My Penguin 1.2 Walkthrough and Review – An Update So Big, It Feels Like 2.0

The My Penguin 1.2 update is huge. So huge, in fact, it feels more like version 2.0 of the app. Everything’s different, and for the better. From new features to old features being tweaked, this update has it all. Be warned that this is a very long post. If you want to skip to the comments click here.

The first change you will notice when you open up My Penguin is the main screen has been changed. Now there’s a new background with your penguin in the middle. If you’re not already logged in, do that.

On the main screen on the left side there is a billboard. If you tap that it will open up the map with all the games and also the igloo village. You can tap the igloo on the right to go to your igloo and edit it if you’d like. You can tap your penguin in the middle to edit your outfit. You can tap the sushi to play Sushi Drop. Finally, you can tap “about membership” to learn more about being a member. Another new feature in this app is you can purchase membership directly inside My Penguin rather than having to go to Clubpenguin.com for it. The prices are the usual price, it’s not any less or more expensive. Memberships can be bought in 1 month, 3 month, and 6 month forms inside the app. Others see it as 2 months, 4 months, and 6 months. The membership is billed through the iTunes account.

If you’re already a member and tap the “about membership” button in the top right you’ll get a notice saying you’re already a member. Don’t buy membership without parental permission first!

If you just updated or installed My Penguin 1.2 you may have to wait a little bit until all of the games finish downloading and installing. If you use the workaround I posted to install My Penguin on the 1st Generation iPad, please note that Jetpack Boost and Pufflescape do not work at all. Other games and even igloos can make the app crash if you’re using the app on the unsupported iPad. Unfortunately there is nothing you can do about that except upgrade your iPad to the 2nd generation iPad or higher, or get any iPad Mini model. Because I am using My Penguin 1.2 on the old iPad I am unable to show you Jetpack Boost, however I do talk about Bean Counters further into the post.

Currently the games you can play in My Penguin are Jetpack Boost, Ice Fishing, Bean Counter, Pufflescape, Card-Jitsu Snow, Puffle Roundup, and Puffle Rescue. Igloo Village is what you go to if you’d like to visit igloos. At this time you cannot visit actual rooms but I won’t be surprised if one day that becomes a possibility, which would definitely be awesome. I’m sure more games will be added to My Penguin at some point in the future too. What Club Penguin games would you like to play on the iPad?

Another nice tweak Club Penguin added in this 1.2 update is account settings similar to what you have when playing Club Penguin on the computer. On the main screen when you open up the app, in the top left corner there is a small square icon with a cog. If you tap that icon you’ll be brought to a screen looking like this. Here you can view your penguin’s age, login to another penguin in the app, see how many friends you have, view your ignore list, mute sounds, go to your parent account, and log out. One weird thing is on this page it says I have 785 friends but when I looked at my buddy list I had 817 or something like that, which is the correct number. Oh well. Yes, the friend limit is 500 still…

One funny thing is that when you view your ignore list it says “ignored friends” – I’m pretty sure they aren’t your friends if you have them ignored! And yes, I do have Rockhopper on my ignore list. In 2007 you were able to do that so I ignored him way back. :P

If you tap “manage accounts” it’ll bring you to a page reading “parents only”. It will ask you to enter four random numbers.

Once you do that, if entered correctly, it will bring up the manage accounts page in Safari. Honestly, I fail to understand how entering four random numbers is going to stop a kid from accessing the manage accounts page in Safari. Most if not all Club Penguin players do have the ability to read, after all. Plus they would need the account login to actual get into the parent account…I guess it’s just some sort of in general web browsing safety feature although I fail to see how it can stop anyone.

Also new in this update is the ability to remember six penguins instead of four.

Let’s go back to the home screen. At the bottom there are icons – from left to right, they are:

1. Newspaper = Blog
2. Joystick = Map
3. Penguin = Emotes/actions (only usable in igloos)
4. Snowball (only usable in igloos)
5. Chat (only usable in igloos)
6. Buddy List
7. Your penguin
8. Catalogues
9. Your Igloo

Is it just me or does the catalogue icon look like a shopping bag with a smiley face on it?

Things like viewing the blog and editing your outfit are the same. One feature Club Penguin removed for some reason is the ability to view their YouTube videos. I wonder what the reason for this was? There have also been some reports of the app crashing when you edit your outfit. If it crashes try restarting your iPad. If it still keeps crashing then it is possible it’s a bug with the app and in that case I am sure Club Penguin will fix it soon.

With the catalogue Club Penguin combined the Penguin Style, Sports Catalogue, Martial Artworks, Igloo Catalogue, and Furniture Catalogue all into one nonstop catalogue. For those of you without the app I have taken screenshots of every single page. The Beach Party Igloo is available in the furniture catalog in the My Penguin app. (why not the igloo catalogue…?) For those of you who are on a slow or limited internet connection, I apologise for all of the images. The catalogues are very similar to the versions you see on the computer.

Sushi Drop has received a few small graphical updates.

Tapping Igloo Village on the map will bring up a list of popular igloos, your friend’s igloos, and everyone’s igloo. (everyone = those using the app, not every player ever) Furniture does not show up on the overviews. If your penguin has safe chat turned on you cannot view igloos at all. You can find out more about the igloo features below.

Onward to the new games, Jetpack Boost of one of the two new games in My Penguin 1.2 This game is a spinoff of Jet Pack Adventure. Unfortunately I am unable to write more about this game because it crashes on the iPad 1 due to being unsupported.

Luckily Bean Counters works! One little detail is that on the map it reads “Bean Counter” but in the game it reads “Bean Counters”. You can also tap the patch on the bag to play the special jellybean level. Thanks Lenny Thai!

The instructions:

The game is the same as on Club Penguin with you swipe left and right to move your penguin. When you’re on the arrow tap as fast as you can to unload the bags of coffee beans you are holding!

And, of course, watch out for those pesky obstacles.

Now let’s focus on igloos! Igloos are without the doubt the biggest feature of My Penguin 1.2. When you visit your igloo for the first time you’ll get a warning letting you know that Puffles aren’t going to appear on mobile yet, but will appear in a future update.

…check it out, Trainman1405 in 3D!

You can tap on penguins in an igloo to view their playercard which is awesome!

You can report players:

Remove (and add) friends:

Snowball them:

And of course visit their igloo. You cannot view stamp books at this time.

Another cool feature about igloos is you can type messages! Just like on the regular Club Penguin you are given word suggestions as you type, which you can tap to complete your message if you wish.

Just being honest:

Tap anywhere on the ground to waddle over to that spot. Another small detail is the Box Portal furniture item will not take you to the Box Dimension if you waddle over it. Same goes for the Card-Jitsu Mat, it will not load Card-Jitsu. If you want to play Card-Jitsu you’ll have to open the map and select Card-Jitsu Snow.

On mobile you can like igloos but cannot view who liked it.

If you tap the penguin icon next to the joystick (bottom left) you can view emotes and actions like sitting, dancing, and of course waving.

The clipboard icon lets you view chat history.

If you tap the igloo icon in the bottom right it’ll show your three igloo designs. Tap which one you’d like to edit.

From there you can edit your igloo, open it up for everyone to visit or close it so only friends can see it, change your igloo music, and buy items from the catalogue.

Changing your igloo gives you the familiar popup message asking if you’re sure you want to do that.

Here’s the mobile exclusive Beach Party Igloo:

When you tap and drag a furniture item into the igloo, if there is an arrow next do it you can tap it to rotate the furniture.

When an igloo loads you get a screen looking like this:

Here is Bubbyrox’s igloo:

You can type numbers and other characters such as emoji. (but I do not know if others will see it)

If you’re looking to see lots of penguins in an igloo, go to “popular” and tap one of those igloos.

Chances are you’ll see quite a few others in the room. A friend will have the green ring around their penguin. Also, betas who joined with a username starting with a lowercase letter like rsnail will have their username appear as rsnail in My Penguin but appears as Rsnail on the computer. You can see the same thing with Astros man. Any penguin that had joined after beta had each first letter after a space in the username capitalised. Just a small bit of detail/history I wanted to point out.

That’s about it for My Penguin 1.2, or as I like to think of it as, 2.0! The best way to get the full experience is to try out My Penguin on the iPad yourself, as pictures don’t show just how awesome it is to interact with other penguins and play the games. Awesome job, Club Penguin Team! Keep up the awesome work. :)

Thank you to Ferdthebird, CPTimeTravelers, and Sms8 for pointing out a few things to me about the update