed the Red Lei, is a rare item and has not been available since. It's the only lei that I don't have.

The next lei to be released was the Blue Lei. This lei is an all blue version of the Hawaiian Lei, and was available originally at the Summer Party in June 2006. It was then available again at the Summer Kickoff Party in June 2007, where it was last seen for many years. It was then re-released for the 10th Anniversary Party in October 2015.

The Blue Lei available at the Ski
Village at the Summer Kickoff
Party in June 2007.

We didn't get any new leis for a while, until the summer of 2013.

At the Teen Beach Movie: Summer Jam, a new lei was released called the Friendship Lei. It was available at the Beach starting on August 26th, and looks dissimilar to all of the other leis. Instead of being puffy as the other leis do, this one looks akin to the Star Necklace.

After the release of the Friendship Lei, the community freaked out and when the next lei was discovered in November 2013, it looked like the first 2 leis.

The Golden Lei became available on November 14th, 2013, and can only be dug up with a golden puffle.

And finally, that brings us to the Island Lei, which was released on August 31st, 2016 in the September 2016 issue of the Penguin Style catalog.

Dashing!

That's all of the leis! Which ones do you have? Which one is your favorite? Goodbye!

Thanks to the Club Penguin Wiki for a few of the images.

The Rarest Background

Hello penguins! I will now be providing information about an often overlooked rare item in Club Penguin.

Backgrounds were released in May 2006. Since then, every background has been obtained by hundreds and possibly thousands of people. There is one exception, though. One background has been collected by less than 500 users. That item is the Penguin of the Week Background.

The Penguin of the Week Background was released in March of 2014 and can only be obtained by being or having been Penguin of the Week. While this item is rare, it is possible for anyone to obtain it; a new penguin has this item added to their inventory nearly every week.

I hope you found this secret interesting. Do you have the Penguin of the Week Background? Goodbye!

Thanks to the Club Penguin Wiki for images and information.

Finding Dory Party Critique

Hello penguins! Welcome back to Club Penguin Secrets for another party critique. This week, I'll be critiquing the recent Finding Dory Party, which many have debated over in the community. But first, let us review with this video showcasing the party.


And without further ado, let us now initiate the critique.


As always, I will begin by discussing the rooms. This party had very few rooms, yet fun decorations and some clever design choices, most especially in the Town Center and the Cove.

The cove has the chairs replaced with clamshells, and the overhead lanterns connecting the Surf Shack to the first responders' building have been replaced with glowing jellyfish. The shrubs near the surfboards have been replaced by various pieces of coral and sea life.

The Town Center has an interesting model as well. The disco ball on the exterior of the Danceclub has been swapped out for a smiling puffer fish, which is strangely dissimilar to the puffer fish in Aqua Grabber. The Clothes Shop sign has a shark bite in it, and the blue lamps outside have again been replaced by luminous jellyfish. The plants to the right of the Clothes Shop have been replaced by coral.

One of my favorite details, though, would have to be at the Dock. If you look closely, penguins are lined up against the window examining the sea life. This is similar to fish displays at many zoos across the world.

Now I will examine the music for the party. The first track, 1124, is fast-paced and entertaining. It starts off with a flute or similar instrument and then has an upbeat string instrument as well as a xylophone. It is quite fun, and fits with the Beach's decorations.

Track 1126 is quite peculiar. It has bongo drums playing softly in the background; and one part of this tune, a part toward the end, sound like it was sampled from 313, which played at the Card-Jitsu Party in November 2011.

My favorite music at this party would have to be 1129, which played at the Cove. It is the theme from the Winter Luau, and was used at the April Fools Party 2011 and Operation: Blackout (. My favorite part of this song is when the guitar dies down a bit and the main instrument gets quieter. The drums have a bit of an echo effect for a bit then, and it's relaxing.


This party had a good amount of items available. While you could track Rookie and obtain his autograph for free, the rest of the items were available by completing tasks in the party interface. While most of the items are mediocre, some stand out. My favorite costume is the Crush costume. The shading on this one looks especially good, even if the head is a bit too big.

Two backgrounds were released at this party. While the Finding Dory Background is a bit dull, the Reef Background is very colorful and I always find cool little things about it.

The anemone is really cool and each little blade is shaded perfectly. The coral hut is interesting and has a maze-like texture. There is a portion of what appears to be sand in the bottom corner with a sort of wood-like consistency. Fun fact: this background and the Finding Dory Background have the same name on French servers. Oops.

This party has a respectable amount of things to play with. Every day until July 13th, you could log in and have another quest to find things. My favorite is from the Cove with the sand, because it was difficult and took me over 5 minutes.

I never would have guessed this spot. It took me a while to find it.
Thanks to 1999bloo for recording this.

My least favorite is the Dock because they didn't put any of the sunglasses in the gift shop where they would blend in. But props to the team at this party; the 3 items were hidden well most of the time, which is something I cannot say for parties such as the ongoing Frozen Fever Party or the School and Skate Party from September 2014.

The story is one of the more forgotten elements of this party. Dory has forgotten her way home and it's your job to collect objects to jog her memory. It's a nice, simple story. I'm not sure how sand would jog memory, but I haven't seen the movie, and maybe it's special sand.

This party was disappointing. The content we got was more than decent, but it had the power to be so much more. If they had just decorated three or four more rooms such as the Forest and the Plaza, I may have favored this party over Zootopia; but as it is, Zootopia is better. This party ranks at 5.5/10. Goodbye!

Thanks to The Club Penguin Wiki, The Club Penguin Wiki Archives, and 1999bloo (Twitter) for images, music, and videos. If you would like to see the unedited, uncut version of this critique, click here.

Oh, man, I have to stop writing party critiques all the time. It takes almost 4 hours to write just one of these.