by: Mitch Dyer

It is a scientifically proven fact that 128% of Earth’s population loved PopCap Games’ stroke of flower defense genius, Plants vs. Zombies. The PC release was an ace little puzzle game that oozed charming style. Now, almost exactly a year later, WorldWinner and GSN are letting you play Plants vs. Zombies for cash. The catch? You’ve got to be better than everyone else.

“We added skillification to Plants vs. Zombies,” explains Brian Mahoney, WorldWinner’s Director of Product Management and Cash Games (shorthand, the dude built it). “I think we made up a word… We removed chance and added a scoring system.” For fans, adding point values to speedily pulverizing the undead, and losing cred when your pea pods become lunch, is heresy.

Relax.

Mahoney and the team at WW have delicately balanced the tournament matches so that nobody can pull a random batch of big points out of thin air. This is skill based, after all, and if you’re willing to shell out the coin – anywhere from 75 cents to five bucks – you can take part in tournaments with hundreds of potential players… and a fat stack of cash prizes. Or, if you want to warm up (or kick back with a good ol’ game of PvZ) you can play for-free tourneys with random players or pals on your buddy list.

The addition of skill isn’t meant to separate the audience, however. The game has been distilled to its core elements to create a new kind of experience. A dedicated skill system, dubbed “fair matching” will also keep the top dogs from mutilating the new recruits; you’ll always be competing against similarly skilled players. Further proof that WorldWinner wants to attract an audience through accessibility is the simplistic approach to PvZ – yeah, it’s even more accessible and simplistic. You’ll have nine plant types to use against five zombie variants in the backyard setting, as opposed to the dozens of each in the regular retail game.