2009 video game
Plants vs. Zombies is a 2009 loom defense video game developed and published by PopCap Games. First released for Windows and Mac OS X, the bet on has since been ported to consoles, handhelds, and mobile devices. The musician takes the character of a homeowner amid a automaton revelation. As a horde of zombies approaches along several latitude lanes, the player must defend the home by putting down plants, which fire projectiles at the zombies or differently detrimentally affect them. The player collects a currency called sun to buy plants. If a zombi makes it to the house on any lane, the player loses and must restart the level.
Plants vs. Zombies was designed by George Fan, who conceptualized it as a more defense-oriented sequel to his pisces simulator game Insaniquarium ( 2001 ), then developed it into a tugboat defense game featuring plants fighting against zombies. The game took inhalation from the games Magic: The Gathering and Warcraft III ; along with the movie Swiss Family Robinson. It took three and a half years to make Plants vs. Zombies. rich Werner was the main artist, Tod Semple programmed the game, and Laura Shigihara composed the game ‘s music. In order to appeal to both free-and-easy and hard-core gamers, the tutorial was designed to be simpleton and spread throughout Plants vs. Zombies. Plants vs. Zombies was positively received by critics and was nominated for multiple awards, including “ Download Game of the year ” and “ Strategy Game of the year ” as part of Golden Joystick Awards 2010. Reviewers praised the game ‘s humorous art style, simplistic but engaging gameplay, and soundtrack. Upon free in May 2009, it was the fastest-selling television game developed by PopCap Games and cursorily became their best-selling game, surpassing Bejeweled and Peggle. By 2010, it had sold over a million copies worldwide. In 2011, PopCap was bought by Electronic Arts ( EA ). The company laid off Fan and 49 other employees, marking a transfer of stress to mobile and social bet on. After the buyout, Plants vs. Zombies was followed by a series of games including two direct sequels, three third-person shooters, and two spin-offs, most of which have received convinced reviews .
Gameplay
A consortium level is presently in progress. Zombies are progressing from the mighty in order to reach the house. The player has to place down plants in order to defend their house from the zombies. Plants vs. Zombies is a tower defense video recording game in which the actor defends a house from zombies. [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] The lawn is divided into a power system, [ 8 ] with the player ‘s firm to the left. [ 9 ] The player places unlike types of plant on person squares of the grid. Each establish has a different stylus of defense, such as shoot, exploding, and blocking. [ 8 ] [ 10 ] Different types of zombies have their own extra behaviors and their own weaknesses to different plants. [ 8 ] [ 9 ] For example, Balloon Zombie can float over the player ‘s plants, but its balloon can be popped by Cactus. [ 8 ] [ 11 ] other examples of zombies include Dancing Zombie which summons Backup Dancers around himself ; and the Dolphin Rider Zombie, which rides on a dolphin to jump over a implant. [ 6 ] [ 9 ] The player can pick a limited number of types of plants through sow packets at the begin of each charge, [ 12 ] and must pay to place them using a currentness called “ sunlight ”. The actor gathers sun by either clicking on the sun that randomly generate over the lawn, or by using certain plants that generate sun, like Sunflowers and Sunshrooms. [ 8 ] [ 9 ] [ 10 ] Each type of plant recharges between each placement at versatile speeds. If the player wants to remove a plant, they can dig it up using a power shovel. [ 13 ] When a zombi reaches the leave border of a lane, its Lawnmower kills all the zombies in that lane and is depleted after one use ; [ 14 ] if another zombi reaches the end of that lane, the player has to restart the level. [ 13 ]
venture mode
There are five stages in the Adventure mode, each comprising ten levels. [ 13 ] At the end of about every grade, the musician collects a fresh type of plant to use in subsequent levels. On the foremost level of stage two ( degree 2-1 ), zombies begin to occasionally drop in-game money when killed. After level 3-4, the actor can spend the money at an in-game store called Crazy Dave ‘s TwiddyDinkies. [ 9 ] [ 13 ] Crazy Dave offers boosts that the player uses to upgrade already-placed plants and gardening tools for the player ‘s Zen Garden. [ 8 ] [ 9 ] It is unlock after grade 5-4 [ 13 ] and allows the player to water and maintain a group of plants, [ 8 ] which are obtained as plunder from killing zombies or purchasing them through his store ; [ 13 ] in revert, the plants generate money for the actor. [ 8 ] Every degree ‘s fifth grade has a mini-game challenge, often utilizing a conveyer belt that gives assorted plants to the actor. [ 7 ] On every stage ‘s tenth grade, the player receives plants from a conveyer belt. [ 13 ] Stages one, three, and five occur in day, while stages two and four film target at night. [ 13 ] [ 11 ] During the night stages, the actor uses the lower-cost fungi plants due to the miss of natural sun coevals at night. [ 7 ] [ 10 ] Stages three and four choose place in the sign of the zodiac ‘s backyard, which has six lanes ( unlike the common five lanes ) and features a pool taking up the center two lanes. [ 11 ] [ 13 ] On the pool, plants are placed on exceed of Lily Pads which, unlike most plants, can be placed immediately on pool lanes. [ 7 ] Stage four has fog that obscures most of the lawn. [ 13 ] Stage five takes place on the house ‘s roof. This jell has the player use slingshot plants, rather of the standard shoot plants, to account for the roof ‘s upward slope. [ 13 ] Adventure mode ‘s stopping point level pits the actor against Dr. Zomboss, an malefic scientist and the zombies ‘ animator. He crushes the player ‘s plants by having his Zombot squash the plants or throw vans at them, and can place fire and ice balls that roll across a lane. The player overcome these balls with Jalapeños and Ice-shrooms. [ 15 ] After completing the Adventure mode, the actor can play it again, this time with plants unlock during the previous play-through, and with three randomly selected plants to begin each degree. [ 16 ] [ 17 ]
early game modes
Three extra modes— Mini-Games, Puzzle, and Survival—become available once Adventure mode is completed. In Mini-Games mode, the player selects from a collection of twenty dollar bill mini-games. [ 8 ] These levels pose the actor with unique challenges, each using some device [ 18 ] —often variants of a conveyer belt that gives the player certain plants. [ 19 ] In Puzzle manner, the player selects from two types of levels : “ Vasebreaker ” and “ I, Zombie ”. [ 8 ] [ 20 ] In “ Vasebreaker ”, the actor breaks open a fixed of vases, each containing a establish or a zombie. The level ends when all the vases are smashed and all the zombies are killed. [ 8 ] In “ I, Zombie ”, the musician places zombies to get past pre-placed cardboard cut-outs of plants, aiming to eat the brain at the end of each lane. [ 8 ] [ 13 ] Survival mode offers a choice of levels in which the player chooses plants to defeat increasingly challenging waves of zombies. [ 8 ] [ 21 ]
Development
concept
(pictured in 2018) is the creator and designer of Plants vs. Zombies. George Fanis the creator and architect of Plants vs. Zombies was designed by George Fan. Imagining a more defense-oriented version of one of his previous titles, Insaniquarium ( 2001 ), and having played some Warcraft III column defense mods, he was inspired to make a tower defense game. [ 22 ] Fan considered a sequel to Insaniquarium for the Nintendo DS, each filmdom would represent a separate fish tank—one on lead of the other. Aliens would attack the top pisces tank and, if successful, would break into the bottom fish tank car. Gameplay in the top tank car would focus on defense against the aliens, while in the penetrate tank it would revolve around resource generation, akin to Insaniquarium. [ 23 ] But inspired by Warcraft III ‘s towers, he felt that plants would make good defensive structures. He wanted to bring new concepts to the genre and believed the fact that enemies in column defensive structure games would never attack the towers was unintuitive. To address this, he began designing the five- and six-lane setups that would late be used in the final game. [ 24 ] [ 25 ] Enemies were at foremost the aliens from Insaniquarium, but while Fan was sketching concept art, he drew what he considered “ the perfect zombie ”, and the theme was reworked. [ 26 ] [ 20 ] Fan went with using zombies rather of aliens in order to make the game stand out from early video games using plants. [ 24 ] Insaniquarium substantially influenced the development of Plants vs. Zombies. The games have alike pace, determined by the “ drip-feeding ” of pets and plants respectively, and choosing plants at the begin of each Plants vs. Zombies level is analogous to choosing pets in Insaniquarium. [ 25 ] Fan besides took inspiration from the film Swiss Family Robinson, in which a family defends themselves and their dwelling against pirates. [ 22 ] [ 27 ] Fan included elements from the trade batting order game Magic: The Gathering, which he had played with his girlfriend, Laura Shigihara. Showing her how to customize their tease decks inspired him to design Plants vs. Zombies with seed packets—instead of his original idea of a conveyer belt belt that gave random plants—due to the seed packet system ‘s greater complexity. While the conveyer belt belt was dropped from the more common plot mode, it remained a special component in blue-ribbon levels. [ 24 ] The use of multitasking between lanes was influenced by and was featured prominently in the old arcade game Tapper. [ 25 ] When the game featured aliens, its working title was Weedlings, [ 23 ] [ 27 ] but Fan thought the name a poor fit because of how many gardening-themed television games were being released at the meter. [ 24 ] It was renamed Plants vs. Zombies as a proxy after the enemies were changed. [ 28 ] The planned name for most of development was Lawn of the Dead, a pun on the title of the George A. Romero zombie film Dawn of the Dead. [ 29 ] Romero did not license usage of the name, even after a supplication from Fan, who sent Romero a video recording of himself dressed as a Zombie Temp Worker grunt and scheduling on a calculator, subtitled with references to runtime errors. [ 28 ] [ 30 ] There were many early campaigner names, including Residential Evil and Bloom & Doom, the latter of which was used as the stigmatize on the in-game seed packets. [ 28 ] [ 31 ]
design
Plants vs. Zombies was initially designed by Fan alone. [ 27 ] Because Fan was a full-time employee at PopCap Games, the video game company helped build up a little team dwell of a composer ( Laura Shigihara ), a programmer ( Tod Semple ), and an artist ( Rich Werner ). [ 25 ] Fan was based in San Francisco, while Werner was in Seattle. [ 29 ] Stephen Notley is credited as being a writer for Plants vs. Zombies. [ 13 ] He wrote the establish and zombi descriptions in the in-game guidebook, the Suburban Almanac. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] Fan found working in small teams to be easier than working in large teams. [ 23 ] [ 27 ] According to an interview with Edge, while searching for an artist, Fan discovered Rich Werner, whose influence Fan thought matched with his design intentions. Fan attributed the design ‘s intrigue to its vivification outline ; Tod Semple suggested using Adobe Flash, which Fan worried would generate an animation “ cut out from newspaper ” and besides closely resembling South Park, but he was ultimately satisfied, crediting Semple and Werner ‘s talent. [ 20 ] Plants vs. Zombies was made using PopCap Games ‘s own engine : PopCap Framework. [ 13 ] Fan systematically posted updates of Plants vs. Zombies every four months in an home forum within PopCap Games called Burrito, where he accepted feedback from the employees of PopCap. [ 23 ] [ 25 ] When the concept of Plants vs. Zombies was first established as a sequel to Insaniquarium, Fan wanted to make a game where the aliens invade the player ‘s garden. [ 27 ] Originally, his intent was to make a gardening crippled where plants are grown as an investment to afford defenses against an alien invasion. [ 27 ] [ 23 ] After Fan created the “ perfect zombi ”, the enemies were changed from aliens to zombies. [ 26 ] He trimmed the concept of simultaneously defending and maintaining the garden, feeling that the insistent garden detracted from the main gameplay. [ 27 ] [ 20 ] Simplifying the garden system, Fan restructured the game ‘s independent aspects to fit better into the tower defense genre, [ 27 ] [ 20 ] and late added further elements inspired by early games. [ 25 ] Fan enjoyed the idea of plants defending against the zombies, combining two distinct species that were not so far touched by early plot developers at the time. [ 27 ] Plants playing as the function of towers made sense to him, acting as stationary defense against the recurring waves of zombies. [ 25 ] Zombies were designed to move in the current linear five- and six-lane arrangement in the final crippled, [ 24 ] [ 25 ] allowing the enemy zombies to interact with the defensive plants, a refinement in the game that Fan felt worked as a alone gameplay mechanic to make Plants vs. Zombies stand out in the column defense music genre amongst early tower defense games democratic at the time. [ 25 ] Plants vs. Zombies took three and a one-half years to make. [ 27 ] much of the beginning year of development focused on Adventure modality. Semple began working on ideas late used for Mini-Games modality. [ 20 ] Some ideas for the Puzzle mode section were by and by modified and moved into Adventure mode : “ Vasebreaker ” and “ I, Zombie ”, for exemplar, came from single-level concepts for Mini-Games mode. During testing, Fan found that the Mini-Games and Puzzle modes detracted from a focus on Adventure mood, so he locked most extra modes, requiring promotion within Adventure mode to unlock them. [ 20 ] Later, the development of Plants vs. Zombies consisted of Fan testing the game and writing down notes of what could be done to tweak it before sending them off to Semple. [ 32 ] The last year of growth had the team polish Plants vs. Zombies before acquittance. [ 27 ] One of the critical aspects of the development was designing Plants vs. Zombies to be balanced between hard-core and casual gambling. [ 20 ] [ 32 ] Fan designed the tutorial to be simple and merged within the game to attract casual gamers. It had the actor teach by performing actions, rather than reading about how to do the actions. The in-game messages were besides made to be as short circuit and easy-to-read as possible ; with the negotiation from Crazy Dave being broken up into small chunks of text to match this. The in-game messages were besides designed to match a player ‘s skill set ; an example being the message telling the player to place Peashooters further to the left would merely pop up in an early flat if a Peashooter was placed towards the right of the lawn and was eaten. [ 33 ] [ 34 ] The team discovered that newcomers to the writing style of real-time strategy frequently had difficulty learning the importance of sun collection. The price of the income-generating Sunflowers was halved, encouraging the player to buy them rather of the attack-only Peashooter. The change forced restructure of the balance between plants and zombies, a go that Fan said was worth the feat. [ 25 ] [ 34 ]
Characters
early in the development of Plants vs. Zombies, time was spent brainstorming ideas for characters. [ 25 ] Fan intentionally gave all the plants and zombies names that matched their individual functions, designing them accordingly—for case, Peashooter shoots projectiles. Fan besides made all the plants stationary and all the zombies slowly move across their lane so the casual player would understand that the towers ( the rooted plants ) could not move and the attackers ( the unmindful zombies ) could lento move. [ 33 ] The final examination designs of the zombies and plants changed little from their origin. [ 20 ] The game ‘s exclusive human character, Crazy Dave, was a spoof of a person Fan knew. Crazy Dave features a vocal performance by Fan. [ 29 ] The final game has 49 types of plants. [ 13 ] Fan expressed affectionateness for the Tall-Nut, Torchwood, and Cob Cannon plants. He liked the Tall-Nut ‘s character, citing its “ determined gaze ” and its shedding a single tear when injury. In terms of strategy, he liked that the Torchwood—which gives Peashooters flaming ammunition—required the player to consider how plants interact with each early. [ 25 ] Fan besides liked the Squash, due to its name ‘s pun ; the implant crushes zombies. [ 32 ] A proposed plant would have been placed above other plants to protect them from Bungee and Catapult Zombies ; it was difficult, however, to visualize this establish ‘s place. [ 20 ] A exchangeable defensive detail ( the Umbrella Leaf ) made it into the final game, protecting plants from Bungee and Catapult Zombies, but placed following to plants. [ 35 ] Many potential plants had concept artwork but were not in the final examination Plants vs. Zombies. [ 22 ] Plants vs. Zombies has 51 types of zombies. [ 36 ] Fan ‘s favorite zombie was Dr. Zomboss. The team spent a full calendar month designing the fight against him at the end of the game. [ 32 ] Fan liked the Pole Vaulting Zombie due to the likely amusement of its first confrontation with the player ; he gave an model of a player failing to block it with a Wall-Nut plant, with the zombie jumpstart over the obstruction. [ 25 ] The Newspaper Zombie ‘s first base iteration just read a newspaper, but Werner redrew the character as having become a zombi while reading on the toilet. Fan ‘s brother asked him whether he based the zombie on their father, as he would much read the newspaper on the toilet. Fan said that while he had no such purpose, it was his front-runner backstory to a zombi. [ 29 ] The Dancing Zombie initially resembled Michael Jackson from the music video “ Thriller “. [ 6 ] The zombi was present in the game before his death, but the entertainer ‘s estate objected to its inclusion over a year following his death ; PopCap replaced it with a more generic disco -dancing automaton. [ 37 ] many other zombies were cut during development. [ 29 ]
soundtrack
Shigihara composed Plants vs. Zombies ‘s soundtrack, borrowing elements from pop music and console table chiptune. Before the bet on ‘s origin, Fan asked Shigihara to compose the music for his future title because he admired her music. She drew influence from Danny Elfman ‘s soundtracks and a broad range of musical styles : One song uses marching band percussion and swing ; another use techno beats with “ organic ” sounds. [ 38 ] Film music scholar K. J. Donnelly found the music to be undimmed and “ cartoonish ”. He noted the music was not dynamically tied to gameplay, but rather progresses independently. He noted the soundtrack ‘s invention in a progressive manner, “ about in analogue to the unfold of the game [ play ] ”. [ 39 ] Shigihara described the music as “ ghastly, even goofy ”. Examining the night stages, she explained that she used a combination of boastful band swing beats with “ several haunting and good melodies ”. The songs “ Loonboon ” and “ Brainiac Maniac ” were written towards the end of production. Shigihara said these were reactionary songs she wrote to fit the game ‘s feel after playing it through twice. [ 38 ] Shigihara composed and performed the music video recording shown during the crippled ‘s credits, titled “ Zombies on Your lawn ”. [ 14 ] The song was inspired by “ still Alive “, which played at the conclusion of the television game, Portal. [ 27 ] Plants vs. Zombies ‘s tracks were finally released as part of a downloadable soundtrack album. [ 39 ]
promotion and dismissal
On April 1, 2009, PopCap released a music video for “ Zombies on Your lawn ” to promote Plants vs. Zombies. [ 40 ] [ 41 ] While many personal computer gamers were diffident if the television was an elaborate April Fools ‘ Day joke, [ 27 ] [ 42 ] PopCap spokesperson Garth Chouteau revealed in an IGN interview that the game would soon be released for personal computer and Mac. [ 43 ] On April 22, 2009, PopCap released an official game preview of Plants vs. Zombies on YouTube. [ 44 ] [ 45 ] PopCap Games released a demonstration interpretation on May 4, 2009, permitting thirty minutes of gameplay. [ 46 ] Plants vs. Zombies was formally released for personal computer and Mac on May 5, 2009, [ 27 ] [ 47 ] A loose Adobe Flash adaptation of Plants vs. Zombies was released on September 23, 2009, [ 48 ] along with the demonstration being replaced by a version where the musician can play up to level 3-2. [ 49 ] A Game of the Year edition was released on July 11, 2010. [ 50 ] It was made available on steam on August 11, 2010 ; [ 51 ] anyone who already purchased the game could update to the new edition for unblock. [ 52 ] The Game of the Year version adds in a “ Zombatar ” feature of speech allowing the player to customize a automaton ‘s face. [ speed of light ] The version besides supports Steam Cloud, which lets the player access game save data from multiple computers. [ 51 ]
Mobile phone versions
During the announcements for Plants vs. Zombies, PopCap Games revealed the crippled would be ported to other platforms after the personal computer exhaust. [ 43 ] [ 44 ] In August 2009, it was announced on IGN that Plants vs. Zombies would be ported to the iPhone near the end of 2009. [ 53 ] They announced the port ‘s exhaust date on a dawdler on YouTube in February 2010, [ 54 ] officially releasing it on February 15, 2010. [ 55 ] [ 56 ] [ 57 ] The port included a modified interface for iPhone users and a Quick Play mode allowing the actor to play any level in Adventure mode ; it removed the Mini-Games, Puzzle, and Survival modes. [ 42 ] [ 58 ] In March 2010, a technology blog named PadGadget found unintentionally populace entries for ports of iPhone games to the iPad, Plants vs. Zombies among them. [ 59 ] [ 60 ] The game ‘s iPad port, named Plants vs. Zombies HD, was released on April 5, 2010. [ 61 ] It utilized the iPad ‘s 11 touch sensors [ 62 ] and restored the Survival mode and the Mini-Games mode, [ 63 ] which includes an iPad-exclusive mini-game called “ Buttered Popcorn ”. [ 64 ] [ 65 ] Subsequent io updates would add more message to their version of Plants vs. Zombies, including Zen Garden, extra mini-games, and extra achievements. [ 67 ] In May 2011, PopCap Games officially announced that Chuzzle would be available on the Amazon Appstore for Android devices for the future two weeks, with Plants vs. Zombies becoming available belated in the month. They were both unblock on launch day and cost $ 2.99 after. [ 68 ] On May 31, 2011, Plants vs. Zombies entered the Amazon Appstore. [ 69 ] In December 2011, PopCap Games announced it would be releasing Plants vs. Zombies and Peggle through the Android Market. [ 70 ] It was made available on Google Play Store on December 15, 2011. [ 71 ] Plants vs. Zombies has been ported to other mobile devices. On June 23, 2011, the bet on was released on the Windows Phone as part of Xbox Live. [ 72 ] On November 14, 2011, and January 30, 2013, Plants vs. Zombies was released on the Kindle Fire [ 73 ] [ 74 ] and Blackberry 10 [ 75 ] [ 76 ] respectively as a plunge app. Plants vs. Zombies was late released on another BlackBerry device, the BlackBerry Playbook. [ 77 ] Plants vs. Zombies was released on Nook HD and Nook HD+ on November 14, 2012. [ 78 ]
console versions
Plants vs. Zombies was announced for the Xbox 360 in July 2010, [ 79 ] [ 80 ] to be available both on its own and as part of a bundle with Peggle and Zuma. [ 79 ] The game was released on the Xbox 360 at Xbox Live on September 8, 2010. [ 81 ] To ease habit with the Xbox control, the cursor was locked onto the lawn ‘s grid convention and sun would float towards the cursor. [ 82 ] The port besides featured Versus mood, a cooperative manner, and a modern level in Mini-Games mood. [ 80 ] Versus mode matched two players, one toy plants and one act zombies. [ 83 ] The zombie player ‘s goal is reaching the theater, while the plant player aims to kill three of the five target zombies on the right side of the lawn. [ 84 ] A PlayStation Network port for the PlayStation 3 of Plants vs. Zombies was announced on January 28, 2011, [ 85 ] with Sony Online Entertainment as its publisher [ 1 ] and was released on February 8, 2011. [ 86 ] [ 87 ] The DS interface of Plants vs. Zombies was announced in August 2010. [ 88 ] [ 89 ] The port was released on January 18, 2011, in North America [ 90 ] and on May 6, 2011, in Europe and Australia. [ 91 ] The port included the Zombatar feature and the versus modality from the Xbox Live version, besides adding four exclusive mini-games. [ 92 ] [ 93 ] On March 14, 2011, the DSiWare port was released in North America. It was released on May 6, 2011, in Europe and Australia. [ 91 ] [ 94 ] The DSiWare adaptation entirely kept the Adventure mode and Mini-Games mode ; the mini-game levels consisted of the exclusive levels from the original DS and a new tied called “ Zombie Trap ”. [ 94 ] The PlayStation Vita port was announced in December 2011. [ 95 ] It was released on February 21, 2012, in North America, and in Europe as a plunge title on February 22, 2012 ; [ 96 ] [ 97 ] With Sony Online Entertainment serving as its publisher. [ 2 ] The port allows the player to play using either the touch screen or the controllers. It besides introduces the ability to shake the Vita to collect suns and money. Unlike other comfort versions, the game lacks a multiplayer typeset. [ 98 ] [ 99 ]
reception
Sales
On May 20, 2009, Plants vs. Zombies was declared the fastest-selling television game created by PopCap Games, promptly becoming their best-selling video crippled ; surpassing their former popular games : Bejeweled and Peggle. [ 114 ] [ 115 ] [ 116 ] In a presentation at Game Developers Conference China 2010, James Gwertzman, the vice president of the Asia/Pacific division of PopCap Games, revealed the crippled had sold 1.5 million copies internationally. [ 31 ] Fan estimated half of sales came from hard-core gamers. [ 115 ] Larry Hryb, director of programming for Xbox Live, reported that Plants vs. Zombies was the thirteenth most buy 2011 game on Xbox Live Arcade. [ 117 ] Plants vs. Zombies was particularly successful on the App Store. [ 28 ] According to PopCap, the io release of Plants vs. Zombies sold more than 300,000 copies during its first nine days, generating more than $ 1 million in arrant sales. It rose to issue one in sales and money grossed from a mobile video recording game before losing the spot nine days after turn. [ 118 ] As of April 2016, nine million copies have been downloaded across all io platforms. [ 119 ]
critical reviews
Plants vs. Zombies received cocksure reviews. According to Metacritic, the entirely translation that did not receive “ by and large positivist reviews ” or “ cosmopolitan applaud ” is the DSiWare adaptation, which received “ mix or modal reviews ”. [ 105 ] Some reviewers found the core automobile mechanic straightforward, but the game itself challenging. [ 5 ] [ 6 ] GamesRadar+ ‘s Tom Francis said that Plants vs. Zombies was only casual in its easiness to understand its premise ; he clarified, “ There ‘s nothing casual about the 30 blasted hours we ‘ve spent, efficaciously, gardening. ” [ 9 ] Seth Schisel from The New York Times said kids and adults alike would enjoy Plants vs. Zombies. [ 120 ] Others disagreed : [ 12 ] GameSpot editor Chris Watters said, “ Tower defense veterans will have to endure a bunch of simple, conversant legal action in holy order to find a real challenge, and the wait may prove excessively hanker for some ” ; [ 8 ] GamePro ‘s Tae Kim said that Plants vs. Zombies was not peculiarly easy or hard, and that he never had to restart despite being “ atrocious at these sorts of games. ” [ 121 ] John Walker of Rock Paper Shotgun said the difficulty sometimes felt artificial. [ 19 ] Despite his criticism of the game ‘s difficulty, Watters praised Plants vs. Zombies ‘s constant introduction of new plants, which kept the bet on fresh. [ 8 ] Eurogamer editor Christian Donlan agreed : every zombie challenges the musician and each newfangled plant allows for a modern strategy. [ 11 ] many critics commended Plants vs. Zombies for its minimalistic tutorial allowing experiment ; [ 5 ] [ 122 ] some had believed the integral Adventure mood was a long tutorial, or a warmup, for early game modes. [ 21 ] many critics praised the game for the replay value offered by extra game modes ; [ 8 ] [ 19 ] Francis said that by the time the actor finishes Adventure mood ; “ the lewd wealth of other things to do already outweighs it for entertainment respect. ” [ 9 ] The art style and music of Plants vs. Zombies have besides been praised. [ 14 ] [ 19 ] Susan Arendt from The Escapist said “ the music is excellent, [ and ] the art is charming and adorable. ” [ 16 ] many reviewers have called the graphics from Plants vs. Zombies “ adorable ”. [ 8 ] [ 12 ] [ 108 ] Watters praised the unit animation, elaborating that they had a “ big common sense of personality ”. [ 8 ] Some draw attention to the crippled ‘s humor. [ 16 ] [ 17 ] Wired ‘s Earnest Cavalli said that while the idea behind Plants vs. Zombies sounds ghastly, “ every grade of the game offers something to laugh about ”. [ 6 ] Marc Saltzman from Gamezebo found humor in the game ‘s many killing methods. [ 112 ] IGN editor program Daemon Hatfield praised the game ‘s music ; he called it a “ attention-getting, organic soundtrack that becomes more intense as your yard is flooded with enemies ”. [ 40 ] In contrast, Walker found the soundtrack “ disappoint ” and stated, “ After the predict of the gorgeous music television, the hope of similarly catchy in-game tunes is not kept. ” [ 19 ] Critics commended the iPhone port of Plants vs. Zombies for being faithful to the personal computer version and for its Quick Play modality, but many were disappointed by its omission of the early game modes. [ 42 ] [ 58 ] [ 123 ] [ d ] Many reviewers praised the iPad port ‘s inclusion body of the Mini-Games mode and the Survival modality, along with “ Buttered Popcorn ”, the exclusive mini-game. [ 63 ] [ 64 ] [ 65 ] The Xbox 360 port of Plants vs. Zombies was praised for its addition of exclusive game modes, including a cooperative mode and a Versus mode. [ 84 ] [ 109 ] [ 124 ] The Nintendo DS port was commended for its four new mini-games and its versus mode from the Xbox 360 translation, but was considered subscript in its vivification and graphics. The port was besides criticized for its relatively high gear price, for the DS top screen ‘s lone usage as an indicator of tied progress, and for precarious frame rate. [ 92 ] [ 110 ] [ 125 ] many critics found the PS Vita adaptation faithful to the personal computer version, though diffident about whether or not there enough significant additions in this version to recommend to person who already has Plants vs. Zombies on another chopine. [ 111 ] [ 126 ] [ 127 ]
Awards
Plants vs. Zombies was nominated for versatile categories in the GameSpot Best of 2009, [ 128 ] 2009 Spike Video Game Awards, [ 129 ] the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, [ 130 ] the tenth annual Game Developers Choice Awards, [ 131 ] and the 6th [ 132 ] and 7th british Academy Games Awards. [ 133 ] It won the categories of “ Download Game of the class ” and “ Strategy Game of the year ” in the Golden Joysticks Awards 2010, [ 134 ] and the category of “ Best casual Game ” in the 7th International Mobile Gaming Awards. [ 135 ] Electronic Arts ( EA ) claims that Plants vs. Zombies has won over 30 Game of the class awards. [ 136 ]
bequest
George Fan ‘s layoff and Octogeddon
PopCap Games and its assets were bought by EA on July 12, 2011, for $ 750 million. [ 137 ] Fifty employees were laid off from PopCap Games ‘ Seattle studio apartment on August 21, 2012, marking a throw of focus to mobile and social gambling. [ 138 ] After a statement by Edmund McMillen, creator of The Binding of Isaac, rumors circulated that Fan was fired by EA because he opposed implementing pay-to-win mechanics in Plants vs. Zombies 2. Fan confirmed in a 2017 tweet that he had been laid off, and that he opposed the freemium aspects of Plants vs. Zombies 2, but did not link the two events. [ 139 ] [ 140 ] Three former PopCap employees debunked the notion that Fan was fired because of his concerns over the game, including Allen Murray, a erstwhile producer of Plants vs. Zombies 2. They said Fan was fired as separate of the systematic lay-offs in August 2012, and he was not tied partially of the Plants vs. Zombies 2 team ; he was working on other ideas for games at the time, including a game called Full Contact Bingo. He had lost matter to in Plants vs. Zombies when EA began envisioning the game as a huge franchise. [ 139 ] [ 140 ] Fan worked on the arcade action – strategy game Octogeddon after being laid off, [ 141 ] initially as part of a Ludum Dare contest. [ 142 ] The game idea was received positively and Fan formed a company along with Werner, the artist of Plants vs. Zombies, and Kurt Pfeiffer, the programmer of the Xbox 360 port. They developed Octogeddon for respective years, [ 143 ] releasing it on February 8, 2018, [ 144 ] to by and large positive reviews, according to Metacritic. [ 145 ]
Sequels and spin-offs
Since EA ‘s acquisition of PopCap Games, Plants vs. Zombies has expanded into a franchise spanning many consoles and several genres. Plants vs. Zombies Adventures, a by-product and social game, was released for Facebook on May 20, 2011, [ 146 ] and closed on October 12, 2014. [ 147 ] A mainline sequel named Plants vs. Zombies 2 was released for io on August 14, 2013. [ 148 ] Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, a multiplayer third-person taw, was released on February 25, 2014, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Xbox One, [ 149 ] and its sequel was released on February 23, 2016, for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. [ 150 ] A digital collectible batting order game, Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, was released internationally for the io on October 18, 2016. [ 151 ] The franchise released its third gear third-person shooter, Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville, on October 18, 2019, for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. [ 152 ] [ 153 ] A third mainline style is presently in growth for Android and io as of October 2020. [ 154 ] According to Metacritic, closely all the sequels and spin-offs of Plants vs. Zombies received by and large positive reviews. [ 155 ] Despite his resistance to Plants vs. Zombies 2 ‘s freemium model, [ 27 ] Fan has praised the series for delving into different genres, particularly Plants vs. Zombies Heroes ‘s enter digital card-collecting ; he hopes EA will continue the series into more genres while keeping the appeal of the original. [ 29 ]
other media
Zen Studios and PopCap made a downloadable message ( DLC ) interactive pinball table, based on Plants vs. Zombies and using PopCap assets, during development of Zen Pinball 2 and Pinball FX 2. [ 156 ] [ 157 ] The DLC was released on September 4, 2012, in North America and September 5 in Europe. [ 158 ] [ 159 ] In July and August 2013, Dark Horse Comics released six issues of a amusing book adaptation miniseries onto an io app. The miniseries was called Lawnmageddon, written by Paul Tobin and drawn by Ron Chan. [ 160 ] Dark Horse Comics continued releasing issues for the following two years. In 2015 Dark Horse Comics started a monthly spill of the comic series, in both digital and mark ; every three issues formed a classify miniseries. The foremost print miniseries was called Bully for You. [ 161 ]
cultural references
According to Chris Carter, editor-in-chief of Destructoid, Plants vs. Zombies is frequently referenced in pop culture. Fan said his favorite court to the game is the Magic: The Gathering poster “ Grave Bramble ”, [ 29 ] created as depart of the Innistrad expansion. [ 162 ] A re-creation of Plants vs. Zombies was added as a mini-game pursuit known as “ Peacebloom vs. Ghouls ” to World of Warcraft as part of the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion. [ 163 ] [ 164 ] Shigihara provided some music for the quest. [ 165 ]
