Plants vs. Zombies: Difference between revisions

{{work}}

 

 

Zombies have risen from their graves, and seek to eat your brains. However, you find a most unlikely, but trusted ally in your own front lawn as you plant various organic defenses against the undead legions, and are also given advice and supplies by your neighbor Crazy Dave.

Yeah, it's [[Widget Series|that kind of game]].

 

 

In addition, there's a mini-game in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' based on this game, and completing all of its stages earns you a Sunflower as a non-combat pet that follows you around.

 

* [[Abnormal Ammo]]/[[Edible Ammunition]]

** The main attack you have is peas. Lots and lots of peas.

** On the enemy side, we also have the Jack-in-the-Box zombies, who are occasionally helpful.

* [[Affably Evil]]: The zombies. They even send you notes, although they turn up a little late. And when you win, {{spoiler|they decide to make a music video with you instead. And then [[Status Quo Is God|get back to invading your lawn.]]}}

* [[Airborne Mook]]: Balloon Zombies.

* [[An Ice Person]]: Snow Peas, Ice-Shrooms, and Wintermelons, which all slow down zombies - except the Zomboni and Bobsled Team.

* [[And Your Reward Is Interior Decorating]]

** The game constantly gives you plants that makes the next stage that would be normally hard be much much easier. Although sometimes they make you feel the frustration first before giving you a plant that could handle it easily.

* [[Aquatic Mook]]: Some zombies have tubes to help them cross the pool, another snorkels, and the last one is in a wetsuit riding a dolphin. (Which is [[Raising the Steaks|also a zombie]], by the way).

* [[Arbitrary Skepticism]]: The sentient English-speaking Puff-shroom had trouble believing in zombies.

* [[Artistic License Physics]]: Just ''what'' are those Bungee Zombies hooked up to?

** In the {{spoiler|final level, Zomboss' robot's hand.}}

** Crazy Dave also wears a metal pot on his head. Why? Because he's craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy.

* [[Bullet Seed]] - Well, technically peas, spines, fruits, and what-have-you.

* [[Cap]]: For anyone interested, the sunlight cap is 9990. Especially attainable in hard night survival modes! And the money cap is $999,990.

* [[Catch Phrase]]: Crazy Dave would like to remind you that he's craaaaaaaaaaazy.

* [[Damage Sponge Boss]]: There's really not much else you can do to {{spoiler|Dr. Zomboss's Zombot}} but let whatever offensive plants you got whale on it until it explodes.

* [[Dark Is Not Evil]]

** The appearance of Grave Busters fits with their purpose, devouring tombstones. But Grave Buster wants you to know that "he loves kittens and spends his off hours volunteering at a local zombie rehabilitation center. 'It's just the right thing to do,' he says."

** The Tangle Kelp is also a little creepy with its [[Glowing Eyes of Doom|glowing squinty eyes]]... basically a less-goofy-looking version of [[Pokémon|Tangela]], though its [[Flavor Text]] in the Suburban Almanac mitigates this with a spot of humor.

* [[Deliberately Monochrome]]: The Imitater is black and white, and so are the plants that he imitates, although this is probably done more to indicate that you're using an Imitater plant as opposed to a normal one. (This can be mildly frustrating if you're cloning, say, sunflowers, since the glow that's a prelude to sunlight is harder to spot.)

* [[Determinator]]: The zombies will ''never'' give up. Crazy Dave even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this:

* [[Doomy Dooms of Doom]]: The Doom-Shroom, which even explodes with a large [[Unsound Effect|DOOM!]]

* [[Emergency Weapon]]: Puff-Shrooms. They have limited range and low damage output, but they don't cost anything and they recharge fast. They're indispensable in night levels, as they allow you to keep zombies at bay while you gather enough sun-sources to bring out the big guns... Erh, plants.

** Squash and Potato Mines. A long recharge time but low sun cost makes them ideal for dealing with zombies while you set up, or even in tight spots. Same goes for Tangle-Kelp - even better in that they deal with fast-moving threats, like dolphin riders.

* [[Everybody Do the Endless Loop]]: The dancing zombies during the final video clip. Though it's nowhere surprising for zombies to be... stiff.

* [[Exact Words]]: There's an achievement for completing a night time level without using shrooms, which can be quite difficult. However, you can also earn it by {{spoiler|completing any "I, Zombie" level, which are set at night and don't involve shrooms.}} It should be noted, however, that the chance of ending up in a mushroom-less "I, Zombie" level is extremely low. Additionally, this exploit seems to have been corrected for the Steam release.

** Also, the Peashooters, the Squash, and the Torchwood.

** And nearly all the zombie names.

* [[Extreme Doormat]]: The Lily Pad. As the almanac entry says:

* [[Face of a Thug]]: Grave Buster, but he's actually nice.

"LIFE is dangerous." }}

* [[Fan Vid]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98v7Jq6IFrE No, really.]

* [[Fastball Special]]: Gargantuar will hurl smaller zombies at your plants. Thankfully, they're extremely weak and tend to be hurled into thick concentrations of peas.

* [[Final Exam Boss]]: In the last level, {{spoiler|you have to remember what plants do what kind of damage to fend off the final boss' attacks}}.

** [[Defog of War]]: Blover blows away the fog for a short of amount of time, and Plantern clears five lanes of fog as long as it's up.

* [[Follow the Bouncing Ball]]: In the final music video. Incidentally, this bouncing ball is a brain.

* [[Frozen Face]]: Perhaps for the pun, Ice-shroom has a non-dramatic version of this. It being the reason he is a [[Perpetual Frowner]].

* [[Game Breaking Bug]]: The game has been known to corrupt one's save files numerous times in a row. You'll quit the game, load it later to play again, and find that the game forgets you've done ''anything''.

** This can be circumvented for the PC version by finding the "userdata" folder and backing it up.

* [[Gatling Good]]: The "four at a time" Gatling Pea.

* [[Giant Mook]]: The [[Mighty Glacier|Gargantuar]].

* [[Grumpy Old Man]]: Imitater says that all they had in the Zombie Wars were guts. Guts and a spoon.

* [[Harmless Freezing]]: Slightly averted with the Ice-Shroom. It temporarily freezes all enemies on the screen and slows them down when they thaw out, but it does [[Scratch Damage|one pea shot's worth of damage]] to all of them.

** They also allow you to temporarily see the location of the invisible zombies in the Invisighoul mini-game.

* [[Heavily Armored Mook]]: Various, see those under [[Improvised Armour]].

* [[Hold the Line]]: Every level.

* [[Hurricane of Puns]]: [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Incredibly Lame Puns]] -- and ''plant-y'' of 'em!

* [[Improvised Armour]]: Zombies with bucket/road cone helmets and screen door shields. A special shroom can bypass the latter.

* [[Improvised Umbrella]]: The Umbrella Leaf.

* [[Insane Proprietor]]: Crazy Dave, of course.

* [[Interface Screw]]

** The fog levels make 1/3 to 1/2 of the stage invisible (though you can sort of make out what's coming in the top and bottom rows).

* [[Interspecies Romance]]: The Cactus has been seeing an armadillo for a while and it really seems to be working out.

* [[Ironic Nursery Tune]]: The Jack-in-the-Box zombie plods along, cranking a box that's playing "Pop Goes the Weasel"... {{spoiler|and explodes.}}

* [[The Juggernaut]]: Being zombies, all zombies have shades of this, but Gargantuars take the cake, being able to instantly smash obstacles, trample down plants and being very durable, hulking monstrosities.

* [[Keet]]: Coffee Bean sure does get excited.

** Completely averted if you try to use Snow Peas with Torchwoods. You either freeze-unfreeze the zombies every second or your frozen peas are unfrozen before they hit the Zombie.

** You can kill weaker zombies with just Wintermelons.

* [[Last Stand]]: The mini-game Last Stand, where you have 5000 in resources and must spend it wisely to get to the next level.

* [[Lightning Bruiser]]

** But as for the plant's side, there's the Melon Launcher, which lobs a watermelon and can damage a large group of zombies and packs a heavy punch on the one it intentionally lands on (meaning it can defeat the Newspaper, Screen Door, and Pole Vaulting Zombie with ease) and reloads quickly enough to keep delivering heavy blows. The upgrade for this plant can freeze ''groups'' of zombies, as opposed to the Snow Pea's single shots. [[You Require More Vespene Gas|Of course, it costs 300 sun points to get]]...

* [[Lily Pad Platform]]: the Lily Pad for levels that have swimming pools. They must be planted first before any other plant can be placed on the swimming pool.

* [[Lost Forever]]: If you update the game regularly, this happened to the [[Michael Jackson]] zombie some time in late 2009. Understandably, some fans of both MJ and PvZ refuse to update their copy for this exact reason after learning that Popcap refused to cave in to the demand of MJ's foundation to give them a cut of the game's profits and replaced the MJ zombie with the [[Disco Dan]] Zombie.

** The conveyor belt missions aren't too bad because the plants don't scroll off the end of the belt and you can keep them for when you need them. The real Luck-Based Missions are the few where you have to plant them immediately or very quickly lose them, such as "It's Raining Seeds" and "Vasebreaker".

** Also, if you're playing the Steam version, no amount of skill will help you get the "China Shop" or "Better Off Dead" achievements if the [[Random Number God|RNG]] hates you. Especially egregious for the latter, in which you have to play perfectly ''and'' be lucky.

** And Crazy Dave, of course.

* [[Magic Mushroom]]: The Hypno-shroom

* [[Manly Tears]]: The Tall-nut. Garlic also gets them after being chewed on long enough.

* [[Mercy Invincibility]]: If one of your lawnmowers/pool/roof cleaners gets used, no zombies will attack that row for the next minute or two, giving you time to set up your defenses again.

* [[Mind Screw]]

** Flower Pot being a plant in which you plant plants attempts to induce this in you with the flavor text.

** Also could go for Cat-tail, although it's more of her not wanting to be pigeonholed more than anything.

* [[Mook Chivalry]]

** The digger zombie can tunnel beneath all your defenses, but once it reaches the other side of the lawn... it turns around and starts eating the plants in your back row. (Apparently it got confused while spinning like a top to emerge.) Problematic, but not as much as if it'd just go directly for the house.

** Also true for the [[Final Boss]]: why doesn't Dr. Zomboss just drop a zombie down your chimney?

** If you hit Dancing Zombie with a Hypno Shroom, he becomes ''your'' Mook Maker.

* [[More Dakka]]: A typical lawn once you get all your plants set up. The Gattling Pea in particular embodies this. Combine two Gattling Peas with a Torchwood and nothing will survive <ref>except maybe a Giga-Gigantuar</ref>, although of course it's kind of expensive.

* [[Multishot]]: Threepeater, though it is a plant with 3 heads.

* [[Never Heard That One Before]]: [[An Ice Person|Snow Pea]] gets a lot of this.

** You also unlock new mini-games, more items from Crazy Dave's shop, and the Yeti Zombie.

* [[Night of the Living Mooks]]: ''Every single enemy'' that your plants fight is a zombie. Well, except for Zomboni, who's {{spoiler|an alien that often hangs out with zombies and is frequently confused with them.}}

** Also, {{spoiler|robots aren't zombies. But the guy piloting it is definitely one.}}

* [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]]: The zombies have not only mastered many professions such as deep sea diving, pole vaulting, and football, but {{spoiler|there's an actual giant zombie bot at the end. A zombie '''in''' a robot. With a doctorate in Thanatology, no less.}}

* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: The Dancing Zombie's bio. He, by all accounts, looks like [[Michael Jackson|some Pop artist who made The Moonwalk famous]]. Made more sense back before the change to [[Disco Dan]].

* [[No Export for You]]: Prior December 14, 2011, if you own an Android device and live outside of the US, you can't have PvZ Android, since the game was exclusively available to the Amazon App Store, which only sells within the US and Canada. The trope was finally averted and made available over the regular Android Market worldwide on December 14, 2011.

* [[Nonsense Classification]]: The "suburban almanac" that describe all the different plants and zombies in the game. This encyclopedia, not taking itself very seriously, keep mixing up the concept of "individual" with the concept of "species". As in, every plant is an individual character, with its own back story, but there are several (a whole species worth) of them. We also have the Zomboni who is not a zombie but an alien who likes to hang out with zombies and the zombie yeti, who we don't know anything about... except for his name, birth date, social security number, educational history, past work experience and sandwich preference (roast beef and Swiss).

* [[No Zombie Cannibals]]: Averted if they're hypnotized.

** Doom-shrooms. These things literally define the term "[[Everything Makes a Mushroom|Mushroom Cloud]]".

* [[Perfectly Cromulent Word]]: No, the Cherry Bombs will not explode, nor will they detonate. They decided to explodonate. Powie!

* [[Perpetual Frowner]]: Ice-shroom, although it is because of a childhood injury that left his facial nerves paralyzed.

* [[Pinata Enemy]]: The {{spoiler|Zombie Yeti}}.

* [[Power Floats]]: It's more obvious in the zen garden, but the Coffee Bean floats above the soil.

* [[Psycho for Hire]]: "The Doom-Shroom would have no qualms about destroying your house instead. It wouldn't be hard, or so he claims."

* [[Punny Name]]: Most of the plants, almost to the point of [[Flintstone Theming]].

* [[Raising the Steaks]]: "The dolphin is also a zombie."

* [[Rake Take]]: You can buy a rake for your lawn that kills the first zombie that it encounters; it lasts three levels, after which you can buy a new one.

** Happens literally during the [[Final Boss]] -- if his eyes glow red, you better hope you have an empty pot and an Ice-Shroom on hand...

** Giga-Gargantuars. As if the resident [[Mighty Glacier|Mighty Glaciers]] couldn't get any worse, these guys can take a lot more damage than a regular Gargantuar.

** The Newspaper zombie's eyes will glow red when you push his [[Berserk Button]].

* [[Rule of Cute]]: Applies to both the plants and the zombies.

{{quote|When the zombies come, just sit there and don't do anything. You win the game when the zombies get to your house.|This help section brought to you by the zombies.}}

** To other [[Pop Cap]] games:

*** Minigames include "[[Bejeweled|Beghouled]]" and "[[Insaniquarium|Zombiquarium]]". Then later, "Beghouled Twist"

*** Speaking of ''[[Insaniquarium]]'', Stinky the Snail helps you collect coins in the Zen Garden.

** [[Michael Jackson|The Dancing Zombie]], before the Game of the Year Edition.

** One of the puzzles is called "[[Zero Wing|All Ur Brainz R Belong 2 Us]]".

** At the last level, Crazy Dave pops up and says {{spoiler|I know his weakness! You have to [[Konami Code|press up up down down left right left right]]... hmm....}}

** Tombstones are labelled "[[Monty Python's Flying Circus|BEREFT OF LIFE" and "Just Resting"]].

** The track [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAEhxrZCbLw&feature=related "Braniac Maniac"] is a musical nod to the Mega Man series.

** One of the Minigames on the Xbox360 version is called "''[[Heavy Weapon]]''", the name of another [[Pop Cap]] game. You play as a pea-shooting lawnmower that moves back and forth while aiming, in a similar fashion. The power-ups your lawnmower could get are also very similar to the original game.

* [[Shows Damage]]: On the plant side, the wall-nut, tall-nut, pumpkin, and spikerocks show damage. Most zombies show damage with their forms of defense being damaged and then destroyed, and then their arms falling off. The Zombonis will also show damage.

* [[Speaking Simlish]]: A variant; Crazy Dave is crazy enough that he's no longer actually speaking anything but gibberish, but you've known him long enough that you can translate.

** And to ease up localization in other languages. The French version has every text dutifully translated, but the audio (mostly "Braaaains") and the final song stay in English.

* [[Splash Damage]]: Melon-pult and Winter Melon. Flaming peas too, but on a very short radius.

* [[Spiritual Successor]]: to ''[[Insaniquarium]]''. It actually started out in development as a [http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/03/george-fan-how-insaniquarium-2-became-plants-vs-zombies.ars sequel to ''Insaniquarium'']. This explains the appearance of Stinky the Snail and the Zombiquarium minigame.

* [[Spread Shot]]: Threepeaters and Starfruit are able to do this. It's also what makes a field full of Threepeaters and Starfruit particularly dangerous to zombies. Not to mention those two plants can [[Demonic Spiders|easily screw up your zombies]], especially [[Fragile Speedster|Imps]], in "I, Zombie".

* [[Stealth Pun]]: The Lily Pad is a plant that basically acts as a water platform for plants that can't live in water. {{spoiler|It's a support class.}}

** The Tall-nut is also this. Wall-nut starts out smiling, but it turns into a pained-looking frown as its "skull" is slowly chewed away. But the Tall-nut's stoic glower is marred, no matter the damage taken, by no more than a single tear.

* [[Stone Wall]]: The Wall-nut and Tall-nut serve no purpose other than defending your easily-killed attackers by taking damage for them. And they sure can [[Made of Iron|take LOTS of it.]]

** Wall-Nut gets one when he's taken enough damage, poor guy.

** Crazy Dave, too.

** When a zombie meets a Potato Mine: SPUDOW!!

** When the Doom-shroom explodes: DOOM!!

* [[A Wild Rapper Appears]]: Inverted in Crazy Dave's song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_UTh4qNjjo "Wabby Wabbo"], where...well, just watch.

* [[Writing Around Trademarks]]: The newer almanac entry on the Zomboni:

* [[You All Look Familiar]]: Pretty much all the zombies have similar face designs. However, realizing that this game only takes up 25 MB and was made to be available online, it's easier to take in than most examples.

* [[You Require More Vespene Gas]]: Sun is the form of currency for your plants, dropped from the sky on day levels and produced by Sunflowers and Sun-shrooms.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Casual Video Game]]

[[Category:Nintendo DS]]

[[Category:Tower Defense]]

[[Category:Video Game]]