PopCap – who released the addictive casual friendly Peggle – have their next big hit on their hands: Plants Vs. Zombies. Having never really played a "tower defense" type game before, I had some trepidation at whether the gameplay would thrill me despite loving the graphical styling and whimsy of the game; as it turns out my fears were unfounded. Let's see if your green thumbs are enough to drive away the decay of the dead.

Zombie Eating Plants

The premise of Plants Vs. Zombies is simple: you own a home, treat your plants well, and zombies are looking to come inside and eat your brains. Luckily for you the plants want to protect you and keep their gardener safe. With a wide variety of plants at your disposal, you'll use their unique traits to help stave off the coming storm of the undead.

Simplicity – it's the fundamental that Plants Vs. Zombies is built upon and the reason why it's ultimately so appealing and demands you to pick it up and play if only for a level here and there. The levels are setup like a lawn and with the far left of the screen being the entrance to your house; if a zombie gets in you lose the level (though there is a line of lawnmowers there to help you out a bit). Before they get to that last line of defense, however, the zombies will have to trudge their way through a deadly garden hell bent on keeping you alive.

The challenge of Plants Vs. Zombies comes in the juggling needed to successfully complete a level. Each plant you take into a level requires a certain amount of sunshine in order for you to be able to use its card; once its card is used it can't be used again until enough sunshine is gathered and the card's time delay has ran out. As long as the game board takes place during the day, you'll naturally get a little trickledown sunshine, but it won't be enough to sustain you for too long. Instead, the game gives players the chance to use such plants as sunflowers to continuously pump out sun for your use during the level. With more and more sun coming in, you'll then be able to start laying down plants that can attack, such as peashooters that shoot in a straight row. As you advance, however, you'll need to upgrade your arsenal and get more powerful attackers. Besides resource gathering plants and attackers, you'll also need to use some defensive plants as well to help out. It sounds complicated at first, but it's really easy to learn the ropes and set your defenses up, learning what plants to use in each situation. You'll constantly be changing up your game plan though, as you'll also have to fight during the nighttime (no natural sun) and even fight where a pool takes up several lanes of your lawn (new tactics must be used to combat the fact that regular plants can't be planted directly onto the water).

Things start off simple enough, but as you're introduced to more and more of the game's 26 zombies, you'll need to learn what makes them unique in order to tackle the challenges they create. A zombie wearing a cone or bucket on its head takes more damage than a regular zombie. Destroy the newspaper of a zombie and suddenly they move faster. Pole-vaulters are able to jump over the first plant they come across. Snorkeling zombies can dive under water, avoiding all fire until they're forced to start eating a plant. The zombies all have a great design look to them, as they're very comical, and actually kind of cute…despite them wanting to eat your brains. The game is also expertly paced, as it slowly unveils new zombies for you to fight, but never throwing them out there without you having an inkling as what to do, or either introducing them too quick.

The Undead Attack

To help you combat the zombie menace is a greenhouse full of plants, which you unlock – for the most part – every time you complete a level. You only start off with things like peashooters and sunflowers to begin with, but you'll gradually amass an army of plants to do your bidding, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Besides being as sickeningly sweet as the zombies, the play on words regarding the plants and their abilities are hilarious. The plants that shoot seed bullets – peashooters. Cherries that explode – cherry bombs. A plant that flattens enemies – a squash. A defensive wall – a walnut. The game also never really forces your hand, making you use only the plants they want you to use (well, at least not your first play through the game). If there's a combo of plants you like using and you find they constantly work well, you have every right to keep using them.

Besides the Adventure Mode that makes up the initial bulk of the game, Plants Vs. Zombies features several other game modes for you to discover. There's a Mini-Game Mode that has you completing one level situations, like rolling walnuts at zombies like bowling balls, fighting zombies with the abilities of your plants, and having to use a slot machine handle to see what plants by the luck of a draw you can use in your quest to earn a set amount of sunshine. You'll also be able to play a Puzzle Mode and Survival Mode to also test your skills.

The game is a whole lot of fun and features some excellent cartoony graphics, subtle though smooth animations, and bright crisp graphics. On the audio side it's slightly boring with the same background music being recycled and the tiny plop of bullets constantly firing, but the zombies sound great, so it's just a miniscule problem. In terms of package, however, it's the small things that really make the difference; a funny almanac about the plants and zombies, a zombie that looks like Michael Jackson in the Thriller video…it's all of these things that help make Plants Vs. Zombies one of the best casual games I've played in a long time.

If you love tower defense games then you'll love Plants Vs. Zombies. The game isn't as hardcore as maybe some of the other games in the genre, but that doesn't mean the game isn't challenging. If you've never played a tower defense game before, Plants Vs. Zombies is a great initiation into the club. I'll put it this way: if you enjoy videogames then Plants Vs. Zombies is a must-have for you.

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