Yes yes yes, I hear what you are seeing. That’s right, hear what you are seeing. I know we have already reviewed the desktop version of this game, but isn’t it fitting that the iPhone edition get the 7Bit treatment as well. Even though the game has been shrunk down to zombie hand sized proportion, none of this games charm has been lost.
PopCap games, how the gaming world should rue your ideas. Employers continue to moan that Twitter and Facebook have taken away valuable hours of the employees time however, if they were to look closer, they will see that it is in fact the fault of PopCap. Do you remember Bejeweled? I certainly do as it caused severe disruption to my GCSE exams. 4 hours playing, 1 hour revising. Seemed a fair ration to me, which was why i failed my maths exam. As the curse of Bejeweled continue to infect other systems, PopCap moved to pastures new.
In between Bejeweled and ZvP we got Peggle, another game that is equivalent to crack. Based on simplicity, Peggle continued to conquer all and enslave users with its cute graphics and perfect soundtrack. All in all, this brings us to Plants Vs Zombies, which I think is the quintessential iPhone game, and according to statistics, the world does too.
Plants Vs Zombies is a simple game where you have to stop Zombies from getting to your house by strategically placing plans in their way. These plants are your last line of defence (well before the lawnmowers) against the Zombies, and they are pretty powerful at stopping this menacing horde. PVZ is a spin on the tower defence mechanics, stop one criteria of character getting to the other side of your screen by placing different attributed instance of another character criteria. We have all seen this done before, but we have also seen many instances of this genre fail. So what sets PVZ apart from the rest?
The Humour
The idea of even setting plants against zombies must alert you to the fact that this game does not take itself too seriously and as you enter further into the game, this fact is reimbursed with a rubber stamp when you start receiving letters from the Zombies about an impending attack. This tongue in cheek attitude is a marvel to behold and is something that when done properly is up there with likes of the Monkey Island series. Humour is a lot harder to do than drama, just ask Adam Sandler.
The Implementation
The graphics, cartoony in style are very well executed and the soundtrack to the game compliments them perfectly. What was considered to be the biggest difficulty was the conversion of the game from a PC to iPhone. How would PvZ be used on the device, but I can say that PopCap have pulled it off perfectly, even if it did take a little too long. Bar a little bit of slowdown when there is a large wave of zombies, the conversion has gone fine. Touch events are spot on and there is no confusion about which square your plants are being placed on.
There is a sturdy adventure mission that consists of multiple levels from which you learn more about new types of Zombies that is unrelenting in how it ups its game when you think you have got the hang of it. These new Zombies constantly spice up the game premise, which could easily become sour and dull if it was wave after wave of the same Zombies, which is what some tower defence games have against them. But that is not enough for the game as some plants can only flower and power in the night-time, the explosive mushrooms being the key loss (I used these to destroy the zombie invaders all the time. BOOM), which means you have to change your whole game plan. On top of the adventure mode, the casual free play mode is dreams, however you do have to be man enough to finish the adventure mode. The package is neatly bundled together with a sturdy achievement system that has recently become default for any game that wants a chance in the video game market, let alone the iPhone app market.
Suitable for everyone, Plants vs Zombies is a great iPhone game and fully deserves its title of the quickest download app on the App Store. However, it does make you think, what’s next for PopCap? How are they going to outdo yet another great game? Only time will tell, but for now enjoy Plants vs Zombies until the Zombies invade that is.
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