we are starting the blog off so strong. partly inspired by this youtube video i recently watched! here’s the list of games i referenced if you’d like a refresher.
a brief background: i haven’t played club penguin since… either the first teen beach movie party or the monsters university party- whichever was most recent, i forget lol. but while i still played it… i was OBSESSED! I owe so much of who i am today (especially my love for kids mmorpgs) to club penguin. i miss it so so so much… but instead of being sad i will honor it today by reminiscing about and ranking the many fun minigames and activities players could do around the island!
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UNRANKED (technically #31-#26)
paint by letters, treasure hunt, DJ3K, bits & bolts, spy drills, soundstudio
these are the games that didn’t make it to the numerical ranking for one big reason: i didn’t play them/don’t remember playing them at all lol. i know that soundstudio was released after i had already moved on from club penguin, and i think paint by letters was taken out before i got into club penguin.
#25
mancala
we are starting the ranking off with the IRL game mancala lol. objectively just the worst to me cuz i never bothered to learn how to actually play it- i just liked the motions of the chips moving around the board. #boringggggg
#24
astrobarrier
ehh. i don’t love the arcade games that much because dude i’m playing club penguin where you can be a literal secret agent. why would i play arcade games if i could face sensei in card-jitsu. i could be hanging out with puffles rn. yanno?! anyway i don’t have much to say in particular abt astrobarrier. cutesy retro vibe done well, but #boring at the end of the day.
#23
find four
this is just connect four lol.
#22
jet pack adventure
all i remember about this game was that it was hard. the movements w the jet pack had that vague drifty feeling that you get in a lot of similar-control games/racing games/etc that i wasn’t a big fan of (cuz i was not good at it)...
#21
thin ice
i actually liked this arcade game for what it was- it’s only so low because it’s still an arcade game and club penguin has an unfortunately stacked roster of games! easy to get into, difficult to master, especially once you get up in the harder levels. i also just love black puffles lol. like astrobarrier, thin ice’s simulated retro vibes were done fantastically and i remember the bgm being addictive!
#20
puffle roundup
i hated this game LOL. obviously not enough for it to be in mancala’s place but there was just something… unsatisfying about puffle roundup?! i think player skill contributes to that and well… let’s just say i wasn’t so good at this game either… i wasn’t BAD per se but i remember finding myself in situations where the puffles were placed in such precarious positions that i had to move the mouse cursor sooo carefully and slowly or risk running a bunch of them off the map and i was like 12 years old i didn’t have that patience -_- fun for like 5 minutes and then you’d see me exit this game and immediately teleport to the dojo or something.
#19
aqua grabber
this game is an absolute classic in my mind but just not a personal fav. games that required a lot of precision or patience just were not my thing back then. i loved the way the pearl looked though, the aesthetics were super charming.
#18
puffle rescue
i remember not liking this game very much at the beginning, but then suddenly getting into it one random day and now i have good memories of this game :) i think non-members were only allowed to do the first mode? which was fine with me- i don’t think i ever got far enough to finish all the NM levels but i had fun for what it’s worth. this reminds me that i had a HUGE crossy road phase back in the day so i think it was just that i liked this sort of game. i just also felt so sad for the scared little puffles shaking in their isolated spots as they waited for you to rescue them :((
#17
smoothie smash
i honestly have little recollection of this game other than remembering it was fairly recent, relative to the other games…? it was fine. i like food games and the graphics and animations of this game were really fun and fresh.
#16
hydro hopper
THE classic minigame for me. there’s just something so simple, in a comforting way, about this game. yeah, it got annoying and difficult pretty fast, but a great game when i was just feeling nostalgic. also big ups to how silly your penguin looked when it got knocked off its floatie.
#15
pufflescape
ok- i played this game a LOT but now that im thinking about it… i don’t think i actually liked it that much?! it was easy to get into so it may have been a little sunk-cost fallacy where i had blitzed through a bunch of levels and decided to just keep going for more coins… it was really pretty for what it was tho. i remember the music being very tinkly and ethereal to match the mystical cave setting and the white puffle aesthetics. the physics of the ball were super weird tho :?
#14
puffle launch
another sunk-cost fallacy game lol. more fun than pufflescape but it was a slog trying to 100% later levels. i just wanted to see that giant 100% completion puffle-o filled dammit!
#13
card-jitsu water
ok from here on out we get into real peak territory. i loved all the card-jitsu modes (spoiler) but water is this low mostly because it was super laggy for me lmao. i had thought it was just a me problem but after hearing about other ppls’ experiences it seems that it was a universal problem </3
i remember playing this and i’d be lagging so hard i’d finally be able to input a move and suddenly i was booted back to the main room cuz i had already lost before my move went thru! honestly quite funny- i was never that mad. but it DID mean i made almost no progress towards water ninja completion. oh well.
when it didn’t lag too bad and i was actually able to play the game, it was really fun, from what i can remember. i liked how fast paced it was compared to the other card-jitsu modes. i also really liked the murky cave waterfall setting it takes place in!
#12
dance contest
one thing about me- i go crazy for a DDR/rhythm game!! also- i can’t remember how any of the music tracks went exactly but i DO remember that they were all mf bangers (the non-member tracks, anyway)! i liked how you could visibly build up crowd hype when your combo got longer and longer and more penguins would appear in the background cheering you on :) just a silly fun game to groove to.
my game did lag a bit especially on the harder difficulties but that didn’t matter at all to me also i really liked cadence so that may be a factor in this game’s placement <3
#11
cart surfer
quick, snappy, stylish, cool, and totally made me feel badass pulling those stunts. overall the game was also really entertaining- the trick where you just start running along the track with the minecart in your flippers above your head made me lose it every time.
#10
pizzatron 3000
ahh pizzatron 3000. another banging classic. i was of course a candy pizza mode truther. i think i was kind of just a fatass kid so i liked almost all games involving food LMFAO but there was something satisfying about this game. beating the clock as the pizza whizzes past… trying to put those damb 5 shrimps on it, rapid-fire, so they all end up plopped in the exact same location on the pie, creating what would be a nightmare to eat… good times. i had no idea the candy mode was programmed to be more difficult till i watched the video i mentioned at the beginning of the post- i was just using that difficulty as a baseline ;_; lol.
now that i think about it… those candy pizzas looked unappetizing as hell but well anything unique and secret-y and special like that was appealing to me back then. the normal pizzas tho looked good af- big fan of the hot sauce pizzas and how the bottle erupted in flames when you’d squirt it on. also all the toppings looked scrumptious- i’d totally eat seaweed and anchovy pizza. #sueme
#9
bean counters
i looooved this game for no reason lol. it was a type of frantic panicky game that i found so appealing! swishing the mouse back and forth to quickly avoid the anvils that the truck was tossing out for god knows what reason but to sweep up falling coffee bean bags in the same motions… so satisfying. also catching a bunch of bags and then unloading them all at the dock was so satisfying (cue rapid-fire plop-plop-plop sfx). it got difficult fast but in an entertaining way and it was always fun regardless!
#8
ice fishing
#BANGERGAME. low-stakes enough to be a really chill experience every time, but high-stakes enough for me to want to play PERFECTLY every time and of course catch the mullet at the very end. it’s just a great game. and ofc i have to shoutout the bgm. very charming graphics and simple but cute animations as well!
#7
card-jitsu fire
this is only the second card-jitsu mode to appear on this list so far, and it’s this high?! yeah. duh. of course! i have a lot of really fond memories about fire- fun, cool, awesome. relative to all the card-jitsu modes, fire is probably my 2nd least played (only outranked by water lol) but i still put a TON of hours into it- not just for the fire ninja completion, but just because i loved it! i honestly can’t put my finger on what exactly i loved about it lmao but what remains are the good memories :)
#6
card-jitsu
the OG mode. just pure genius. pure art. pure fun. that’s it. the animations were just so charming- writing this made me specifically recall the one when a water card is played and wins, and the winner throws a water balloon at the loser’s face, before the loser presses on their own stomach to expel the water lolol. all the special card animations were fun too. it makes me want to collect the real cards! i wonder if you could still buy them today for cheap?
also i love sensei so much. <33 i think slowly working my way up the belts and slowly realizing that sensei would be the final challenge was one of the most revolutionary moments of my life as i knew it back then. i lost many times against him… but when i finally won, it was like no other achievement.
#5
sled racing
sled racing closes out the top 5!! and for good reason- simply just a great game. i found this game incredibly amusing mostly because the animation of your penguin rolling down the hill before faceplanting if you hit an obstacle was so mf funny. but it was just so fun to race against other ppl- because sled racing was so popular, there were usually always a bunch of players hanging out on the ski hill so games were easy to start. it was always a blast when you’d finish a game and immediately everyone who had just played would run back to the queue to start another race!
fast-paced, hilarious, genuine good fun. no notes from me.
#4
catchin' waves
i was OBSESSED w this game. this is another game that i played infrequently at the start of my illustrious club penguin career and then suddenly really got into and became addicted. i wasn’t the biggest fan at first because i was too chicken to try to pull any crazy stunts or combination of tricks… but one day i guess i was like uhh idc and launched my penguin as high up into the air as i could and did as many vertical spins as i could and LANDED it and i was floored. honestly i think i liked catchin’ waves because i just wanted to see how many spins in the air i could do in a row without dying lol.
i remember noticing how many coins you could earn from this game so that was another reason i played it so much. i was good enough to farm coins reliably from it… good times!
#3
system defender
yes- this is, at its core, just a tower defense game. i’ll admit to that. and i’m not even that huge on tower defense games. but there was something SO special about this game for me personally! i think all club penguin minigames had a lot of love and care poured into them that’s evident through their graphics, sound design and game feel- and it was this 100x for system defender. this was solidly in my top 5 most played minigames. i don’t even think there were that many levels to do- but idgaf i replayed those levels over and over and had a blast! there’s an inherent replayability and appeal for highly customizable games like this one- and it was fulfilling every time i beat a level.
i also like to feel super OP in games lol- by the time i’d finish one of the longer levels, my entire screen would be full of my mega-powered-up blaster guys and the ones placed later down the path would barely have to do anything because the ones at the front would literally vaporize the enemies just starting to appear on screen LOL.
i remember there was some actual challenge to this game too- there were plenty of times i had incredibly close calls and i’d win the level with barely any health left and they were just as satisfying as a perfect win with no health lost.
yet another game that was incredibly easy to get into, and had just the right amount of difficulty to be challenging in a rewarding way. beautifully designed as well!
#2
card-jitsu snow
yes ofc card-jitsu snow is this high are you kidding me. are u KIDDING me. there was just something so charming, so well-done, so badass about this game!! there was also this really nice camaraderie from teaming up w randoms and working together to take down the enemies. waiting times could get long, yes- if i close my eyes i can vividly picture the character select screen you’d get stuck on waiting for ppl to fill the other roles- but it was a small downside to an otherwise great experience.
i was a fire main ^_^ i liked the well-roundedness of the class… plus u got to fight with hot sauce bottles?! the game was actually pretty challenging at times- depending on how well you worked with your teammates and the enemy CPUs and whatnot, but failures only ever sent me immediately waddling back to the spot in the overworld where you start another game of snow lmao.
i’m realizing now that this game sort of scratches the same itch that fire emblem did for me a bit later down the road when i became obsessed w it for a good few years. tweens and teens yearn for epic chess.
i’m not sure i got far enough to do that final special boss fight against tusk but i’ve seen the process and like… is it weird i get actual chills even watching someone else play?! it’s just such a cool concept with a cool story and really nice game design to boot. i’ve got nothing but great memories of snow!
#1
PSA secret missions
at long last… over 30 minigames, some of the best of my childhood, and the one to stand atop them all is of course the EPF secret missions. oh man. oh man!! hands-down my most replayed minigame. some days i’d log in and do nothing but these missions. i was obsessed with the whole secret agent storyline of club penguin- from figuring out how to pass the test to become an agent in the first place to the EPF headquarters map to OPERATION BLACKOUT… omg. operation blackout was literally so insane to me back then and still kind of is today. there was a sense of importance and authentic-feeling impending doom in that event that i had never seen done in any other game ever before. it was just pure art.
… wait a minute this isn’t about operation blackout. but either way, anything EPF related was immediately gold in my book. i loved the unique setup of the missions and how it was such an immersive point-and-click experience. you were actually in the world and could interact with it and other characters!
and ofc the characters themselves- the EPF missions made Gary the Gadget Guy, Jetpack Guy, Rookie, Aunt Arctic, even Herbert and Klutzy some of my favorite NPCs of the game! i loved that they all had prominent roles in missions and how much you got to speak and interact with them.
i especially liked the length and bulk of these missions- the vast majority of club penguin minigames were very short and sweet, but sometimes you just wanna dig your teeth into a GAME. these missions were the perfect length to really get into and have fun without getting bored like you may by replaying the other minigames around the island. there was a story in each of them that was engaging and interesting.
i loved that little spy phone you got in every mission too- it was always an a-ha moment when i’d get to a part in a mission and realize i had the perfect tool tucked away in that little blue phone to progress. i remember whipping it out for the comb to brush that mangy ass fur sample from Herbert for the mission where you analyze it to track him down and that being one of the only times the comb in particular was useful lol.
i don’t think i played all the missions available- i had a few favorite ones i’d blast through for the 294239th replay lol. i don’t remember which missions these correspond to but some of my favorite and most memorable story beats were surviving in the wilderness after crash landing Gary’s snowmobile invention, helping Rookie recover the stolen coins in the gift shop vault, figuring out the jetpack fuel minigame for Jetpack Guy (ok- i didn’t understand this one for the longest time cuz i didn’t get the concept of ratios but i wanted to drink the purple fuel so I had good memories of this part), escaping the cage Herbert traps you in when he captures you… so many different fun features and unique experiences in each mission.
the EPF storyline really made me feel like i was a part of something big and something super cool. i wish these missions were still around! i remember they got removed from the actual club penguin game so anyone could play them at any time without an account on a different webpage. i know ppl were upset cuz they couldn’t get the rewards from them anymore but atp i had already gotten any of the rewards from the missions i liked to play and i also dgaf i was just happy to be able to play them.
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and that’s the ranking :] ! i think there’s definitely some nostalgia around these games that influenced it all- i wonder if younger me who was actually playing the game would agree with these placements? i feel like if the original club penguin website still existed today, no rewrittens or any other reboot versions, I could still spend hours upon hours having fun. I MISS U CLUB PENGUIN I <3 U CLUB PENGUIN!!