Club Penguin Island was the successor to the highly popular child-friendly virtual world game, Club Penguin. It was developed by Disney with the aim of not only replacing Club Penguin but also providing a whole lot more improvements that were necessary to attract and engage the young, "modern," and gadget-savvy player.

To play, you had to sign up for a Disney account and confirm it. Without the confirmation, you wouldn't have been able to enter the game. Once you were in, you were guided through the control basics via a small quest whereby the pirate ship you arrived at Club Penguin Island in had scraped a rock protruding from the waters and was taking in water. Thankfully, you were around to lend a hand and save not only Captain Rockhopper but also his beloved ship.

After the whole scene, you were given the chance to create your own penguin. There wasn't a lot of customization at first. You could only pick the color of your penguin. However, as you advanced through the game, you were introduced to the game's outfit-designing aspect, which allowed you to create your own custom outfits using fabrics, decals, and blueprints you had collected. That said, unless you were a paying member of the game, you wouldn't have been able to put on the outfits you had created.

In fact, many of the game's most interesting features were locked behind a subscription paywall. Unless you coughed up the subscription fees, you would have only been able to explore the island, interact with certain interactives on the island, play the only mini-game available, and chat with other players. Subscribers, on the other hand, not only got to enjoy playing the game's many adventures, but they also had access to ziplines, special tools like the jackhammer and musical instruments, could start parties, buy items using game coins from vendors, earn rewards from every level-up, go fishing, as well as have the ability to dress their penguins.

Club Penguin Island was a pretty impressive virtual world game that provided a pretty large world for players to explore. The game created a center stage at the Beacon Boardwalk that would change from being just a floor into a trampoline or even a dance floor. There was even a jumping puzzle at the waterfall, as well as a swimming maze and a timed race track in the underwater world at The Sea Caves.

As you explored, there were also many interactive items along the way. Some were mainly there for you and your friends to use, such as the cushions at the picnic area or the foldable chairs at the beach. However, for others, like the coconut trees and flower-covered bushes, these could instead be interacted with so you could collect their respective collectibles. These collectibles could then be turned in at the Exchange Machine located on the Boardwalk for some game currency.

The coins you had earned could then be spent at the various in-game shops in Club Penguin Island. Most of these shops sold party stuff and virtual food and drinks for virtual money, but there were some like the Disney shop which sold a wide variety of Disney-themed costumes from movies like Frozen, Finding Dory, Zootopia, Monster Inc, Toy Story, and Elena of Avalor for real cash. Take note that costumes could be bought and worn by members only.

That said, it was great that the game kept its child-friendly aspect by providing regulated chat. Club Penguin Island also had admins check through every username created just so there wasn't any foul language used. That's why you would start off with a computer-generated code as a username, despite the fact that you had already created your username - The admins needed time to go through every single username.

Being a Disney game, Club Penguin Island had superb graphics (animations, models, and the like) as well as a cheery and brightly-colored art style. The music and sound effects used were perfectly suited to the game as well. We particularly loved the part where every sound effect your penguin made at the Sea Cave had an echo. The attention to detail was simply amazing!

All in all, Club Penguin Island was a fun and child-friendly virtual world game that had plenty to offer to its paying members. Non-subscribers could still have a fun time in the game, but honestly, it might have been best to just get the subscription if you enjoyed the game so much. There was a free trial available, after all.

Unfortunately, not many original Club Penguin fans are as excited about this mobile spin-off as expected, and the game ended up failing to reach the "performance target", though Disney has stated "global competition" as a main factor for the closure of the game on December 20th, 2018.