Club Peguin

Club Peguin (the correct way to spell it is Club Penguin) is a fun online game and virtual world where you play the part of a penguin who lives on an island with many other penguins. You can chat with other people, play mini-games, and attend lots of events and parties. The game is run by Disney and is very safe and appropriate for young kids.

Paid subscribers can purchase clothing outfits for their penguin. Each month, there's a new Club Penguin clothing catalog filled with new things to buy. There are even secret hidden items in each catalog. Only paid subscribers (Club Peguin calls them members) can purchase clothing. Non-members can only get the occasional free clothing items given away during special events and parties. Many clothing items are retired each month from the catalogs so certain items attain rare collector status in the game.

In order to purchase these virtual items in the game, you need to use Club Penguin coins. These coins are earned by playing the different mini-games around the island. There are a lot of mini-games to play, and most are single-player while a few allow Club Penguin players to compete head-to-head. In general, you earn points for doing well in each game and at the end of each mini-game you get a number of coins equal to 10% of your score. You can save your coins, up to 1 million, for purchasing items later or spend them right away. Even though non-members cannot spend coins, they are allowed to earn them and save them up.

There are also celebrity penguins who appear from time to time in the game. The most famous is Captain Rockhopper, a friendly pirate penguin who appears every few months aboard his ship, the Migrator. Every time he comes to visit, players try to find him as he moves from server to server. He can be tough to spot, but if you have a good Rockhopper Tracker, you can improve your chances of finding him. If you do, you can get a special autographed player background card for your penguin. Following the success of the Rockhopper appearances, Club Penguin began to introduce more celebrity penguins into the game, including Gary the Gadget Guy, Aunt Arctic, the Club Penguin Band and a newer character known as Sensei.

There are also lots of Club Penguin toys and merchandise available online and in stores. Most toys and merchandise, such as the books, come with codes that can unlock special or rare items in the online game. There's even a Nintendo DS Club Penguin game called Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force. This game works as a standalone game on the DS, but also allows players to access a special secret room on the web site.