In the war between man and nature, the occasional distraction comes along. In this interruption in the brutal combat, an army of zombies appears quite without warning and assaults the front yards of humanity. Fortunately man and vegetable are able to put their differences aside for the sake of survival, and it is up to you to use this alliance to its fullest. En garde, as they say.

Plants vs. Zombies is a straightforward tower defense game. The field consists of a perfectly normal front yard in Everytown, USA, or another country if you wish. In most cases, this yard is a grid of 45 squares; in early stages, and some later ones, the grid is restricted to other dimensions. It is on these squares that various plants take root, and stand valiantly against the undead invasion.

The game's appearance gets plenty of bonus points. Things take on a cartoonish feel, with sprite-based graphics rather than polygons. Bright colors and humorous takes on zombie appearance give the game an amusing atmosphere while not distracting from gameplay. The whole affair reminds one of a comic book, down to the menus and interface and even Crazy Dave, who likes give advice on occasion (see right). The player's resource is sunlight, which falls from the sky during daytime stages--in nighttime, no sunlight falls, as is customary when it is on the wrong side of the planet. In these cases, the player must procure sunlight themselves, which is covered below.

The selection of defensive foliage available is vast. Basic offensive plants such as peashooters are a dime a dozen; variations on these include plants that fire frozen bolts to slow zombies and deal extra damage. Some support plants, such as sunflowers, which generate their own sunlight on intervals; during the night, the player must rely on these entirely for income. Defensive structures such as wall-nuts (you can infer their purpose from the name), and potato mines (which explode with a bit of SPUDOW! onomatopoeia) can be placed ahead to help intercept the waves of undead. Likewise, the zombies throw everything they have at you, from the basic pawns with little power to corpses armed with traffic-cone helmets and screen doors, to pole-vaulters that hop over wall-nuts with ease.

As the player progresses, they encounter the nighttime stages, with the aforementioned restriction on sunlight introducing the challenge of procuring resources in a new way. The game also throws "bowling" stages at you; these are among the most fun and satisfying, as they make use of wall-nuts being rolled by the player to impact zombies approaching, and can strike multiple zombies if the placement is correct. By mixing up stages, Later on, after certain milestones in the singleplayer campaign have been passed, new modes become available such as puzzles and mini-games unrelated to the main "plot." Plants vs. Zombies provides plenty of variety to keep you coming back for more.