Two … tastes, that taste, er, tasty together! Everyone seems to have caught on that a zombie apocalypse is inevitable and I highly recommend Max Brooks’ Survival Guide (did you know that Max is Mel Brooks’ son?). Popcap is smarter than most, they realize that the ultimate weapon against the hordes of undead are neighborhood plants. All hail the gardener! This is one terrific strategy game!

There are a lot of different marauding ghouls and specialized plants to deal with them. Plant a magnet-plant to take the metal pail off of their heads, or pickaxes and screendoors out of their hands. Place Walnuts and the “unjumpoverable” Tallnuts as defensive bulwarks against zombies on pogosticks or running to do the high jump. Peashooters can be upgraded to gatling guns and if you put a Torchwood in the way – we’re talking about peas that are hotter than wasabi. Speaking of heat, the peppers blow away a hole row while the cherry bombs are called that for a reason. Old man zombies with catapult cars, snowmobiles and even a bobsled team can run afoul of your melon-catapult, a corn-cob cannon, and spiky thorns. There’s a giant zombie who tosses a little zombie friend over your defenses, a nutty zombie with a jack-in-the-box that goes boom and even a zombie summoning Michael Jackson (he dances, they come out of the earth to dance too – how topical).

There’s a long and varied campaign, a wealth of unlockable minigames and a survival mode that gives you a chance to fight veggie headed zombies and another where you turn the tables and you command the hordes.

This isn’t a scary game.  GamerBoy is six and while he was disturbed by the “The Zombies Ate Your Brains” message when you lose – it’s accompanied by crunching noises – he still thought the game was cool. He can’t play it yet but to my 9-year old daughter it was fascinating. Could it be that I have a strategy gamer in my house?

I can’t recommend this enough!  Worth it for the $19.99 it is everywhere else and a steal for the $9.99 they have it for on Steam. Shamble, don’t walk and remember, take good care of your vegetables – not everything that comes out of the ground is good for you.

BRAINS

Tags: Game Reviews