Plants vs. Zombies (Java)

Plants vs. Zombies (Java)
You wouldn't want zombies on your lawn with this version...
Genre(s): Tower Defense Platform(s): J2ME Developer(s): PopCap Games Publisher(s): Electronic Arts Country: United States

Plants vs. Zombies on Java is an official port developed by PopCap Games and published by Electronic Arts. It was released sometime between 2011 or 2012.

Why It Should Get Eaten By Zombies

1. Much content is removed. Examples are Crazy Dave's shop, Zen Garden, puzzles, minigames, and survivals. Thus having the Adventure mode as the only game mode.
2. Although the music at first glance is decent, the matter is that because it is the only music in whole game, it can start to tire you whether you like it or not.
3. Removed plants and zombies. Examples for plants: Plantern, Blover, Split Pea, Pumpkin, Magnet Shroom, Coffee Bean, Garlic, Umbrella Leaf, Marigold and upgrade plants, the latter ones for obvious reasons. Examples for zombies: Zomboni, Dolphin Rider Zombie, Bungee Zombie and Yeti Zombie.
4. Nonsense things at the point of animation and programming. How was it possible that they managed to animate Dr. Zomboss's giant robot (It's badly animated though) but not the hand that appears on the menu? Or how is it possible that they managed to do the night yard and pool, but not the night roof?
5. At level 5 of each zone where a minigame appears, they are replaced by normal levels.
6. Again, in the night pool scene, fog is removed.
   • Also, in level 10, there is no rain nor darkness.
7. In this version, there is no sound effects. Making the WIS #2 worse since the sound effects could serve to distract or make the levels more striking.
8. In the final battle, Dr. Zomboss has less toughness than normal (No, really. With 6 Jalapenos you can defeat him), making the last level exaggeratedly easy.
9. There may be moments of lag.
10. In this port the difficulty is twice as easy as in the other versions.
11. At the end of the last level, the whole game is restarted without saving any of your progress. So it will feel like a waste of time and also, you won't be able to take full advantage of the last unlockable plant in this version. The Melon-pult.
12. The main reason why it flopped and isn't so well known unlike the other versions is because this port was launched at a time when Java mobile phones were becoming obsolete compared to nowadays smartphones.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Despite the removal of several plants, this version brought a new balance and new strategies to the gameplay. For example, now you need Starfruits to defeat the Digger Zombie, it is essential to bring Cactus to defeat the Balloon Zombie, or it is easier to spam Sea Shrooms because they have a faster recharge.
2. Except for Gargantuar, Imp and Dr. Zomboss' Robot, the animations and designs of the plants and zombies are decent for a Java port and are admittedly better than the Nintendo DS ones.
3. We get the almanac since the early game, which in the other versions is obtained at the end of level 2-4.
4. At least they give you actual help from the menu unlike the PC version which just has fake help from the zombies.
5. Most of the bad reasons above are justified since it's a port of a mobile phone with poor performance and that at the time of its launch, it was already becoming obsolete.

Trivia

• Nowadays the "More Games" option is useless, but it's possible that at the time it was used to send us to PopCap's or EA official website.
• Originally it was going to include a bush on the right side of the lawn where the zombies would come out, as well as in the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, but it was scrapped for unknown reasons.
• Cattail's almanic entry can be found in the games text files, which implies upgrade plants and Crazy Dave's shop were gonna be in the port at one point.

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