Plants vs. Zombies PSN Review

PopCap Games have been the king of casual games with several hit games over the past several years. Plants vs. Zombies is another in their long line of hits. It is a tower defense game that has you planting plants of different types to try to fend off the waves of zombie attacks. Now I think it's safe to say that most people have probably played dozens of flash tower defense games over the years and it has become somewhat stale, however Plants vs. Zombies oozes with charm and a good variety of gameplay.


The gameplay is simple; you start off in your front yard which is set up on a grid with 5 rows that zombies will walk across. You will have to place attacking plants in order to kill the zombies. Some will shoot pellets which will cause the zombie to lose body parts until he is dead, some will eat the zombies, and some will blow up and fire the unsuspecting zombie. However, if the zombies get close enough they will eat the plants. Who knew zombies liked plants?

Most plants require a bit of sunlight to be able to be planted. During levels that occur during the day, sunlight comes down every so often; there are also plants which will produce sunlight even when it’s not day time. There are over 40 types of plants that you can choose from, ranging from offensive, defensive, and production types. You will not, however, have access to all of the plants during a round; you have to choose which ones you think will need during a particular round. With night time and day time you'll have to choose wisely, mushrooms won’t work during the day and will become non-selectable and seeing how sunlight is limited during the night you will have to choose plants that take less sunlight.


Zombies number in the 20s with several creative types that make it pretty fun to watch for which ones come out. You’ll see zombies with traffic cones and buckets on their heads that add to their defenses. One of the levels includes a pool, where there will be zombies with inflatable duck tubes and zombies riding dolphins. However one type is missing, a Michael Jackson thriller look alike, unfortunately they were force to remove the homage based on it but instead we get a disco zombie who will rise up back up dancers to help him.

When you’re done with the main campaign there are several mini games, puzzles, and survival modes. Puzzles include smashing vases which can either contain a zombie or a plant, another one is the ability to control the zombies and help them get to your house. Each of these games earn you coins to use at your crazy neighbor's shop located on the back of his car, which will get you power ups, more slots for more plants, and other defensive items.


Conclusion:
Plants vs. Zombies might be deceptively simple, yet it is extremely fun because of the variety in both zombies and plants. Little touches, like the duck inner tube and zombies delivering notes warning that they will attack, enhance this game with tons of charm. PopCap continues to show that they know how to produce such great casual games and this is just another one of them.


The Good
- Variety
- Charming

The Bad
- Thriller Zombie

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