Plants V.s. Zombies

[Senaqua Hildreth]

Plantsvs. Zombies is a video game franchise developed by PopCap Games, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts (EA). The series follows the affiliates of David "Crazy Dave" Blazing as they use his plants to defend against a zombie invasion, led by Dr. Edgar George Zomboss. The first game, Plants vs. Zombies (2009), was developed and released by PopCap before its acquisition by EA. After PopCap Games's acquisition, EA expanded the game into a franchise with games on many different platforms.

On April 1, 2009, PopCap released a music video for the song "Zombies on Your Lawn" by Laura Shigihara to promote Plants vs. Zombies.[2] A PopCap spokesperson, Garth Chouteau, revealed in an IGN interview that Plants vs. Zombies would be released soon on PC and Mac.[3] On April 22, 2009, PopCap released an official game trailer of Plants vs. Zombies on YouTube.[4][5] During the promotion of Plants vs. Zombies, PopCap released a demo version of the game that could be played for thirty minutes.[6] Plants vs. Zombies was officially released on May 5, 2009, for PC and Mac,[7] by 2013 switching from a $2.99 gameplay cost to free-to-play on iOS and Android devices. Critics on mobile devices give the game an average of 4.3-4.8 star ratings.[8]

PopCap Games and its assets were bought by EA on July 12, 2011, for 750 million US dollars.[9] Fifty employees were laid off in the Seattle studio of PopCap Games on August 21, 2012, to mark a switch of focus to mobile and social gaming.[10]

On August 20, 2012, PopCap announced that they were working on a sequel to Plants vs. Zombies.[11] Its release date would be set at late spring of 2013.[12] However, the game's status was in doubt shortly after the announcement when the company went through a period of layoffs.[10]

In May 2013, PopCap Games released a trailer revealing a sequel to the first game, titled Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time.[13][14] The game was soft-launched for the iOS in Australia and New Zealand on July 10, 2013,[15] and was officially released on August 14, 2013, as a freemium title.[16] The game featured new locations and plants along with the addition of plant food, a power-up that can be used to enhance a plant for a short period and can either be bought using in-game currency or acquired by defeating zombies that are glowing green.[17] There are four other power-ups in the game, all of which are bought with coins, the in-game currency. Along with these new add ons, the game continues to make updates from time to time. According to EA News, the Arena and Penny's Pursuit updates, which are different game modes within the game, have been some of their latest major updates, aside from all the mini add ons.[18]

In July 2019, EA announced Plants vs. Zombies 3, another free-to-play mobile title in the series. It was launched in a pre-alpha state for Android in July 2019.[19][20] The game soft-launched in February 2020 in the Philippines, Romania, and Ireland.[21] It was then made unavailable in October 2020, becoming unplayable in November 2020. EA has plans to release an improved version of the game in the future.[22] On September 7, 2021, Plants vs. Zombies 3 was soft-launched again with substantial changes, such as two-dimensional graphics and the return of the Sunflower as a plantable plant, having the same purpose in the previous iterations.[23] On January 17, 2024, Plants vs. Zombies 3 was soft launched again, this time as Plants vs. Zombies 3: Welcome to Zomburbia in select regions,[1] adapting storylines and characters from the Plants vs. Zombies comic book series (written by Paul Tobin, illustrated by Ron Chan, and published by Dark Horse Comics), including Tugboat the Zombie and Patrice Blazing.[24]

A spin-off called Plants vs. Zombies Adventures was announced in March 2013[25] and was released on May 20, 2013 on Facebook. The game added new locations and new plants. It also had a gameplay feature in which the player had a limited amount of plants and had to grow more plants at an in-game farm.[26] In July 2014, it was announced that Plants vs. Zombies Adventures would close on October 12, 2014.[27]

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare was announced at E3 2013 as a multiplayer third-person shooter game made for PC and consoles.[28][29] Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare was released on February 25, 2014, in North America and on February 27, 2014, in Europe.[30] A sequel, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, was teased in June 2015 and was officially announced at E3 2015.[31][32] The game was released on February 23, 2016.[33] On March 10, 2016, PopCap announced Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, a digital collectible card game in the style of tower defense. It was soft released to certain countries on the same day,[34] and was fully released internationally on October 18, 2016.[35]

In August 2019, a closed beta of a sequel to Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 codenamed "Picnic" was made available to select players through invites.[36] On September 4, 2019, EA announced the sequel's title; Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville. It was released in an early access state that same date. The game was fully released on October 18, 2019.[37][38]

A cancelled single player Plants vs. Zombies game had been in the works within EA from about 2015 to 2017. Known as "Project Hot Tub" in reference to Hot Tub Time Machine, the game was to have been an action game along the lines of the Uncharted series but maintaining its family-friendly nature, featuring two teenage siblings that travelled through time to fight zombies. The game was being developed by PopCap Vancouver. While a vertical slice of the game had been shown off to EA executives in 2017, EA opted to cancel the project to pull in more resources to Visceral Games to support their work on the Star Wars game under the name Project Ragtag, which had been languishing for several years. Despite this, EA cancelled Project Ragtag in October 2017, shutting down Visceral Games, and the former PopCap Vancouver team was relocated across other EA studios.[39]

Since July 2013, Dark Horse Comics has published a Plants vs. Zombies ongoing comic book series, following teenagers Nate Timely and Patrice Blazing as they protect Neighborville from the zombie armies of Dr. Edgar Zomboss, with the help of Patrice's uncle, David "Crazy Dave" Blazing, and his own legion of genetically-modified sentient plants, accessible via the Plants vs. Zombies Comics app.[40] Elements and characters from the comic book series were later adapted to the franchise's video game instalments, and vice-versa.[41]

It was first going to release on October 28, 2008, back when it was titled Bloom & Doom, but as an early version, and it got delayed. It was first released on May 5, 2009, and it originally (and initially) was made available on Steam for Microsoft Windows and macOS. An iPhone version for iOS was released on February 15, 2010, and an HD version for the iPad was released on March 31, 2010. Furthermore, both the original Windows and Mac version of the game have been re-released with additional content in the Game of the Year Edition on July 11, 2010. An extended Xbox Live Arcade version introducing new gameplay modes and features was released on September 8, 2010. PopCap released a Nintendo DS version on January 18, 2011 with content unique to the platform. The PlayStation 3 version was released in February 8, 2011 also with added new co-op and versus modes found in the Xbox 360 version. An Android version of the game was released on May 31, 2011 on the Amazon Appstore, while it was also released to the Android Market (now Google Play) on December 14, 2011. On February 16, 2012, a version was released for BlackBerry PlayBook. Later, a BlackBerry smartphone version of the game was released on January 2013 following the launch of BlackBerry 10. In November 13, 2014, a free ad-supported version of the game was released for iOS and Android.

The game received a positive response from critics and was nominated for multiple Interactive Achievement Awards, alongside receiving praise for its musical score. The game is followed by a sequel, Plants vs. Zombies 2, which was released on July 9, 2013, in Australia and New Zealand, then it was released worldwide on August 15, 2013.

Zombies are invading your home, and the only defense is your arsenal of plants! Armed with an alien nursery-worth of zombie-zapping plants like peashooters and cherry bombs, you'll need to think fast and plant faster to stop dozens of types of zombies dead in their tracks. Obstacles like a setting sun, creeping fog and a swimming pool add to the challenge, and with five game modes to dig into, the fun never dies!

In Plants vs. Zombies, players place different types of plants and fungi, each with their own unique offensive or defensive capabilities, around a house, in order to stop a horde of zombies from reaching their house. The playing field is divided into 5 to 6 horizontal lanes, and with rare exceptions, a zombie will only move towards the player's house along one lane (the main exception is if it has bitten a garlic, causing it to move to another lane). Planting costs "sun", which can be gathered for free (a bit slowly) during daytime levels and by planting certain plants or fungi. Most plants can only attack or defend against zombies in the lane they are planted in. In later levels, players can purchase upgrades with different offensive and defensive abilities.

The game uses several different level types and layouts. The game starts out in a front yard and progresses to nighttime levels, where the gameplay is more challenging without any replenishing sun unless specific plants are used. Other levels feature the backyard, with a pool added. The next levels are nighttime pool levels (where fog fills the right half of the screen except when specific plants are used), a lightning storm level in pitch black (except when illuminated by occasional flashes of lightning), and rooftop levels (on the final level, the player must face a huge robot operated by a mad scientist zombie known as Dr. Zomboss). At set points throughout the game, the player is either warned through a letter by zombies or addressed by Crazy Dave to prepare for an ambush, where the game takes on a bowling style, using Wall-nuts to bowl down zombies, or a modified version of regular levels, where random plant types come upon a small selection, and the player can use the plants without spending sun.

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