Plants vs. Zombies is a PopCap game.

Yes, all the things you’re thinking right now…I thought them too. It’s not that there aren’t fun PopCap games out there…but they aren’t exactly what you expect to see as a review on Binge Gamer – or on most gaming sites, for that matter. But PvZ is different. Really different. I actually can’t believe that it isn’t available on consoles yet. I’m ashamed to be addicted to a freakin’ PopCap game.

PvZ is a classic tower defense game. Basically, you have a yard that’s divided into squares. On one side of the yard: your house and, inside, your brains. On the other side of the yard: zombies who want your brains. All that stands between you is a bunch of flowers and mushrooms that you need to plant as quickly as possible to take out the undead. You kinda figure it out as you go. I mean, the help page isn’t very helpful:

Some of the plants shoot peas or corn kernals. Others explode when touched. Still others act as hard-to-penetrate barriers. The key to the whole game is planting sunflowers, which toss you little suns. You need a certain number of suns to plant things, so you’re racing against the clock at times.

I mean, sure the zombies are slow Romero-like creatures, but they aren’t all the same. As you advance through the levels, you’ll get new plants, but you’ll also encounter new zombies, increasingly getting harder to kill of course. The lawn space changes too – sometimes you’re playing at night, sometimes you’re on the roof, sometimes you have a pool in the way…you get the picture.

The zombies themselves are hilarious. They just mumble “Braaaains” as they walk along and they pick up tools like traffic cones and inner tubes to fight you. At the end of each level, they send you a note, which are equally hilarious. The developers incorporated really smart and funny pop culture (mostly gaming) references as well. For example, one level is entitled “All Your Brains R Belong To Us” and one of the zombies is obviously supposed to be Michael Jackson.

That’s not where it ends though. As you play, you unlock not just better plants and harder enemies, but also mini-games and puzzle games. These are variations on the main game. To give you an idea, one of the mini-games lets you play as the zombies, trying to destroy the plants. As you play the campaign mode and the minigames, you also collect money, which you can use to buy better weapons and other useful items. To top it off, you can also keep a garden, where you can grow plants to sell for even more money. There’s just SO much to do in this game – it is definitely worth the $20 price tag.

Yes, I really just admitted that I paid $20 for a PopCap game. And I don’t regret it.

I already beat the game’s adventure mode. I’ve probably sunk more than 10 hours into the game…I really should have kept track. There were some long nights. In any case, when I finished, I was kind of like “meh…now what,” since there’s no hard mode. Then I clicked to start the adventure mode over on level 1-1…and there IS a hard mode. The game randomly gives you three starting weapons, instead of being able to pick them all yourself – and believe me, in this game, that’s a big deal. So now I want to beat the game again to see if it gets even harder on the third play-through.

I really can’t recommend this game enough. Yes, it is a “casual” game…but not in the Hannah Montana lilac DS sense of the word. The entire concept of the game is simple – developers have been making tower defense games for decades – but the game is smart, original, funny, and totally addicting. Really, what more do you want in a game?

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