My Favourite Games (Part 2)

Ahh... MOCK 2 exams is over... Feels good... But then again, there's MOCK 3 and the SPM. I can't really be too happy because my suffering has yet to end. But for now I can at least enjoy a bit and continue updating my blog.

PLANTS VS ZOMBIES

I love TD (Tower Defense) games. Basically, TD games are games in which you build towers that shoots stuffs towards the incoming horde of enemies and try your best to prevent them from invading your base. Plants vs Zombies is also a TD game. Except in this game the "towers" are "plants", "enemies" are "zombies" and "your base" is "your house". This is actually a very good PopCap game. It is the first PopCap game in which I am very addicted to.

What makes this game more unique than any other TD games is its nice blend of cuteness and originality. I like the idea of me planting plants on my backyard to defend myself against the incoming zombies. The idea of zombies wanting to eat my brain and plants that protect their master (me) is also very original and funny. Screenshots below:

The main menu. Plants vs Zombies is divided into 4 modes: Adventure, Mini-Games, Puzzle and Survival. There's some other stuffs like the Zen Garden, Suburban Almanac and a shop.

The Adventure mode is basically the main storyline mission. You will have to play this mode to unlock more plants, and the other three modes. There are 5 levels in this game and they are:

• Day : You will be defending in your frontyard on solid ground in broad daylight. I thought zombies don't like sunlight.
• Night : Same as Day, but this time at night. Plants like mushrooms are only active at night (sleeps at daylight) and some zombies only appear at night.
• Pool : Now you will be defending your backyard, which has a pool in it. some zombies can go through the pool to your house, so plants has to be planted on Lili Pads so that it can float on water.
• Fog : Same as Pool, but with a little twist to it. A fog, blocking your view up to half of the screen. This makes Fog a pretty intimidating level and creepy to play on than the other levels.
• Roof : Yes, zombies can climb your roof and attempt to enter your house through the chimney (screenshot above). So, you will have to defend here as well. Since plants cannot be planted on roofs, flower pots have to be placed before planting plants.

What makes Plants vs Zombies has a good longevity is the mini-games, in which I like to play over and over again. There are 20 mini games in this game and each mini-game is unique and fun to play. This particular one is a mini-game called "Slot Machine". The main idea is that there's a slot machine on the top-centre and try to match 2 or 3 pictures of the same plant. And then they will spawn in the game in a form of cards in which you can plant them anywhere on your garden. To win this game, you must collect 2000 sunlights before zombies can reach your house. Once they reach your house they will EAT YOUR BRAIN and you lose.

The Puzzle mode consists of 2 types, namely "Vasebreaker" and "I, Zombie". The screenshot above is from "I, Zombie" on a level called "ZomBoggie". "I, Zombie" is also one of the things which makes this game unique as you get to play as the Zombies instead of plants. Your mission is to get the zombies to bypass the plant-defenses (which are made of cardboard so that no plants will be hurt) and eat 5 brains (cardboard brains, of course) on the far left end of the garden. I like the Dancing Zombies and his Backup as it is very fun to see them boggie towards the plants and munch them real fast.

And then there's the Survival Mode. As the title implies, you have to survive for as long as you can as the zombies march towards your house. This particular one that I had played is the Survival: Endless, and had just finished 14 flags, which is SO DAMN HARD!!! My defences are very strong but this is actually not enough if I don't constantly make repairs and upgrade existing plants. Try to guess whether I had survived the next flag or I had my brain eaten by the zombies?

If you don't feel like fighting zombies or just want to take a break, just want to sit back, relax, plant your plants in a zombie-free environment called the Zen Garden. If you water your plants and take good care of them, they will give you reward in a form of cold, hard cash.

Besides planting plants in the Zen Garden, you can also plant the Tree of Wisdom. Buy tree food from the Dave's Shop and feed it to get some tips and tricks from your tree. I find the tips the tree gives useful, but there are some that you had already knew after you played Plants vs Zombies long enough.

Sunlight in this game is used to purchase plants while defending your backyard. After all, plants need sunlight. Cash is used to purchase upgrades and stuffs from the shop to improve your game and your Zen Garden instead. The shop, named Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies, is own by your crazy neighbour, Dave. Dave is a very caring neighbour, eventhough he is a bit "out of mind".

The Suburban Almanac is where you will find a list of plants and zombies you had unlocked. There 49 plants and 26 zombies to be unlocked. It also provides descriptions about the plants and zombies, just in case one forgets what they do. I like reading the descriptions after I had unlocked them because all of them are hilarious and fun to read.

After finishing the adventure mode, you will be treated to a music video. The zombies gave up invading your house after you had defeated the boss and wants to make a music video with you. Very sincere, but weird. Click on the link here to see the video from YouTube.

I had pretty much written a lot of things about this game. There are many more things that I have to say about this game, but I don't want to spoil the fun for those who haven't played it. To buy it, go to PopCap's official website or download via STEAM.