A game to bridge gardening generation gap
Your kids or grandkids won't take an interest in the garden, and
that's getting you down? Here's a way to share your passion and
open a different gate to the garden.
Want to discuss this or other
games
that might interest young gardeners?
Glad to meet you and do that at the Forum!
Our daughter inherited both gardening talent and a maternal
disability -- she's unable to make hand-brain connection through a
game box joy stick. Yet X Box and Wii are major pastimes in her
social groups. She's of that clan, but sympathetic to us outsiders.
Recently she told us, "I found the game for you, Mom. Plants vs.
Zombies™."
We've seen it, tried it, enjoyed it, and "the kids" liked it
well enough to buy a copy. We like the cleverness, and that we can
have fun even just watching it played. That's us, on the sidelines:
"Oh, look! The squash can flatten a zombie as it approaches but
also as it goes past." "Quick, plant more thorn plants - they're
making the Zamboni Zombie's tires explode!"
Basic play, like gardening 101
The premise is simple. You, the gardener, defend your home
against zombies of various kinds. Your weapons are plants and
garden tools, the first earned by collecting solar power and
requiring varying amounts of time to grow into their zombie
fighting ability. The latter come with your turf or as purchases
from a peddler, Dave, who shows up now and then to give you reason
to spend the bounty money you win by killing certain troublesome
zombies.
Above, left: The player selects plants to use in a round,
such as the basic pea shooter plant (a; less deadly but also less
costly of solar power than blue pea plants or multi-shot pea
plants), the sun-harnessing sunflower (b) whose output makes all
other planting possible, a walnut (c) so tough to crack it slows a
hungry zombie, a squash with an attitude (d) and zombie-stomping
ability, a chili so hot (e) that it can ignite a whole line of
zombies, and the torchwood (f). (Larger, please)
Above, right: An escalation of the zombie attack, where (A)
zombies come in packs, (B) the gardener has turned first-level
defensive peas into flame balls with the right plant combination,
(C) a zombie in an inflatable swimming toy eats a plant that failed
to knock it out in time, a wet-suited zombie breaches the last line
of defense (oh, why did we waste the mower power earlier?!), and
the garden is littered with fallen foes. (Larger, please)
So: The hedge in your back yard rustles - zombies are entering!
You must plant sunflowers to harness solar energy, collect those
suns and convert that energy into plants with defensive abilities:
A walnut that slows a zombie's advance because it takes so long to
be eaten. A potato that explodes like a land mine. A squash that
enjoys flattening invaders. Aquatic plants that entangle and drown
swimming zombies. Pea shooter plants. Chile peppers so potent that
every zombie in their row ignites and is destroyed.
Thinking required!
The player must deploy plants and tools wisely, too. You protect
energy production units with defensive plants. Place plants that
must grow into zombie-killing ability so they will not be eaten
before maturity. Remember to set lily pads in the pool to support
plants otherwise unable to grow there. Use your zombie bounty to
replace mowers and pool cleaners. And so on!
Difficulty increases as a player moves through the game. There
is a pool in the back yard, so aquatic zombies join the invasion
and the gardener must change plants and techniques. Nighttime
attacks involve defensive mushrooms, and installing lights to
counteract fog. Zombies come in bigger groups, more frequently. The
gardener's plant catalog grows, complicating the choices at the
beginning of each round.
Above, right: In nighttime levels, fog confuses things, the
gardener obtains energy to keep planting by swooping a cursor
past solar power (a) collected by growing mushrooms . Some of the
fungi shoot zombie-knocking spores, others such as this psychedelic
'shroom (b) are not aggressive but when eaten, turn zombies against
their own kind. The gardener contends with real garden woes, such
as the inability to plant in craters -- this one (c) formed when a
potato mine exploded. (Larger, please.)
Above, left: Earn enough zombie-killing bounty money and a
garden tool and supply peddler shows up with new gadgets for your
zombie defenses.
X Box, I-Pad, computer versions
There is Plants Vs. Zombies™ for the X Box, the I-Pad and plain
ole computer (Windows and Mac). Why not get the game and let your
kids or grandkids give it a try? They won't need your help, but
they will enjoy the challenge, the diversity, the comedy in the
zombie attackers, and they'll appreciate your laughs and
companionship.
Yes, we think you will laugh. Cheerlead, too. What gardener
wouldn't get into non-stop horticultural puns and fun as cherry
bombs explode -- they're slow to mature but quite lethal when ripe
-- and fast-growing pea plants snap into action to shoot peas at
approaching zombies? We'll bet you will relate to fancy tools that
work just once and expensive plants that prove their worth in the
pinch.
We think you'll also see the value in tiny lessons sown by the
game designer, who makes the player harness the sun, wait before
planting where exploding vegetables left a crater, but grants the
right to transplant what was misplaced -- in exchange for precious
time.
We can imagine using this game to enhance our real garden time
with kids. Doubtless, six year old Dee will like the game. So when
we're next outdoors with her, we'll tell her about our burning
bush. Between the three of us we should be able to dream up awesome
powers for it, two or three levels beyond the game's
"torchwood."
Thanks, PopCap games!
Plants Vs. Zombies™
from PopCap.com, available at stores and on line
Link to free trial download or to purchase