Plants vs. Zombies

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About

Plants vs. Zombies, often shortened to PvZ, is tower defense video game series originally released by PopCap Games on May 5th, 2009. In the original game, its sequel and spin-offs, a homeowner had to fend off waves of zombies assaulting his house by arranging defenses with a variety of weapon-like plants which are able to shoot, freeze, explode, burn zombies and otherwise prevent them from reaching him.

History

On May 5th, 2009, tower defence video game Plants vs. Zombies, developed by PopCap Games, was released for Microsoft Windows and OS X.^[1] In the game, the player took role of a homeowner forced to protect his backyard from hordes of zombies by planting various anthropomorphic plants able to destroy zombies and hinder their movement in a number of ways.

Sequels and Spin-Offs

On August 15th, 2013, mobile-only sequel Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time was released for iOS, with the Android version released on October 23rd, 2013.^[2] The gameplay was largely similar to the first installment, with the plot revolving about the homeowner travelling through time on a quest to find his neighbour Crazy Dave's taco.

On February 25th, 2014, third-person shooter tower defence hybrid Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare was released for Xbox 360 and Xbox One, with later releases for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 3 and 4 later the same year.^[3] On February 23rd, 2016, sequel Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 followed.^[4]

On October 18th, 2016, mobile-only digital collectible card game Plants vs. Zombies Heroes was released for iOS and Android.^[5]

In February 2018, development of a yet unnamed Plants vs. Zombies installment was announced.^[6]

10 Year Anniversary

In the days leading to and following the Plants vs. Zombies 10 year anniversary, the game saw an increase in amount of related memes online, primarily on Reddit, with the game both being referenced and used a source of meme formats. For example, on April 27th, 2019, Reddit user Kank1k made an I'm About to End This Man's Whole Career meme referencing the game which gained over 12,000 upvotes in nine days (shown below, top left).^[10] On May 5th, Redditor 4our_of_DiAmoNds posted a meme that gained over 27,600 upvotes in two days (shown below, center).^[11]

Gameplay

In Plants vs. Zombies, the player must place different types of weapon-like plants and fungi, each of which has unique abilities such as dealing damage, hindering the enemy's movement or providing various bonuses to the nearby plants. Each round, several waves of zombies varying in speed, amount of health and battle tactics attempt to reach the player's house to "eat his brains". To progress through the game, player have to successfully fend off the attacks, preventing zombies from reaching their destination.

Before each round, player has to select a limited number of plants they would like to use out of the pool of 49 available plants, including Peashooter, Sunflower, Wall-nut, Potato Mine, Melon-Pult and others. Through the story mode, the player is assisted by his neighbor Crazy Dave, who provides various upgrades. In addition to the story mode, Plants vs. Zombies also includes a variety of additional modes and challenges.

Reception

On Metacritic, Plants vs. Zombies maintains a 87 rating based on 41 reviews, with 8.9 user score based on 1009 ratings.^[7] On Game Rankings, the game maintains a 88,3 persent score based on 31 reviews.^[8]

In the year of its release, Plants vs. Zombies was nominated for the "Casual Game of the Year" and "Outstanding Achievement in Game Design" awards from tthe Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.^[1] The game earned over 30 Game of the Year awards.^[9]