Fresh from the 2010s, Plant vs. Zombies has made its return to the spotlight with Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted. Available on PC, PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch, developers PopCap Games and The Lost Pixels claim that the Replanted version of the game is “bigger, brighter and crazier than before.” Plants vs. Zombies was all the rage when it was released, even I was a victim of the game’s craze. Fourteen years later, here we are testing the remastered version – the circle of life. Let’s see how this tower defense game stands up against time.
The graphics for Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted are good, as would be expected of a remaster. The small cyclical animations used for the game are smooth and well done, maintaining the old school style without seeming clunky. There’s not much to say for the graphics otherwise. The style maintains the simplistic and bright visuals of the original, just in high definition. There’s a fun toggle in the settings to give the plants and/or zombies a retro pixelated style. Completely unnecessary, but a bit of wholesome fun. Audio is the same as the original game, with jazzy little jingles and shooting sound effects. It’s minimalistic and aligned with the original but again, nothing noteworthy.
Gameplay was fun, and could be addicting for some. For me, this tower defense style is too repetitive and gets old fast. The nostalgia of the game still made the playthrough entertaining. The gameplay style, however, does feel foreign on a controller, as the mechanisms were designed for mobile, but it is manageable and easy still. Perfect for children, or other adults looking for a hit of nostalgia.
There are very few differences between the mobile version of Plants vs. Zombies and Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted. This is because, as much as they might advertise “bigger” and “better”, it is still just a remaster. The new version includes cut content which, while not featured on the mobile game, was still accessible through other methods. Multiplayer modes have been ported from early console versions of the game, allowing vs and co-op play too. There are also two additional game modes. Cloudy Days reduces the amount of sunshine/points received and R.I.P mode is a perma-death mode where failing a level resets the player to the beginning, adding difficulty tiers to the game. For those who get addicted to tower defense style games, I can imagine the rage inducing pain of losing R.I.P mode.
Overall, Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted was a fun way to pass some time, but nothing special. For those who had a true connection with the original game or love nostalgic games, its worth the time but £17.99 is a steep cost for what was essentially a free mobile game. I won’t judge you if you want to spend the money on an innocent bit of fun, as it it faithful to the original mobile game. However, for myself personally I don’t see it being a game I would return to except out of extreme boredom.
The game code for this review was provided by EA. This review has been cross-posted to OpenCritic.
