Plants vs. Zombies!!! Review

Zombies are coming and they want your delicious brains! But you're just a stay at home gardener, whatever will you do? Well, there's more than one way to send a zombie back to the grave and your weapons of choice this time are a bit more unexpected...



At the core, plants vs. zombies is a tower defense game. You are given a grid style map with specific spots to plant your "guns" and you must gather resource by grabbing sunlight as it falls from the sky as well as growing it in your sunflower plants. The fundamental differences from most tower defense clones is that there isn't a set route that's mapped out for the zombies before hand, nor is there a way to divert the zombies into your own path crafted by tower placement. The zombies simply spawn on the right side of the map (opposite your house) and shamble there way to your door. Then can appear in up to 6 lanes of the yard and you must have something to destroy them before they make it all the way to the left side or your tasty brains will be devoured. Your weapons of choice are all plants, and range from peashooters to watermelon catapults (and everything else in between). I don't want to sell short the wide array of plants you get however, since there are so many that aren't just simply about shooting or slowing the zombies. Plenty of mechanics get figured into the game that require the use a plant that clears gravestones, or absorbs metal objects. There's so many useful plants that even with 9 slots for seeds you can find your self a bit distressed of which ones to bring along.



As I mentioned earlier this is simply the core style of gameplay. As you work your way thru the adventure mode of the game you will be given, in steady bursts, new plants for your arsenal and you must choose which seed packs to bring into battle. Then every 5th level of an episode you will be challenged with a mini-game, the first being a bowling game with your Wall-nuts. Where you are given a steady stream of nuts and must bowl over as many zombies as you can and get massive combos. Then with every 10th level, the end of each episodes, you are given a more or less "boss scenario" where a massive amount of zombies rush your house and you are given a conveyor belt of plants to grab from and must hold out the house til they're all gone. I was quite partial to these points in the game since you didn't have muddle with the sunlight resource anymore and could focus all your land on attacking plants which results in some heavy fire power and strategy with the planets given to you, about how to take down large groups of zombies.

The adventure mode to the game consists of 4 episodes, in four locales around your house. With each level (and also time of day) can effect which plants are available or useful at all. Upon completing more of the adventure content you are given the options to play mini-games and puzzle levels crafted around the main game but with crazy objectives (like "Beghouled" a bejeweled clone about shooting zombies while matching groups of 3 plants to get sunlight). There is also a shop that opens up owned by your neighbor Crazy Dave. Here you can buy upgrades to your plants, more slots for your seeds and other assorted defenses against the undead.

Having completed about 85% of all the content of the game (all adventure and about 25 of the 36 puzzle/minigames) I can definitely give this game a resounding recommendation to anyone. There's so much fun packed into this package, and even if you're not a super tower defense buff there's plenty of other things here to keep you happy. The game is worth buying simply to read all the crazy plant and zombie "flavor text" written out in your almanac. The game is 10 bucks on steam right now and 20 on popcap's official site. I believe you can grab a demo or trial version from Popcap to see if you like it first, but for the price I don't think its truly necessary since you won't be able to keep your progress from the demo. If you aren't sold yet, then I have two more words for your... ZOMBIE... DOLPHINS. That is all.

EDIT: There is a steam demo available too and you can transfer your progress over if you decide to buy the game afterwords. Also there are 6 episodes I miss counted since I didn't think the tutorial section actually counted as a level and that there was a night version of the final stage. Those 6 episodes are made up for 10 levels each.



-Slayzer

Astro Boy: Omega Factor

Astro boy is a pretty well known name in Anime, although not nearly as renowned in the gaming world. This little trinket on the GBA brings Astro boy back in full force with an amazing Action-Platformer developed by none other than Treasure creator of such games as Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun and Gunstar Heroes to name a few.

Similar to Treasure's other titles, this game boasts intense action, great visuals and MASSIVE explosions. Playing as Astro you must pulverize rogue robot's who are trying to harm humans while trying to sway the racist ideals of human's against robot kind. While the story itself simply serves a means to move from one boss fight to the next, it is quite interesting to see the very thought provoking plot play out to an unexpected climax.

The game play is comparable to Gunstar heroes (minus a majority of the fire power) in that you're advancing through different venues armed with punches, kicks, an arm cannon and also an machine guns, compartmentalized in your ass! The stages are completely linear in design with an almost completely left to right movement scheme, with some very minor alterations in the case of the cave and temple levels.

Overall Astro boy: Omega factor has a good amount of replayability since you need to complete the overall story twice through to see it all. You'll gain the option to free pick the order in which to complete the stages, also allowing you to return to old levels to complete level up objectives you may have missed. This is obtained after your finish completion of the story.

Highly recommended for action/shooter fans.

Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure

Henry Hatsworth is a puzzle/platforming game at heart. Having recently been playing more puzzle games, this is a nice change of pace from the usual slide Block A left until you match 3 and combo blocks to pile garbage on your enemies. The core game is actually the platformer where you play as the old, yet famed, adventurer Henry Hatsworth, who along with his chipper sidekick are in search of the legendary "gold suit" which is said to unlock a way into the puzzle realm a world of riches.

The main story kicks off with Hatsworth finding the golden derby (1st part of the gold suit) and as a result, becoming cursed by the puzzle realm. Monsters begin to appear all over the world in an effort to stop him from completing the suit. Not only that, but his arch nemesis Weezlby will try and squash Hatsworth plan to become the world's fanciest man.

Plot description aside, the actual game play is made of 2 games. The top screen is a platformer where you'll be running, jumping, shooting and slashing as Hatsworth and the other, a planet puzzle league style slide puzzle. The core mechanic to the hybrid style is that the puzzle monsters defeated on top will fall onto the bottom screen and become various blocks which can have both positive and negative effects. Since the puzzle on the bottom is actively shifting upwards towards your play field, it is your job to clear the monster blocks that fall before they advance upwards. If the monster blocks do reach the top, they'll appear as ghostly blocks that fly around in an attempt to damage you, which must be defeated again to be removed for good. Not to fear though, this isn't another "The World Ends with You" scenario where you have to be on the ball with both games at once. When it comes time for you to clear those monster blocks, you'll simple hit the X button and your main game will pause and the puzzle will become active. However, there is a limited window of time you can work in the puzzle and when this time runs out you're booted back to the main game. This time can be regained through inflicting damage to enemies.

There are other benefits playing the puzzle, an energy meter, located to the right of the puzzle, will fill based on the block type cleared and the number of combos made. This bar is used to power your gun, special attacks, as well as when completely full, will power your GIANT STEAM POWERED ROBOT ARMOR! Yes, you heard right, Mr. Hatsworth when full on the puzzle juice, can enter "Tea Time" an invincibility state where he becomes a giant steam robot with missile launches, rocket fists and extend-o arms.

Much of the games charm comes from it's unique art style, silly story telling, and interesting voice samples. The characters each have unique "voices" ala Okami where they blubber in a crazy (almost culturally offensive) way when text is being written out in the dialog window. Hatsworth sounds like your stereotypical British man, where as his sidekick sounds like the offspring of the bird Kazooie from Banjo and Kazooie. Each new character you meet has it's own insane squawk seems oddly appropriate which may seem annoying, but adds a certain level of amusement to the simple dialogs.

In short, I would highly recommend Henry Hatsworth to anyone looking for a good platformer, it takes the best of Mario and Mega man X and adds a fresh spin on things. The difficulty curve gets quite steep in places, however you get plenty of lives and get plenty of power ups to overcome most obstacles.