Title: Plants vs. Zombies
Platform: iPhone, iPad, Nintendo DS, XBOX Live, Windows, Mac and online
Cost: ranges from free online version to $19.95 for the Windows version. The iPhone version is $2.99
Happy Teen Tech Week! We haven’t had a game for our App of the Week a little while, so I decided to write about a favorite cross-platform game of mine: ‘ Plants vs. Zombies.’ It’s a puzzle game where you organize an army of plants, each with different abilities, to defend your house from the oncoming zombie hoards. ‘ The zombies, too, come in many types, each with their own styles and talents.’ The game’s bright colors, amusing design, and catchy music all contribute to making it seriously distracting.’ Gameplay is simple, but presents a variety of challenges as you advance through the levels.’ You can play in short bursts, just a level at a time, or get caught up and while away hours defeating level after level of zombie attacks.
Plants vs. Zombies offers an adventure mode with your different landscapes of increasing difficulty where you can kill zombies.’ Once you beat all of these, there is a list of achievements you can work towards, challenging you to go back through the game and complete certain tasks.’ There are also 49 plants to collect, from pea shooters to cabage-pults, and 25 different kinds of zombies, including football player zombie, dancing zombie, and Zamboni driving zombie.’ In the newly updated version there is also a zombie avatar creator, called the zombitar creator, where you can make your own zombie to turn loose in the game.
Plants vs. Zombies is made by Pop Cap, a company that is responsible for other great games like Bejeweled and Alchemy.’ They refer the style of these titles as “casual games”. They’re easy to play and require minimal time commitment.’ That is, if you can stop once you’ve gotten started.
Zombies are everywhere right now.’ In books like Rot & Ruin, and Zombies vs. Unicorns, in movies like Zombieland, and all over Internet humor. It makes this the perfect time to introduce your teens to a great zombie game that they can play on so many devices.’ Or if they are already playing, you can compare achievements and strategy. Try linking to the free version of the game on your library’s website or Facebook page.
Play Plants vs’ Zombies for free here.
And check out the official website for reviews, music videos, and the zombie avatar creator.
The 2.99 I spent on this app was the best money I ever spent. So much fun! More fun than angry birds. And funny enough? The book I’m reading now — Rot & Ruin!