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

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.

Zootopia Party Review

Hello penguins! Today I'm writing a review of the currently ongoing Zootopia Party, which began on May 18th and ends on July 6th. Many penguins in the community seem to like this party; now I am going to write about what I think about it.

The artwork is very good. With the exception of the Snow Forts, all are similar enough to be easily recognized, but also different enough to be interesting and fun. The Dock is themed after Bunnyburrow, and it has some great decorations - lots of hay bales, a farmer's market, a pie shop, and a lemonade stand.

The Coffee Shop is really nice as well. It has a stone floor, which wasn't necessary, but still really cool. Likewise, it has a fireplace with photos and the like on the mantle, which wasn't necessary, but nice to have.
Despite the grand decorations in all of the other rooms, my favorite place would have to be the Plaza. It has nice coloring, nice shading, and nice placement of plants, trees, and vines, my favorite part of this place would probably be the tree by the Mall.

The left part of the trunk reminds me of a gorilla's foot.

Next up, the sounds. The music at the Dock is really nice and fits the tone really well. It's what I imagine someone who has never been to a farm thinks a farm sounds like.

The music in the Town Center, Plaza, and Forest is not good. It has an okay bassline, but the bongos in the background do not fit the tone at all. They probably should have left some notes as staccato; instead, most notes use the damper pedal and it is totally unnecessary. I wish this wasn't the main theme for this party.

On a lighter note, the Coffee Shop music is really cool. It starts off with the sounds of an upright bass; I love the sounds of an upright bass. Then, a piano comes in and starts playing smooth jazz. It's really soothing and fits the theme. I wish there was a variation of this in the Town Center.

The Snow Forts music is alright. It has the same damper pedal effect as the music in the Town Center, but some good instrumentation begins to play and it gets better. It has many instruments such as handbells, bongos, and what may be a flute or picollo. 

The Stadium music is bad. Not because the song itself is bad, but because the song sounds like a weird mutant form of bluegrass, and that has nothing to do with a DMV.

The Police Station music is not good. I also like this song, but a song called "Rocking Pizza" should not be played in a police station.

There is a ton of playability available at this party, especially in the Forest and Police Station. The Big Donut (which Zootopia totally didn't steal from Steven Universe despite it looking very similar) can be entered so penguins can work there, which is cool, but the stools outside don't work. Trying to sit on one will result in your penguin standing behind it. But the cheese truck is cool.

There are vendors at the Dock, Snow Forts, and Forest, which are all different. One place serves pie, one serves pawpsicles, and one serves cheese. This encourages roleplaying, similar to the popcorn vendor at the Lighthouse during Halloween. I wish there was one in the Town, though.

My favorite place for playing, though, is the Stadium. The DMV has a race track in it, similar to the Stadium during the Turbo Race 3000, one of my favorite events of 2014. Not only that, but it has not one, not two, not four, not five, not six, not seven, not eight, but three desks at the DMV. This is to shorten the waiting time and hire more sloths.

Now, the costumes. They are really great, but also really bad. Allow me to explain.

Most costumes look really cool, but the Judy head has some really ugly makeup, even after the redesign. I'm not sure why Nick's head has a tie when the body has a tie, and Flash's face looks kinda weird; not weird enough for me to complain about it, but wierd. 

Judy's head is the worst. It looks like somebody put excessive makup on a penguin and didn't know what Judy actually looked like in the movie. The eyelashes are really big and annoying. The eyebrows are not necessary. Normal rabbit costumes wouldn've have eyebrows. The shirt collar should be included in the body item instead of the head item.

No amount of Simpsons references will save this crime against sprite design.

The player-card displays are all a bit off, but the Judy display is the worst.

Let's play Are you Creeped Out Yet? with the Zootopia cast.

What's up with those ears?

This one isn't AS bad. My main problem with the other 2 is the smile. This one is the same, but the smile is cut off.

There is no way that any penguin could make their mouth look like that. No way, no how.

The worst thing about these items, though, is that there is not one free item. Sure, many items are free for members, but non-members get nothing, similar to the Wilderness Expedition and the Puffle Party.

As for story, this party contains none.

Now I'll discuss what everybody wants to discuss, the length of the party.

This party is 7 weeks long, the longest party ever, destroying the record set by the Star Wars Party in 2013. While the Star Wars Party had lots of content, this party has significantly fewer party rooms and places to explore. So do I think it will grow stale after a few weeks? Well, a bit. I am typing this 5 weeks into the party. I am already a bit bored by seeing Tundra Town so much, but how long it sticks around shouldn't give a good party a bad reputation.

This party was pretty fun. It had some cool, interesting rooms, some great roleplaying possiblities, some okay costumes, and a few good songs. I'd give this party a 7/10. Goodbye!

Thanks to the Club Penguin Wiki for information. All .SWF files for this party are available here.