Plants vs. Zombies

Imagine a full-scale zombie assault. The undead are crawling out of the ground, destroying everything in their path. They have to be stopped, but how? With guns and ammo, you say. With plants, says Popcap. Simply put, you have to stop the invasion by planting the right sort of plants in order to kill the undead menace before they reach your house.

Plants vs. Zombies has already been released on other formats, but on this new iPhone version of the Tower Defence-styled game Popcap has come up with a few new ideas. It's easier to control, it's easier to keep track of what is going on, there's more stuff in there and in the end it's simply a better game this time around. The zombies are relentless in their attack and you have to be quick to plant everything from pumpkin throwers to thorn firing cacti to the valuable potato walls. And flesh eating flowers, of course.

The problem is, of course, that flowers need sunlight. Preferably a lot of it, so you have to be careful and plan(t) smart to beat your undead enemies. It gets worse, since zombies have the bad habit of waking up during the night too, which forces you to plant sunflowers that can spread light to your sun-starving plants.

It's hard not to smile when you're playing Plants vs. Zombies since it looks amazingly cozy. The walking dead comes in all kinds of variations, from what looks like olympic teams (including a bobsleigh-team) to hippies and football-players. All of them have their particular abilities that you need to counter with the right sort of plant.

Just like the charming South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play the game takes place in familiar areas, you get to plant flowers in your backyard, the front of the house and around the swimming pool. The game never gets too complicated or cluttered and it's surprisingly intuitive despite the huge amount of choices available to you.

For the inevitable sequel I do hope for more stuff to do besides the campaign, and for a co-op mode. But really good puzzle games with well-designed controls that you can just pick up and enjoy don't grow on trees. That's exactly what Plants vs. Zombies is and if you own an iPhone or iPod Touch you should not miss this gem of a game.