Full disclosure: the inspiration to scribble this down came from reading about it on My Kind Of Phone, the Windows Phone UK blog, and discovering that by simply tapping out my witterings on a keyboard I could get one of those shiny new X-Box thingies, plus another Windows phone, which I fully intend to force on one of my smart phone-lacking associates. It ought to be stressed that had I not been doing this, I would have been playing Plants Vs Zombies, so morally I think I’m still in the clear.
Now might possibly not be the best time to go skinny-dipping
Tower defense games are something that I’ve never really got into, beyond a stretch at Christmas playing Crackdown: Project Sunburst (which used Bing Maps to simulate the delightful scenario of tooling up your own neighbourhood with rocket launchers and machine guns to defend it from what are effectively zombies and terrorists), though I suppose I have spent quite a lot of time observing the PC version of PvZ, such that I was already familiar with the notion of root vegetables lobbing produce at the undead, but it didn’t seem compelling enough to get on my desktop. And then it rocked up on the Windows Phone Marketplace, tempting me with its absurdly reasonable price, and I realised that the lure of killing the walking dead by throwing peas at them (and being able to do it on the train, no less) was too strong to resist.
So what does it have going for it? PvS starts with the simplicity of the tower defense concept, chucks in some ever-popular zombies and then, in a fit of glorious whimsy, decides that your defenses will be a plucky combination of flowers, mushrooms and whole foods. You use sun to build your plants, and bobbing sunflowers and golden mushrooms obligingly provide it. They are protected by walnut and pumpkin shields, while stout pea pods shoot down the approaching shufflers. Your arsenal of deadly flora grows as you progress through the game, allowing you to detonate cherries and ‘Doom-Shrooms’ with merry abandon or freeze zombies in their tracks with a glowering blue fungus. All of these are lovingly animated, simple and affecting, giving your plants personality with nothing but a cartoon face. Your sunflowers wear huge smiles, while the red chilli looks like it’s about to blow a blood vessel- and I can’t help but feel Catholic levels of guilt when the walnuts start to cry as the zombies chow down on them. Your groaning adversaries are equally delightful, staggering towards your house in at least a dozen varieties. Dropping your garden variety zombie is easy enough, but soon they start putting traffic cones and buckets on their heads and, ingeniously, finding ways around your defenses with balloons and pogo sticks. Every now and again there’s even a disco zombie who cuts some moves on your lawn- it was with great sorrow that I learned that this guy had previously been Michael Jackson, only being changed for the Game of the Year edition.
Grisly ghouls from every tomb!
This tone of the cheerfully bizarre is resplendent throughout, and sums up what makes Plants vs Zombies great: charm. This is an adorable little game, forged by minds which appear to have been gently twisted enough to seed their brand of funny throughout the entire thing. Your in-game guide is a burbling bulk who self-identifies as Crazy Dave and whose random pronouncements are alarming and amusing in equal measure. The Almanac which details the ins-and-outs of the zombies and plants you’ve encountered is a goldmine of wonderful little descriptions, like that of Bucket Zombie’s: “Buckethead Zombie always wore a bucket. Part of it was the assert his uniqueness in an uncaring world. Mostly he just forgot it was there in the first place.” The bright blocks of primary colours and the cute animations combine with the addictiveness of the game itself to lodge it into your brain like a joyous javelin, to the point that it becomes difficult to stop playing even when crossing the road (nb. playing games in traffic: hazardous). This has displaced L.A. Noire, Halo: Reach and Assassin’s Creed 2: Brotherhood on my WP7′s big brother, the X-Box 360. That speaks volumes.
Give it a go- you won’t regret it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to the rooftop levels and that damned bungee zombie is doing my head in.
You Should Play ‘Plants Vs Zombies’
Full disclosure: the inspiration to scribble this down came from reading about it on My Kind Of Phone, the Windows Phone UK blog, and discovering that by simply tapping out my witterings on a keyboard I could get one of those shiny new X-Box thingies, plus another Windows phone, which I fully intend to force on one of my smart phone-lacking associates. It ought to be stressed that had I not been doing this, I would have been playing Plants Vs Zombies, so morally I think I’m still in the clear.
Now might possibly not be the best time to go skinny-dipping
Tower defense games are something that I’ve never really got into, beyond a stretch at Christmas playing Crackdown: Project Sunburst (which used Bing Maps to simulate the delightful scenario of tooling up your own neighbourhood with rocket launchers and machine guns to defend it from what are effectively zombies and terrorists), though I suppose I have spent quite a lot of time observing the PC version of PvZ, such that I was already familiar with the notion of root vegetables lobbing produce at the undead, but it didn’t seem compelling enough to get on my desktop. And then it rocked up on the Windows Phone Marketplace, tempting me with its absurdly reasonable price, and I realised that the lure of killing the walking dead by throwing peas at them (and being able to do it on the train, no less) was too strong to resist.
So what does it have going for it? PvS starts with the simplicity of the tower defense concept, chucks in some ever-popular zombies and then, in a fit of glorious whimsy, decides that your defenses will be a plucky combination of flowers, mushrooms and whole foods. You use sun to build your plants, and bobbing sunflowers and golden mushrooms obligingly provide it. They are protected by walnut and pumpkin shields, while stout pea pods shoot down the approaching shufflers. Your arsenal of deadly flora grows as you progress through the game, allowing you to detonate cherries and ‘Doom-Shrooms’ with merry abandon or freeze zombies in their tracks with a glowering blue fungus. All of these are lovingly animated, simple and affecting, giving your plants personality with nothing but a cartoon face. Your sunflowers wear huge smiles, while the red chilli looks like it’s about to blow a blood vessel- and I can’t help but feel Catholic levels of guilt when the walnuts start to cry as the zombies chow down on them. Your groaning adversaries are equally delightful, staggering towards your house in at least a dozen varieties. Dropping your garden variety zombie is easy enough, but soon they start putting traffic cones and buckets on their heads and, ingeniously, finding ways around your defenses with balloons and pogo sticks. Every now and again there’s even a disco zombie who cuts some moves on your lawn- it was with great sorrow that I learned that this guy had previously been Michael Jackson, only being changed for the Game of the Year edition.
Grisly ghouls from every tomb!
This tone of the cheerfully bizarre is resplendent throughout, and sums up what makes Plants vs Zombies great: charm. This is an adorable little game, forged by minds which appear to have been gently twisted enough to seed their brand of funny throughout the entire thing. Your in-game guide is a burbling bulk who self-identifies as Crazy Dave and whose random pronouncements are alarming and amusing in equal measure. The Almanac which details the ins-and-outs of the zombies and plants you’ve encountered is a goldmine of wonderful little descriptions, like that of Bucket Zombie’s: “Buckethead Zombie always wore a bucket. Part of it was the assert his uniqueness in an uncaring world. Mostly he just forgot it was there in the first place.” The bright blocks of primary colours and the cute animations combine with the addictiveness of the game itself to lodge it into your brain like a joyous javelin, to the point that it becomes difficult to stop playing even when crossing the road (nb. playing games in traffic: hazardous). This has displaced L.A. Noire, Halo: Reach and Assassin’s Creed 2: Brotherhood on my WP7′s big brother, the X-Box 360. That speaks volumes.
Give it a go- you won’t regret it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to the rooftop levels and that damned bungee zombie is doing my head in.