Plant vs Zombie : A Simple Game but Fun

Plants vs. Zombies is the latest game from Popcap games, and it entails fighting off hordes of zombies with your army of plants. It's essentially a tower defense game in which you construct an army of plants to help fight off the zombie invasion. Popcap is known for their past casual games, and Plants vs. Zombies is no different. It's a rather easy game, and you can plow through the main game in a few sittings, but it does offer some additional modes and mini-games for those looking for more zombie killing action.

The gameplay style changes from level to level. Some will be standard tower defense levels, others will have unlimited resources and be governed by a conveyor belt that drops off plants you need to place, and others will consist of mini-games like whack-a-mole that will test your reflexes and speed things up a bit.

The game is more on the humorous side, and it might be the cutest zombie game ever created. I can say that I was confounded by the initial offering, and the game did keep me playing all the way to the end, but the main game is over before you know it, and even though Popcap claims that there are 50 levels in the game, you will rip through them incredibly fast. The touted 50 levels becomes more of a pretense since a slew of mini-games are included as levels. Despite the casual game style, I was able to discern a little bit of reverence for Popcap, since they made such a fun and unique game.

In order to fight off the hordes of contextualized zombies, you will first need to pick very basic plants like Peashooters that fire peas in a straight line. The Peashooters will be coupled with Sunflowers which allow you to generate sun, which is your main resource for being able to plant an assortment of flowers and other defenses. Sun particles will also drop from the sky during the daylight missions, which can give you an added boost to your available sun. Upon the completion of levels, you will be blessed with a new plant or item to add to your repertoire.

It will not take you long to amass a large number of plants, but one strategic element of the game is that you can only take so many types of plants into levels with you. You start off with six slots, but you will later be able to upgrade your slots to take even more types of plants into the levels.

Now onto one of the best parts of the game: the zombies!! Popcap has included a nice array of zombies in the game. Each one has some type of strategy to take down, and just when you think you've got things under control, a new zombie will be welcomed to the fold, and you will need to re-think your strategies a bit.

The zombies range from your standard, slow paced, walking zombies, to eccentric bungie jumping zombies that will drop down and steal your plants from right under your nose. There are 25 total zombies, plus one hidden zombie that can be attained. I also feel compelled to tell you about the Michael Jackson-like Thriller zombies that surface on certain levels. Their appearance is quite funny the first time you see them.

As enticing as this game setup may sound, keep in mind that this is a rather basic game with a simple point and click interface. You will not be searching for keyboard shortcuts. The entire game is played with mouse clicks, so you can easily play the game one handed, without any trouble.

All things considered, I did enjoy Plants vs. Zombies for the most part, but the corny humor wears thin after a while and the condemnable length of the main game knocks it down a peg.