Review by: Mitch Dyer

It’s rare that one game can be so positively charming, so genuinely funny, and so cleverly crafted without ever skipping a beat. PopCap is renowned for its casual games, primarily with Peggle, Bejeweled and Bookworm, but its games aren’t a matter of merely being accessible. The delicate balance of easy entry and expert execution gives simple games subtle depth, and Plants vs. Zombies is unquestionably the best example of this design principle.

When a shotgun isn’t within immediate grasp, harnessing solar power and perennial aggression is both an excellent and spectacularly jovial alternative. Ensuring that your cranial guts don’t become lunch (or a midnight snack) for the undead is as simple as sowing seeds in organized sections spread out across your lawn in horizontal lanes. Which plants you bring into the 50+ battlefields depends on the situation, and as with all zombie apocalypses, strategy is your priority.

Planting sunflowers gives you sunlight, the resource you’ll accumulate and spend on filling up your lawn, but the passive plants need to be defended against numerous zombies that are invading your lovely home and trying to chomp on your face. Anyone prepared for the zombocalypse will recoil in horror at the thought of zombies wearing headgear or football equipment. (Never mind the ability to pull off some fancy necromancy or vault over top of your flower power). It’s these cute, clever touches that give the game diversity. You aren’t forced to look at a cloned army of undead soldiers, and they all feature unique ways to get the upper hand on you. But you aren’t exactly limited either.

Plants vs. Zombies is one of the most satisfying games I’ve ever played. Each and every level rewards you with a new plant in the form of a collectible card. Each plant is usable in any situation, but is far from mandatory. So while you’re always being thrown new stuff, you don’t ever feel the need to use it. You’ll just want to. Giant nuts act as breakable barricades and humongous fly traps will gobble a zombie whole; a variety of pea-shooting pods including rapid-firing, freezing, and multi-lane blasting help to delightfully decapitate the horde; and explosives like literal cherry bombs and molehill landmines kill clusters of bunched-up bad guys. With a limited space to put these, you’ll need to narrow down which defenders will best serve against a particular combination of enemies, which you’ll get a glimpse at during the start of each level.