Seriously. This week I downloaded for play Batman Arkham Asylum and Resident Evil 5 for PC, but I haven’t been playing them at all. Instead, I’ve been spending all my time defending my virtual home from the endless onslaught of zombies with my gardening skills of undead-doom!

I just finished the last level (or what I think is the last level?) and watched the hilarious credit sequence that’s shown at the top of this post. I’ve played several of the mini-games, but I know I just unlocked more and I’m ready to get to my Zen Garden, as well! Man! This game has really thought it through with simple fun in the form of side-scrolling action with cartoonishly high quality graphics, entertaining music, challenging levels, and even extra content. The only characters in the game are Crazy Dave, who sells stuff out of his hatch-back, gives you helpful hints about how to pass certain levels, and speaks in a sort of slurred-drunken jibberish. Also, there’s a pot on his head.

The zombies are characters, too! I mean, there’s so many different types, and it’s true a player could look at them simply as assaulting AI, but each type seems to have its own character personality. And when using extra ‘cheats’, such as the mustache feature, it adds more fun to the game and even more depth to the character of the zombies. Not to mention, they also write you letters, on occasion, and in mini-games you can play as the zombies! My favorite zombie class is a seekrit… and this other class would be my favorite if I could ever find it.

PopCap’s Description:
Get ready to soil your plants [HAHAHAHA!!!] in an all-new action-strategy game from PopCap! A mob of fun-loving zombies is about to invade your home, and your only defense is an arsenal of 49 zombie-zapping plants. Use peashooters, wall-nuts, cherry bombs and more to mulchify 26 types of zombies before they can reach your front door. Each zombie has its own special skills, so you’ll need to think fast and plant faster to combat them all. But be careful how you use your limited supply of greens and seeds… as you battle the fun-dead, 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!

Play five game modes: Adventure, Mini-Games, Puzzle, Survival, plus the stress-free Zen Garden

Conquer all 50 levels of Adventure mode — through day, night and fog, in a swimming pool and on the rooftop

Battle 26 types of zombies including pole-vaulters, snorkelers and “Zomboni” drivers

Earn 49 powerful perennials and collect coins to buy a pet snail, power-ups and more!

As hinted at in Popcap’s description, there’s more than just the regular story mode. The story mode is repeatable, more difficult each time. There are mini-games and puzzles. There are also several personal gardens (day time, night time and aquatic) that you can fill up with various plants to care for when you’re not indulging yourself in the games and puzzles. Don’t forget, however, that PvZ also has its own built-in hint-slash-seekrit giver: the tree of wisdom. The Tree of Wisdom grows in its own garden, requires special fertilizer and tells you seekrits and hints as you feed it. Some of seekrits can be toggled regardless of whether or not you’ve put the work required into it; others cannot.

Head to PopCap Games’ Plants VS Zombies website, if you like. You can download it for a free trial, if you like. It works for PC and Mac. What’s more, it might get ported to the iPhone, and judging from its popularity, by “might” I mean “definitely will sometime before the end of this year”. Or is that just me wishing something with so much force that my mind makes it a fact?

I’m just saying… if any extra content comes out for this game and/or sequels, I’m gonna be all over that!