Plants Vs Zombies is one of the latest releases from the quality famous company PopCap, known for their small, quirky and addictive games. Previous games which you may have heard of include Bejewelled, Book Worm, Zuma and many more, all of these games are extremely high quality and completely addictive because they are so much fun and have so much to offer. Plants Vs Zombies is no exception; it takes the tower defence game genre into a whole new league with unique weapons/characters and so many extra features. All with a liberal dash of humour.
The Plants Vs Zombies game made its debut on the PC but since then has been released on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Android, iOS, Windows Phone 7 and more! The game has been a huge success due to its casual game play style and standard PopCap low price.
The latest release of Plants Vs Zombies has been on Microsoft’s new Windows Phone operating system, dubbed PvZ in the marketplace, the game costs £3.99 and is described as follows: “ Get ready to soil your plants – Plants vs. Zombies is coming to Windows Phone 7! A mob of fun-loving zombies is about to invade your home, and the only defence is your arsenal of plants. Use peashooters, wall-nuts, cherry bombs and more to mulchify 26 types of zombies before they reach your front door. The fun never dies!”
The Windows Phone version features the same 50 Adventure levels as in the PC version, battling through day, night, fog, in a swimming pool and on the rooftop. With 49 powerful plants at your disposal you can use to take down 26 different types of “fun-loving zombies”. Hey- they only want to eat your brains- give ‘em a break people!
Along with the standard campaign/adventure mode the game also includes 20 Mini-Games, Puzzle mode and the relaxing Zen Garden mode where you can tend to the plants you find to earn more money. One feature missing from the mobile version compared to the PC version is the Endless game mode feature, which features standard levels which are harder which you must complete until you finally unlock the endless mode where the fun doesn’t end till you get taken by the Zombies! This game mode was a great feature on the PC and console versions so it’s a little disappointing to see it left out, likely due to the hardware constraints of mobile hardware today.
Even though the standard Endless move has been left out of the mobile version, Endless modes of the two fantastic Mini-Games “Vase Breaker” and “I Zombie” are included which will keep you entertained for ages, even after the main adventure mode is complete.
The main concept behind the game is you are defending your house from Zombies, you cannot let any zombie get past your defences otherwise they will “Eat your brains” and you lose! The standard levels are on your houses front lawn which is split up into 5 rows which the Zombies attack from horizontally. You soil your plants in each of the rows to defend against the Zombies.
In order to place your plants you need to collect sun which will fall from the sky in the day time levels but the main source of your sun will be from placing sun flowers which emit sun tokens periodically to allow you to plant. The more sun flowers you plant, the more sun you’ll get but the lawn is split up into a grid so you don’t want to fill it all up with sun flowers which cannot attack the zombies!
As you progress through Adventure mode you unlock new plants, Zombies and areas where you must plant to fight off the Zombie such as the back yard which has a pool in it and even the roof! It’s a great campaign that keeps you coming back for more! Once you have completed it you can go through it again to collect more money or plants for your Zen garden. If you do this then 3 plants for each level you play are chosen automatically to make it a little more fun and different the second time round.
The Zen garden feature is a place to store the plants you collect where ever you play Plants and Zombies, you feed and tend to your plants as they grow bigger and bigger at which point they start spitting out money from time to time. Having lots of plants can easily keep your bank full in the game! Alternately you can sell them whenever you want, selling them when they are fully grown will give you a hefty lump sum!
Money you earn throughout the game can be used to buy new plants and awesome power-ups for existing ones bringing new strategies into the game. Supplies for the Zen garden can also be bought here.
Overall Plants vs. Zombies for Windows Phone is a fantastic game, if you haven’t played it before then it will keep you entertained for hours on end as it will keep you coming back for more. Even if you have played it before the portability is a big plus meaning you can take it anywhere you want an play casually! At the end of the day though, this game has won numerous awards for a reason and everyone should get a chance to play it.