Plants vs. Zombies

Plants vs. Zombies (video game)
🎵There's a zombie on your lawn!🎵
Genre(s): Tower defense Strategy Platform(s): Microsoft Windows MacOS iOS Xbox Live Nintendo DS PlayStation 3 Android Amazon BlackBerry PlayStation 5 Release: May 5, 2009 Developer(s): PopCap Games Publisher(s): PopCap Games (originally) Electronic Arts (after being acquired) Series: Plants vs. Zombies Successor: Plants vs. Zombies 2

Plants vs. Zombies is a tower defense video game released in 2009 by PopCap Games. In the game, players must defend their homes from waves of invading zombies using an arsenal of plants with unique abilities.

Why It Rocks

1. The game gives a playful and goofy twist to the zombie genre by introducing plants as the main defenders against hordes of invading zombies.
2. The game's cartoony graphics create a visually appealing and comedic atmosphere, despite being a zombie game.
3. The music composed by Laura Shigihara adds an extra layer of charm and enjoyment to the game, with catchy tunes that perfectly match the theme of the game.
4. "Plants vs. Zombies" features various fun game modes, including the Adventure mode, mini-games, and puzzles, providing a diverse and engaging gameplay experience.
5. The game introduces a wide variety of plants, each with its unique abilities and strategies, making the process of choosing and utilizing them both exciting and strategic.
6. The creative zombie powers and abilities add depth to the gameplay, as players encounter different types of zombies with distinct traits and behaviors.
7. The main antagonist and final boss, Dr. Zomboss, brings humor and entertainment to the game with his eccentric personality and quirky appearance in the final level.
8. The in-game "Suburban Almanac" provides players with useful information about the plants, zombies, and game mechanics, presented in a humorous and enjoyable manner.
9. Fluent, responsive and easy-to-learn controls.
10. You can get 40 plants in Adventure mode and 9 from Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies, resulting in almost 50 plants in total.
11. This game introduced Crazy Dave, the deuteragonist and most likable video game character through the PvZ universe because of his wackiness.
12. There's a Zen Garden, where you can take care of plants by watering or anything for their needs so that they are happy to live, and in exchange they give you money which varies from only 10c to a diamond, worth 1000 coins.
13. Challenging game achievements, which gives you something to do when you beat the game.
14. The game has a good ending where the zombies stop trying to eat your brains after you defeat Dr. Zomboss, and they decide to make a music video with you instead.
15. After beating the game, you get rewarded with a great music video with a catchy song.
16. Lots of plants that can help you in great ways, some good examples are:
    • The Sunflower gives you sun so you can afford to plant more plants.
    • The Wall-nut sacrifices itself as a shield so the plants behind it have more time to defeat zombies.
    • The Snow Pea slows down zombies so it can defeat them without them being able to attack in time.
    • The Plantern helps you clear fog so you can see zombies hidden by the fog.
    • The Cherry Bomb explodes zombies so other plants have less to deal with.
    • The Blover blows away flying enemies and the fog.
    • The Cabbage Pult lops cabbage at zombies and can throw cabbage over walls, something that is important in the Roof level.
    • The Jalapeno sets a whole row on fire, instantly burning any zombies in the lane.
    • The Cattail shoots homing spikes at zombies.
17. Along with Angry Birds, it became one of the most recognized mobile games and helped make mobile games popular, and is still being played to this day, and as a matter of fact is one of the most recognized games in general.
18. If a zombie were to get past all your plants, you wouldn't have to worry much since a lawnmower that was hiding behind the plants would be waiting for them and will run that zombie over, along with other zombies in the lane.
19. The Nintendo DS/DSiWare ports run surprisingly well, even with hardware limitations.
20. The PS3 and 360 versions have exclusive modes such as co-op mode and versus mode.
21. Physical copies of the PS3 and 360 version comes with the games Heavy Weapon, Peggle and Peggle Nights, and all are great games.

Bad Qualities

1. The game's pacing can be perceived as slow compared to its sequel Plants vs. Zombies 2.
2. The iOS and Android versions of the game may lack certain features available in other platforms, such as the "Zombie on Your Lawn" music video, which can be disappointing for players on those devices.
3. Some plants in the game have less desirable features or abilities. For example, the Sun-Shrooms provide limited sun at the beginning and take a long time to grow into regular sun-producing plants. Similarly, the Chomper takes a considerable amount of time to chew up zombies, which can be frustrating for players looking for quick and efficient defense.
4. Certain zombies in the game can be particularly annoying or challenging to deal with. Examples include the Digger Zombie, who quickly moves to the other side of the lawn, the Zomboni, who can crush plants and is immune to freezing, and the Bungee Zombie, who steals plants, adding an additional layer of difficulty to gameplay.
5. The graphics may be considered dated by some players, especially when compared to more recent games with advanced visual designs and effects.
6. Some of the achievements are pretty difficult to get, Lucky Spin is an example.
7. Some plants can be a bit overpowered if you have many of them on your lawn, like Puff-shroom (because it's easy to have many of them in your lawn), Cattail and Starfruit for example. This removes a lot of difficulty from the game, which in itself is very easy.
8. The Java version is not as good as the other versions, as it lacks many features and the fun that the other versions had.

Reception

Plants vs. Zombies received positive reviews. According to Metacritic, the only version that did not receive "generally positive reviews" or "universal acclaim" is the DSiWare version, which received "mixed or average reviews". It has since been considered one of the greatest video games of all time. Some reviewers found the core mechanic straightforward, but the game itself challenging.