Plants vs. Zombies (iPhone)

Feb 262010

Ok, I’ve talked about this game a¬†enough already but I feel that a review is required. ¬†While discussing this game with a co-worker the other day, we had a complete conversation that consisted of phrases like, “the stars make it almost too easy to decimate the zambonies,” and, “if you don’t plant a giant tator on the frontline, you might as well just hand over your peashooters!” ¬†I haven’t been this into a game since Bioshock. And who knew that $3 would bring back to being fanatical about a game? But damn it if it didn’t. ¬†And where other games I’ve played on the iPhone fail (Alive 4 Ever, all the FPS’s I’ve played on the platform), Plants vs. Zombie has consumed the last five days of my life. ¬†Hell, last Saturday I ran my battery down before I’d even had lunch!

Ok, ok, I know what you’re thinking- ¬†What the hell is so fun about plants and zombies? ¬†I can easily say that my favor towards Real-Time Strategy games assists in my experience here. ¬†You basically build up enough sunshine to plant various lines of vegetative defenses to ward off a constantly marching army of zombies. ¬†The game consists of five or six locations, each with 9 ¬†mini-levels. ¬†These areas can vary from your front yard, back yard (with pool), and the roof with each location getting a night and day variant. ¬†This comes into play when certain plants, such as mushrooms, only operate at night. Here’s a look at what the game board looks like-

Plants on the left, zombies approach from the right.

Plants on the left, zombies on the right.

So let’s talk about the plants shall we? ¬†I haven’t unlocked everything but I have most of the plants at this point. ¬†For the daytime games, you have your average peashooter, freezing peashooter, a double and triple peashooter, and then a forwards and backwards peashooter for when zombies try to backdoor your ass. ¬†Later on, you can get a fire pit to place in front of the peashooters so that you are, in effect, fire ballin’ zombies. ¬†For defenses, you can plant potatoes that the zombies gnaw on while your peashooters go to town. ¬†There are more offensive and defensive weapons than this, but you get the gist of it. ¬†For generating building materials, you can plant two kinds of sunflower plants. ¬†The regular ones spit out sunshine, which you can use to build more plants. ¬†The coin sunflowers spit out, you guessed it, coins which come in handy for purchasing new plants.

Speaking of ¬†shopping, here’s a look at the plant store and its wildly hot shopkeeper, Crazy Dave. ¬†I don’t know why this asshole is selling plants and extra inventory slots out of a hatchback, but Jeebus bless him for doing so. The only thing I will warn is that you’ll never be told if you can’t actually use some of the items at the time you purchase them. ¬†For instance, I bought some sort of gatling gun device that I still can’t… wait hang on a second. ¬†Ok I’m back. I can use it, and it rules. ¬†So yeah, everything in the back of this dude’s car is awesome. ¬†I sure would like to know what that $30,000 item is but I guess I’ll just have to earn it by decimating zombies.

Speaking of the undead, these guys are just relentless! ¬†Seriously though, I was really surprised at just how many variations of zombies are in this game. ¬†You’ve got the standard zombie that just lumbers on. ¬†But then you’ve got one with a road cone on its head, another with a bucket on its head, and then there’s a slew of zombies that hold screen doors as shields or get really pissed when you knock the newspaper out of their hands. ¬†On top of that, there are zamboni riding zombies, football zombies, pole vaulting zombies, and even an old man zombie that rides a Rascal complete with a pea launcher. ¬†I won’t ruin the final boss, but he’s impressive.

The levels progress rather normally for the most part. ¬†The fifth and ninth mini-level of each location will usually change things up to keep it interesting. ¬†My favorite of these was a level where you’re not given an inventory and plants continually become available by way of a conveyor belt. ¬†You pick and choose your items as they become available. ¬†This seems easy since it’s an endless supply of items but you’ll find that there’s strategy in which items you choose to utilize before others. ¬†In fact, with all levels there’s more strategy than you’ll anticipate. ¬†Trust me, the first time you forget to bring something to fight off the zombie on a pogo-stick, you’ll probably throw your iPhone through the wall.

So is there any downside to this game. ¬†If I had to point out anything, there are two- battery life and iPhone performances limitations. ¬†Now keep in mind that I have a nearly three year old iPhone 2G with an inferior processor and battery efficiency. Something tells me the 3Gs model handles the large amount of sprites on screen with ease. ¬†My 2G though just chokes on some of the levels. ¬†And I found that I could run the battery down after about 3-4 hours of play. ¬†So although I do see these as negatives, not everyone will experience them. ¬†And if you play the game on PC or Mac, the game has no flaws whatsoever and as I understand it will even mow your yard and walk the dog!

So seriously, check this game out. ¬†It’s goofy, addicting, quick, fun, and easy to pick up and run with. ¬†For me personally, it’s a blessing that this game was released for the iPhone just a few weeks before SXSW as the wife and I are about to be standing in lines for hours. ¬†Plants vs. Zombies is highly recommended and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.