Spotlight on Y12

Y13 is finally here. Welcome, New Year! We hope the past year was good to each and everyone. To close off Y12 in style, join us as we recap some of the most memorable events on the site.

Shocking New Colors:

A Boochi shield no more! TNT surprised everyone - the last two pets to have no baby colors finally got hit by Boochi! Krawks and Lutaris made their debut in their new cute and cuddly designs as babies. Topping the list of the most memorable colors released were the Chocolate Draik, Baby Krawk and Lutari, Royal Hissi and Xweetok and all the new Chocolate pets! *noms on Chocolate Yurble* TNT also worked on some brand new paint brush colors! First sighted in the month of Eating, Shoyrus showed up in their brand new relic coloring! Similar to the long past stone paint brush, Relic arrived looking much more authentic. There’s no holding TNT back when they start gearing up for new colors. Acaras everywhere rejoiced to be the first to show off the new Woodland color. More surprises were in store for Neopia as TNT released another new color – Transparent. Thinking your pet will look like glass? Not quite. Skeiths modeled the new color, looking like someone took an x-ray of them. Without slowing pace, Maractite Usuls arrived in Neopia to showcase the fourth new color of Y12. Neopians were delighted to see the new Maractite Paint Brush released into the Hidden Tower. Neopians everywhere look forward to a year of pet day releases with some of the new colors from this year for their pets.

Unreleased since Y8

TNT really launched into the new year working hard. They finally activated over 1500 items that have sat unreleased as far back as Y8. Petpet colors, gourmet foods, toys and so much more!

Avatars

Stamp collectors finally got a new avatar and Neopians have been chucking all their change into the Wishing Well... wishing for the new avatar. A few other avatars appeared this year as well. All avatars released in Y12: Xweetok - Faerie, Wishing Well (undiscovered), Stamp Collector - The Battledome, Dark Lurker and Imposter Apple.

New Loyal User Perks

Working to extend special site features for the most dedicated of players, TNT has been slowly adding user perks. From a 3% Hidden Tower discount to the new Abandoned Attic, users can now take advantage of some great deals! Another amazing perk for old members is that books might not disappear after your Neopets read them. Loyal members can now have over 100 neomails in your inbox. Let’s not forget to mention the increase in transfers available through the pound. Now everyone has something to look forward to as they spend more time playing Neopets.

Games:

New Games Challenge

A full list of Y12 games: Jumpin' Gem Heist, Nova Defender, Sorcerer's Skirmish, Island Chef Academy, Ugga Drop, Hannah and the Wardrobe of Adventure, Kookia, Neopian Battlefield Legends, Hannah and the Kreludor Caves, Wrath of the Snowager. Let’s not forget Daily Dare and Game Master’s Challenge.

Petpetpet Habitarium

Previously Petpetpet Habitats, Professor Milton Clodbottle's Astounding Habitarium made an astounding return to Neopia, appropriately. In the Month of Storing, Habitats went into beta testing for Premium members. After only a bit of tweaking by TNT programmers, the game was released in Beta to all of Neopia. Folks were immediately captivated by the cute petpetpets running around a small plot of land tending to their daily tasks. Neopians sit mesmerized still as these little bugs work hard to collect resources of wood, stone, mud, grass, pollen and water. With the ability to control features of your own personal habitarium, p3s harvest, nest, eat and sleep. And yes, they even pass away when they have reached their lifespan. You have the ability to give your p3s homes to build, storage facilities to bring their harvest to, barracks for soldiers and hospitals for the sick. There are 3 different p3s currently featured in the game - Larnikins, Pinchits and Mootix. They work as either Soldiers, Nesters or Workers. Your job is to help Professor Clodbottle care for a habitarium. Keeping your p3s well fed, rested and healthy from the attacks of "blue meanies" and raids from friends, there is always something happening for the tiny p3s.

Altador Cup

All our favorite games - Make Some Noise, Shootout Showdown, Slushie Slinger and Yooyuball brought together for another year of foam hats and fingers, our favorite referee blowing his whistle and a roaring stadium. Taking place every year during the Month of Relaxing, the Altador Cup enters its fifth year. This year also saw the return of the NC gaming with Shootout Showdown, and the Neopets Staff held a tournament to represent their favorite teams! Participating in this year's Altador Cup, many Neopians decided to support the new team of Moltara (Go MOLTARA). The event was full of surprises! Changeups in several of the teams left Neopians wondering how it would affect game play. Krawk Island and Shenkuu (GO SHENKUU) were left in the dust as Lost Desert finally worked its way to the top. After some close games and upsetting losses, Lost Desert left home with the cup this year. Kreludor and Darigan Citadel joined them in the winners' circle, while some teams like the new Moltara struggled the whole way. There's always next year!

JubJub Power Bounce

During the Month of Relaxing, the NC Mall released something new - JubJub Power Bounce! This new game can only be played by purchasing game tokens in the NC Mall. You can buy 1, 5 or 10 packs of tokens. After activating your tokens, you get to fire jubjub balls onto a pinball style board. For each token activated, you get up to 3 shots each. Each time your ball lands into a circle, you have a chance of winning a game exclusive NC Mall item. You can choose to keep the item, or fire another ball. On the third ball, you automatically receive whatever prize pops up. Throughout Y12, the game board has changed several times, with over 100 different items released to-date. TNT also gave all users a free token when the game first appeared, and another free token on Day 17 of the Advent Calendar.

Site Events:

The month of Running was just that! Kari, Neopia's Negg Faerie, sent Neopians on a hunt around the globe to complete her quests during the Festival of Neggs. On the first day in the month of Eating, Neopians got the option to play pranks on their friends. Pies, slime, piles of soot and species changing pets abounded across Neopia. Good thing it wasn’t permanent, because folks got quite a shock finding their pets turned into Ogrins and Tuskaninnies! TNT even made sure that the secrets couldn’t be given away on the boards by adding in word filters. Less on the believable scale was the 3D Battledome and a prank featuring the “Meat Faerie”. o.O

Who thought there would be a dull wait between the Festival of Neggs and the Altador Cup? TNT aimed to please by offering more site events than have been seen in a while. Tarla went on vacation, traveling around Neopia and offering rewards for those who could catch her. Players worked to uncover a mist and find a hidden picture.

Apple Bobbing

This new daily debuted during the Halloween season with Vandebart Biggsby manning the station. At the Haunted Faire, a new location especially devoted to Halloween, applying bobbing is a new activity you can do once a day. Apple bobbing gives out random items, including a randomly awarded imposter apple avatar. So get out there and start bobbing for that avi!

Save the Wheel!

Who can forget this little event hosted by the Neopian Conservation Society? For a sizeable price, we were *cough*forced*cough*, I mean given the opportunity to donate our precious NP to the society to fix and hopefully, and eventually, keep these wheels from breaking down ever again: the Wheel of Misfortune, the Wheel of Monotony, the Wheel of Knowledge, the Wheel of Excitement, and the Wheel of Mediocrity. The cool thing about this event was that we didn’t just throw away our NP. We were given some amazing gifts in return for donating.

Style Showdown

The return of Style Showdown this year came with a few changes, one being the new host, Guildeford the Tonu. Frankly, I prefer our new host to last years. Look at that flowing luscious gold brown hair with that winning smile. Who can resist? I know my pets were all swooning over Guildeford. Just like last year, we had three themes to compete in, Masked in Mystery, Sugar & Spice, and Spaced. And at the end of all the mayhem and voting, Chronyx came ahead as the winner of Style Showdown, with the runner ups being Woloch, and _Balthamel_.

Give that Neopet a cape!

In a rare move by TNT, we were given the option to vote for one of seven non-wearable items. TNT made an old clothing item into wearable! After the dust cleared the Simple Fur Lined Cape was the wearable most Neopians chose to be made into something wearable. The lesson learned from this little event is that you hold on to all clothing items in case they become wearable later.

Finally, a GOOD Plot

Every year on the 20th of the month of Gathering, the whole of Neopia celebrates Faerie Festival. This year the celebration started out the same as every year except for the exception that all the Faeries at the Festival were mysteriously turned to stone, including the all important pie! With the announcement of the new plot, Neopians bonded together to help save Faerieland and the whole of Neopia. Yada yada yada, the culprit behind this whole plot turned out to be Xandra, who was turned to stone in the end. Faerieland crashed to earth because of all the power Xanda used and so now one can now find Faerieland lying in a crater on the surface of Neopia. Unfortunately, we still do not know the fate of the pie that turned to stone.

Dream Neopet Giveaway

To celebrate the holidays, TNT gave everyone the opportunity to enter one pet into the dream neopet giveaway. This event was a way for TNT to give 10 fortunate winners their dream pet on December 25th. To the disappointment of many, only 10 lucky ecstatic Neopians woke up to find one of their pet magically transformed into their dream combination. To the winners of this special event, I say congratulations. To the many who were disappointed that they weren’t chosen, including us, I hope Y13 has the same event.

Thanks for joining us

These are just a few events that happened in Y12 that have shaped the course of every Neopian in Neopia. We shouldn’t forget the fun we had, the games we played, and all the new friends and conversations that took place on the boards. Whether good or bad, Y12 was a year some people will never forget while others wish they could erase from memory. Whatever happened, we hope Y13 will be an even better year for all. Happy New Year, Everyone!!