Plants Vs Zombies or PVZ is a beloved Tower Defense game where players use an army of unique plants to defend their home from waves of peculiar zombies. This popular Video Game combines strategic depth with charming humor, demanding quick thinking and tactical placement to survive. The franchise continues to evolve, with upcoming titles like PvZ Replanted promising new features and experiences.
Core Gameplay
Plants vs. Zombies is a tower defense game, in which players use Plants inspired by different types of plants and fungi, each with their own unique offensive and/or defensive capabilities, to defend their house and brains from Zombies. These Plants can be planted on a grid at the cost of Sun, collected as it falls from the sky or generated by Sun-producing Plants like the Sunflower. The many different variants of Zombies will make their way across the player's lawn, for the most part in a straight line, eating and destroying the Plants that get in their way. Lawn Mowers guard the end of the lawn as a last line of defense, but if Zombies manage to get past all of the player's defenses, they enter their house and eat their brains, causing the level to fail.
As a typical tower defense game, new Plants are unlocked and new Zombies appear as the levels progress. Plants can be chosen in the "Choose Your Seeds" menu before a level begins, and cannot be changed afterwards without restarting. The number of available seed slots can be improved through in-game currency. Additionally, the game features 5 different stages throughout its Adventure Mode, each with 10 levels, including a mini-game level at X-5 and a "Final Battle" at X-10. Each of these stages also introduces its own unique mechanics, making use of the different traits and abilities of the Plants and the Zombies.
Each normal level starts with basic Zombies, giving adequate time for the player to establish their defense, and introduces more difficult Zombies as the level progressively becomes more complicated. Zombies appear in waves rather than individually, and a "large wave" of Zombies will appear every few waves, indicated by flags on the level's progress bar. Once all Zombies waves have been defeated, the level is won.
Characters
List of Published Video Games
- Plants vs. Zombies - May 5, 2009
- Plants vs. Zombies 2 - July 9, 2013
- Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare - February 25, 2014
- Plants vs. Zombies Heroes - October 18, 2016
- Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville - October 18, 2019
- Plants vs. Zombies Replanted - October 23, 2025 (A remaster based on the Windows Phone port, featuring elements from the Xbox 360 version, a new "Cloudy Day" level type, and "R.I.P. Mode").
Chinese Exclusive Content
The Plants vs. Zombies franchise features a wide range of games and content developed exclusively for the Chinese market. These versions often include unique plants, zombies, game modes, and seasonal events, such as the Spring Festival shown in the image, significantly expanding the gameplay experience beyond global releases. These exclusive titles are often developed by different studios under license from PopCap Games or Electronic Arts.
Bugs and Glitches
The game, like many others, can experience various bugs and glitches:
- Upscaled images appearing improperly.
- Zombies heads occasionally disappearing.
- Everything except for animations stopping randomly.
