Review by: Brandon "Threepeater" Cackowski-Schnell

Since its initial release a year ago, it's hard to find someone who hasn't played Plants vs Zombies, Popcap's delightful tower defense game. If you're one of those people, have a DS and don't mind paying more than what the game is offered for on most other platforms, then boy howdy are you in for a treat. Despite some minor technical glitches and some throwaway mini-game additions, Plants vs Zombies delivers the same accessible strategy experience as on other platforms, with a great new competitive mode to help round out the package.

It's a pretty simple formula but one that works well due to the ever increasing array of plants at your disposal. You'll always have more plants than you'll have slots for, even with the ability to purchase additional slots from your crazy neighbor, so picking and choosing the right plants for the zombies you'll be facing is paramount. Sure you need sunflowers to fuel your purchases, but do you waste a slot on an explosive plant that does high damage but needs more time to recharge until you can buy another one, or do you spend your slots on cheap but not as effective projectile plants? The sheer number and variety of the plants, all drawn with their own distinct personalities is half the fun of the game, ditto for the zombies, albeit on a smaller scale.

Once the game gets started, you'll have a small lull, allowing you to start planting before the zombies appear, however before you know it you'll be wondering if you have time to wait to start planting weaponized plants so that you can harvest more sunlight or if your plants and house are in danger of being manhandled by zombies. If the zombies reach your house, each row has a lawn mower that acts as a last resort defense system but once that row's mower is gone, it's game over should a zombie get to the house.

Matches can quickly fill the entire bottom screen of the DS which can cause unfortunate frame rate issues as the game chugs along trying to render all of the zombies, plants and plant projectile. The game is by no means unplayable but the stuttering is noticeable. On a somewhat related graphical note, the DS's upper screen is barely used, showing only your progress towards the end of the current wave, huge pictures of the approaching zombies and nothing more. The result is a bottom screen that is absolutely packed with visual information and a upper screen with next to nothing of importance. You certainly get used to it, and all of the charm of the zombies and plants are reproduced well on the bottom screen however it feels like one of the best parts of the DS, the two screens, is used as an afterthought.