Nerd Mentality

Plants Vs. Zombies

Posted July 9th 2009 by Brandon Schmidt.

This year the market has been flooded with games in the tower defense genre, particularly on iPhone.  While most of the games are good for a quick bit of entertainment, one game really shone through the bunch and that was Plants Vs. Zombies from PopCap Games.  The same group that brought you Peggle which is another favorite of mine after having downloaded it through XBLA.  This game really deserves a full review treatment, but at this point has been out for a few months.  At the very least I thought it deserved a blog post just so I could get the word out about how much fun it is.

If you're not familiar with the tower defense genre of games, they basically have you defending some goal or object against waves of enemies.  You usually do so by purchasing some kind of defensive/offensive objects that help eliminate what's coming at you.  In the case of this game, you're using a variety of plants to defend your home against hordes of zombies.  Between levels you choose a subset of your plant collection to bring into battle.

What sets this game apart from the rest is the humor.  The premise itself is bizzare, but the execution is very well done.  You have a variety of plants each with their own ability to attack, slow, blow up, block, etc. the enemy.  As you play through the game you unlock newer plants with more twists on those abilities that will help you against the ever-escalating difficulty of the enemies and the environment.  As with the plants, the zombies that come your way also will increase in their ability to get past your defenses and into your home to taste your delicious brains.  You start against your basic zombies, but it progresses to zombies with bucket helmets, zombies with snowmobiles, and zombies with inner tubes(for the levels with your pool), among many many other varieties.  It's difficult to express how funny the game is as the zombies seem to be getting smarter in their own way.  You really have to play it to appreciate it.

In addition to your standard levels, the game will occasionally throw in sort of a mini-game level with different challenges.  For instance, on some you're given wallnuts which you must use to bowl over the incoming zombie horde.  In another, you're given random plants at certain time intervals and you're tasked with using them carefully and timely to fend off the attackers.

The animation and sound in the game is also well done.  Although it means you've lost, the sounds of a zombie getting through your defenses, entering your house, and eating your brain off-scene never get tiring.

The game has some longetivity to it as well.  Once you've beaten the game once, you can go back through and play again, but this time some of your plants for each level are already chosen for you.  There are also other modes you can unlock including Survival(wave after wave), Puzzle(including one game that has you as the zombies), and others.  They've even included a Zen Garden in which you can raise plants that in turn give you money to buy you upgrades for your plants in the main game.

Funny, I never intended for this to turn into a full review, but the game's so good the words just flowed.  Go buy this game now; I won't say it again.  I picked it up on Steam a couple months ago for $10 and for all I know they might be doing a similar deal.  It's more than worth it, and I can't wait to see what PopCap comes up with next.

| Comments (2) | Permalink