FTG Game Review: Plants Vs Zombies

Being the “nine-to-five” gamer I am, I am always looking for something that I can pick up and play. You know, those games that I can sneak in between meetings, or while waiting in the check out line. Being that kind of gamer, I can fully understand what PopCap shoots for when they release any title. They have attacked color matching with Zuma and Peggle (think Plinko, if it were AWESOME), as well as the stylish and comical tower defense joy that is Plants vs. Zombies (PvZ).

A quick background on tower defense games before we get into the guts (pun intended) of PvZ. Tower Defense games place you (the gamer) against waves of enemies who want nothing more than to destroy your tower/village/random object of interest. In order to fend them off, you are given an array of tower than will shoot, freeze, blow-up, and other wise dispatch these foes. PopCap was creative and gives the user plants that serve as your defenders, everything from Pea Shoots and Potato mines to Wall-Nuts and Cabbage-Pults are at your disposal.

In your everyday Tower Defense game the waves of foes all show up in nice neat groups and follow a set path that you place your towers on. This is not the case in PvZ as the zombies are attacking your front/back yard as well as your roof top, each being its own level with a night and day version, in loose waves following one of six lanes. What this does is forces the player to make sure that every row in the yard (or roof) has enough firepower to mow down what ever may come its way.

As for the zombies you face, PopCap as always has out done themselves. The zombies come in just as odd varieties as the plants you can use to defend your home. There is a Red Leather Jacket wearing zombie who will break out some moves and be joined by back up dancers, a “thrilling” site the first time you see it. The Bobsled zombies who will crash any and all plants in there way, but only if they have ice to move on from the Zamboni driving zombie (who really gives a zombie a Zamboni). Finally, my personal favorite zombie would have to be the bucket zombies who found it fit to place a bucket on their head as a helmet in-order to fend off the peas, corn and cabbage that is being hurled their way.

In all, the game is great on both the iPhone (where I originally played it), as well as the PC. If you pick up the PC version, you have access to the build a zombie feature that will let you make your own zombies who will show up in game (from time to time), as well as a Zen Garden mode that I have yet to unlock.

I have to give this game a 7.5 out of 10, as it is cute and fun. If you are still not convinced that this is a game you need, then I suggest you listen to the games theme song and then ask yourself, “Do you want zombies on your lawn?”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N1_0SUGlDQ

EDITOR’S NOTE: Don’t be afraid, hardcore peeps, this is a solid and strangely addictive game that won’t take away any points from your hardcore “street cred”. Popcap was nice enough to give us a copy of the game, along with most of their titles, for review.