Zombie Hordes at their Cutest in Plants v Zombies

Defense-type games are common, particularly in the casual games market. Enemies move from one side of the screen to the other, or go from a start point to an end point along a path. Zombies are also nothing new to games, from free browser games through to Valve’s Left 4 Dead.

So it looks like PopCap is going to be treading some rather derivative ground with Plants v Zombies, which is, essentially, a zombie defense game. But I guarantee you haven’t seen a zombie game like, or a defense game as good as, PvZ.

Sun, which you click on to collect, falls from the sky periodically, but that really isn’t enough to get a good tan, let alone fend off hordes of undead flesh-eaters. You can plant Sunflowers to get more sun though. In the night levels you have to rely on Sunshrooms and Sunflowers entirely, as the sky doesn’t drop sun at night. The game takes place in different sections outside your house, some levels during the day and some at night. You can use different plants at night: Mushrooms.

You can use Mushrooms in the day but you need to wake them up by planting a coffee bean on them. If this is starting to sound like a lot of plants and abilities to keep track of, don’t worry. You start the game with one plant and get a new one for almost every level you complete of PvZ’s Adventure mode. By the time you have a whole pack of plants to choose from, you have a good idea of how to use them.

The Zombies follow a similar pattern. You start out fighting one kind of zombie, and they become more varied as you go on. The depth of strategy achieved in choosing which plants to use based on the enemies you see in each level’s brief introduction is really satisfying, but the gentle introduction of these elements keeps the game very accessible. It’s easy to pick up and hard to put down: the addictive properties which are another hallmark of great casual games.

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