Plants Vs Zombies: a staple for Tower Defense

Plants VS Zombies (PVZ) is a Tower Defense Strategy game by PopCap where you play with Crazy Dave to defend his house from the brain-munching Zombies, using different sentient plants.

The game begins with Crazy Dave instructing you on how to place down plants.

The first plant you will encounter in the game, and arguably one of the most crucial ones, being the sunflower representing sun producers, giving you at least 25 sun every… 24 seconds, she becomes important throughout the entire game, this is shown in the many variants of sunflower, some giving double the sun at a higher sun cost or slowly getting better sun while being cheaper. Sunflower is actually one of the faces of PVZ, being referenced in other video games such as: World of Warcraft or The Sims 3.

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The second plant you’re introduced to, which is ALSO very important, and is one of the three faces of PVZ, being the Peashooter, representing offensive type plants; Shooting green peas out randomly deal one point of damage to zombies, Throughout your ventures of defending the lawn, you may encounter different variants of the Peashooter, such as being able to freeze zombies, or shoot peas in three separate lanes. Just generally classifying him as an all-rounder!

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The third plant you’re given is the Wall-nut, representing defence-type plants! With his high amount of health, he is good cannon fodder if you’re attempting to stall more zombies while Peashooters do the rest. Much like the Peashooter and sunflower, there are also many variants of the Wall-nut, being just bigger, stronger nuts, or being able to be placed on plants, AWESOME defence.

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Now, another plant, which isn’t as popular, but is a great use for most of the game.

The fourth plant you acquire is Cherry Bomb, representing insta-use type plants! Of which being placeable on an empty plot and exploding in one second, wiping out any zombies in a three-by-three radius! Just with the downside of having to wait for the cooldown after the plant’s use is over, quite important for being a plant that is not as popular as the big three, but you know, no biggy. Unlike other plants that resemble their counterparts, Cherry Bomb here represents the idea, as other versions look very different. Some can kill an entire row of zombies, while others can only defeat one zombie at a time, doing massive damage. I think it’s pretty underrated, in my opinion.

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Now, I’ve been teasing it vaguely. Still, there IS a cost system. As you progress through the game, you gain the ability to choose eight different seed packets in a level (these are the plants you can only choose), Most plants cost 100-200, some better plants, such as variants of the walnut, costing upwards of 125, and some lesser ones, like insta-use plants, cost less. After placing down a plant, you’re given a cooldown! Cooldowns vary from plant to plant and restrain you from instantly planting down 1 billion Peashooters. You can only select a plant once; however, later on, you’re able to buy the Imitator, which can transform into different plants, speeding up the process of planting plants, although sunflowers aren’t the only thing bringing you sun, as occasionally the literal sun comes and drops sun into the level, giving you a nice 25 sun.

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We’ve talked plants, but what about zombies?

When you first start the game, you begin with just the normal zombie fiending for Crazy Dave’s brains, usually taking three shots to fully defeat them from a Pea-shooter. But as you progress through, you notice more extreme zombies, like cone or bucket heads, taking way more hits to defeat them, some may need a wall-nut or others relying on your offensive takes as they burst through your wall-nut defence.

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And you may think, “one wave? Is that it?” fret not my friends, as you actually go through different amounts of waves depending on the map. Some go for just the one or some even go for four waves, really putting the word defense in Tower Defense.

Unlike my other articles, we’re actually going to dive into the story heaps more, as the gameplay loop is incredibly simple and going through each plant would be mind-numbing, so we’re looking more in-depth, major warning! Spoilers for this nineteen-year-old game!

The levels change drastically with each leap you take. Every 10 levels (excluding the last world), changes the world and gives it a unique spin on things.

Day levels are the plainest levels, no funny twists, it’s just you grasping at the idea of PVZ., I honestly wish there were more plain levels in this game, as they’re challenging, yet a breeze. I love these levels.

image by: Pop Cap

Night levels are an entirely different species from its happier counterpart, as you don’t get sun from the sky, so these levels are way harder, as you need that sun for sunflowers. However, Popcap knew this level was hard and gave you a pretty decent “plant” for completing the first level, Sun-Shroom! He produces 15 sun every 24 seconds, with a cost of just 25 sun. After two minutes, he grows and gives 25 sun.

image by: Pop Cap

Pool levels are also a bit of a spice up from the original formula, while keeping some fundamentals from Day levels; however, having a massive pool in the middle of the map takes up the two middle spaces. This introduces the idea of some unlockable plants from this level made for water, as normal plants can’t be planted on it, specifically the lily-pad, while there are many more plants for the water, the lily-pad is the main powerhouse, as placing it down acts like a piece of land to put normal plants on While it’s more suggested to just use water plants for the middle. Maybe lily pads for sunflowers; lily pads can still come in great use.

image by: Pop Cap

Fog levels are as if nightmares came true… It acts almost like a Night Pool level, featuring a massive pool in the middle, all set at night. Now, you may think that’s it, but in the later levels, you’re met with this eerie fog for all the waves. The fog obscures zombies coming in from the right. Funnily enough, this level also brings on some mean green machines, as you’re introduced to some of the hardest zombies from PVZ-1. Although the fog may be scary, you do have a trick up your Crazy Dave sleeve, Plantern. Thankfully, Plantern lights up the fog, causing it to fizzle out when he’s on the ground, while being on the front lines, possibly tanking damage if your peashooters aren’t good enough for the wave.

image by: Pop Cap

Roof levels are the final levels of Plants VS Zombies. You fight on Crazy Dave’s roof against more zombies, with a twist! AGAIN! You see, most roofs are curved, so the normal pea-shooter won’t cut it, as the peas he shoots won’t go over the roof, which is when catapult plants come into play! Making it possible actually to hit the zombies over the arch of the roof, but the idea of roof levels makes you wonder, “Does Crazy Dave have dirt on his roof?” First of all, I’m not sure why you’re thinking that, but second of all, you actually have POTS with DIRT in them!!! Acting much like pool levels, but it’s for all plants and takes up the entire land. Don’t worry about starting; just play Plants vs Zombies yourself to see.

Image By: Pop Cap

Now, you’ve just played through… HALF of Plants Vs Zombies, as, for some reason, most games in 2009 really needed extra bonus features, but hey! I’ll go through some pretty obvious ones.

While fighting against the onslaught of zombies, you do have to take some breaks, which is what the Zen Garden bonus feature is for! Letting you water a random plant you’ve collected throughout the game, they don’t do a lot, just a few coins! And actually… Another way to get plants for the Zen Garden is from Crazy Dave himself!

image by: Pop Cap

Crazy Dave’s Twiddiydinkies (that is its name), is a store specially opened in Crazy Dave’s trunk, offering plant upgrades! These plant upgrades can be placed on a specific plant to… well… upgrade it! That’s just some to name a few. Other things Crazy Dave offers are seed packets and watering cans for the Zen garden, or Pool Cleaners for the water, as they aren’t usually there. Another thing you can actually buy from Crazy Dave are little mini-games!

image by: Pop Cap

Mini-games are found in the start menu and are definitely an escape from the regular Plants Vs Zombies formula, while some like Zombotany were heads of zombies are replaced by plants, shooting at your own plants, some stick to the same and casual PVZ gameplay, others like Beghould, a match game where you rotate plants to try and make them match in a 3×3 square WHILE shooting zombies, can fry your brain a little.

image By: Pop Cap

Now, after Mini-games, something that can soothe your brain a bit is Crazy Dave’s picks! Usually, after defeating the game once and launching back into the first level of PVZ again, you start up with three plants from your inventory, specifically chosen by Crazy Dave. There is no way to turn this off, but at least you don’t lose your max amount of plants, so that’s a start.

And that’s the base minimum of PVZ, some things I didn’t cover over, like achievements or some of the lore as PVZ is drowning in information and I just couldn’t cover all of them, Although as a little bonus, there used to be a scrapped ‘Michael Jackson’ zombie, but sadly was cut due to copyright issues and was reskinned to fit a more disco-style. That’s it! Check out the game! That replanted version is releasing soon!

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