Plants VS. Zombies - Zombie Videogame Review (X-Box 360)

While billed as a puzzler Plants VS. Zombies is actually far more of a tower defence game.  It is made by Popcap who deal in addictive, cheap, cheerful and mass market games.

For reasons unknown your house has been chosen for invasion by a group of polite zombies (they send you letters in advance to tell you their plans) who want to eat your brains.  You must defend your property by planting various plants with special attributes who are able to repel the attacking hordes.  The game is split into 5 different levels each made up of about 8 stages.  Your front garden is attacked by day and then night, then your back garden is attacked by day and night, finally the zombies bring the fight to your roof top.

Popcap really know how to make addictive games and this is no exception.  Levels begin with you needing to plant sunflowers to create sunlight orbs.  Your plants require sunlight orbs to be able to grow, each plant type requiring a different amount of orbs ranging from 0 to 300.  Plant types vary with many many different types (though you can at first only have 6 types at a time).  Chilli's burn up any enemies in its row, Cherries act as bombs while Peashooters fire out peas, Wall-Nuts create barricades to stop the zombies while Chompers eat zombies.  Night time sees a whole host of different items for use focusing on mushrooms such as the Puff-Shroom (that requires no sunlight orbs) and the Fume-Shroom which fires out spores capable of destroying enemy shields.

There is a large number of zombie types in the game.  Normal zombies come in a variety of styles, some have buckets on their heads, while others have traffic cones offering protection.  Along with these are lots of sporty zombies such as the pole vaulter who can jump over barricades, and the American Football zombie who runs.  Certain types can be defeated easier with the right plants in your set.  Ballooning zombies can be blown away, zombies in vehicles can have their tyres blown out while zombies on pogo sticks can have their stick magneted away.  By the games end you get some truly punishing zombies thrown at you.

Before each level  you get to see what type of zombies are going to be used so you can plan accordingly, you can also visit the shop (your crazy next door neighbours car) where new plant types can be brought as well as upgrades that let you select more plants to take into battle.  As well as the main adventure mode there are puzzle modes, endless mode, and mini games.

Breaking up each level is a stage or two of mini games.  These range from bowling to conveyor belt stages (where your plants are determined via a ever rolling belt).  Plants VS. Zombies is not a hard game, I never once failed a level, the addictiveness of the game is what keeps you playing.  Even after the games completion there are still the other modes to try out, and even now I can feel the call of the game.  Damn you Popcap!  Cartoon violence; I mean zombies do get decapitated and loose limbs but its all bright and cheerful.

Not your typical zombie game, recommended though if you have plenty of free time.

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