Game Review: Plants vs. Zombies

I hate zombies, I really do. I don't find them interesting or entertaining ... and then, there's Plants vs. Zombies.

Genre

Tower Defense / Strategy

Platform

Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi, PlayStation 3, PS Vita, Xbox 360

Gameplay/Mechanics

A tower defense game is where you plant down your offensive and defensive equipment in order to stop invaders. In the case of PvZ, your offensive weapons include a wide and varied array of pea shooters (yes, they shoot peas), Snow Peas (they slow down the zombies because of freezing properties), Fume-shrooms (gaseous mushrooms), and you must stop the oncoming zombie horde .... who are cute, animated cartoons who say "Brains?" as though they're confused about what they're doing. You earn resources for each plant via solar power that falls from the sky, or from sun flowers.  Yes, you read that right. Solar power comes from sun flowers.

The zombies, however, try to adapt, with bucket-armored zombies, football zombies, dolphin zombies, and dancing zombies who look nothing whatsoever like any celebrities living or deceased.

During the course of the game, you can buy additional seed types, extra slots so you can use more seed types during game play, etc. This money comes from minigames, or from standard gameplay, or a garden that you keep in a virtual greenhouse. Yes, money does grow on plants here.  Minigames include a level where you smash a vase, and get either a plant or a zombie, and you have to stop the zombies with what plants you find. There is also bowling for zombies, where you attack the zombies with Wall-Nuts (yes, they act as barricades during the game.)

Music/Graphics

The graphics are cartoonish, and the music is cute.  Would I buy the soundtrack?  I'm not sure. But darn it's cute.

Morals/Appropriateness

Take a look at this clip from the game. It's the ending credits. This is very much the game.

Video link

Community/Multiplayer

Some versions come with co-op feature where a friend can lead the zombie hordes against the plants.

Addiction Danger

Red alert, red alert.  This is going to be the most strange addictive game you have ever seen. I literally had to remove it from my computer because I just feel into it. I beat it repeatedly, playing through every level with enough skill to bulldoze every zombie, and I just kept playing.  Was I able to pull myself away? Sure.  But yeesh, this is a game to take in small doses.

Problems/Ending Comments

Nope, no problems. None at all.... okay, I hate that one of the sequels to this, PvZ: Garden Warfare, is an online only game. But that has nothing to do with this one.

ESRB Rating: E for Everyone.

My Rating: 10/10. Pure fun.

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Copyright 2014 John Konecsni