Review – Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted for Switch 2

While I’ve always had a very good relationship with my mother over the years, one of the first times I can remember bonding with her over a video game was in in the early 00’s with PopCap’s Zuma. She loved the games PopCap was making, and despite the moniker of “casual” games, I couldn’t help but get sucked in too. Zuma is as simple a concept as can be, but its combination of colorful visuals, relaxing music, and tight gameplay makes for an easy obsession. When the Xbox 360 launched and I finally got one, I quickly bought Zuma for myself to not hog time away from her on the PC.

There are far too many games from PopCap that I’ve played with my mother (shoutout to Bookworm and Bejeweled), but where both of our interests really aligned was with 2009’s Plants vs. Zombies. At its core, Plants Vs. Zombies is a tower defense game that doesn’t do much to shake up the basic foundation of that genre. You plop things down on a playfield and wait for the enemies to walk to their demise. Over time, you build up some currency and can continue to plop more stuff down to either defeat enemies quicker or buff your defense. It’s tested and true design that remains engaging because of its simplicity. Where Plants vs. Zombies gets its specific charm from is the brilliant art style and soundtrack, not to mention some delightfully funny characters.

 

 

The combination of two completely different ideas (since when do Zombies eat plants?) somehow meshed together well, creating an indie megahit that became not only PopCap’s fastest-selling game ever, but was in contention for “Greatest Games of All Time” consideration. The game did so well for PopCap that EA would wind up acquiring the company in 2012 for a then staggering $650 million and gain control of its IP.

So, where does that leave us with PvZR? Ultimately, I couldn’t spot the issues fans found from a leaked build, such as bugs and glitches or evidence of an AI upscaler being used. The final product is definitely not what I’d call a perfect remaster. This is mostly a combination of all the various ports over the years with newer visuals and a few extras thrown in. In a way, I could simply read off a list of new features and that would be all you need to know about whether or not you want Replanted.

 

 

Digging a little deeper and focusing specifically on the Switch 2 iteration, Plants Vs. Zombies: Replanted seems to be running at 1440p resolution and can sometimes be a bit blurry. It features everything that is in the other versions alongside mouse controls for gameplay, and even GameShare for local and online play. GameShare is implemented in a bizarre manner where you’ll need to start a level, then click on an icon that never highlights itself, before streaming it to another Nintendo Switch or Switch 2. If you’re replaying an older level or doing a mini-game, GameShare will abruptly end when you clear a level, so it’s not the most elegant solution for co-op. That’s where same console co-op comes in, which lets both players use mouse controls and is supported on every level in the campaign, even if it’s not readily apparent.

I think that’s my overall biggest issue with Replanted. The menu design practically hides everything new that comes in this edition. Reading from the Steam Store page, one of the bullet points mentions “Cloudy Day Mode,” but that doesn’t show up on the main menu. To access it, you need to have already progressed far enough in story mode to unlock minigames, and then you need to click “Start Adventure” before finally clicking on “Cloudy Day” from the level select screen. It functions as a separate set of levels that don’t have the clearest indication for when you’ve beaten them. Same goes for the “Bonus Levels” that are just standard campaign levels with stipulations or slight variations. You’d think the main menu option for “co-op” is how you’d enable co-op for the campaign, but those are entirely separate mini-challenges. You actually start co-op by beginning a level in Adventure Mode, then by having player two press start on the plant selection screen. It’s really sloppy stuff that should have been playtested better (and seemingly isn’t available the first time through World One).

For that matter, I didn’t even know how to access the concept art until I decided to sit down and write this review out. In another bizarre bit of menu obfuscation, you accept concept art by looking at the Plant and Zombie almanac, then by clicking an unmarked icon in the bottom right. Putting aside how some of the art is reportedly not original, not to mention original artists Rich Werner and Enrique Corts weren’t involved here, at least this inclusion gives you a look behind what went into each game… minus having the original devs provide insight.

 

 

That last part is a sad reality of the world we live in, so I can’t fault Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted too much on that front. For all intents and purposes, everything else here functions as it did before. While I have the platinum trophy for the PlayStation Vita release of PvZ and did play the PC original quite a bit, I don’t know the damage or speed values of each plant and zombie religiously. To my knowledge, this remaster seems very close, if not perfect. One quality-of-life improvement I appreciate is the ability to speed levels up. Once you’ve already got your garden set, it’s a little redundant to have to wait out ten or so minutes for things to wrap up. Now, you can crank things up to 2.5x speed and blitz through the campaign.

All of the minigames are here, save for some exclusive iOS and DS ones. I’ve always been fond of “Wall-Nut Bowling,” and I do really dig the “I, Zombie” puzzle mode that lets you control the zombies. It’s not quite like how the versus mode functions, which pits two players against each other on opposite teams. I, Zombie tasks you with eating all of the brains on the left side while trying to navigate through pre-determined plants. It’s not overly complex, but I appreciate the extra strategic depth there is to countering plants you should be familiar with from the adventure mode.

 

 

The big new addition for Replanted is what EA has dubbed “Rest in Peace” mode. It’s just the main adventure mode with a permadeath feature thrown in. It is based on Adventure+, which is the harder variant unlocked once you finish the campaign a single time, but otherwise it doesn’t throw in new surprises. Plants vs. Zombies isn’t overly difficult once you figure it out, and since you carry all of your unlocked plants into RIP Mode, the earlier levels are especially easy to blast through. Thankfully, you don’t have to do this mode in a single sitting as for how delightful PvZ is, I think I might lose my mind hearing zombies grunt “brains” for four hours straight.

Any other additions are just cosmetic unlocks (which, again, are weirdly obfuscated by the menu) and higher resolution output. PC renders at 4K with the Nintendo Switch 2 doing the aforementioned 1440p. I can’t confirm details of the other platforms, though it’s easy to assume the Switch 1 port is 1080p. I didn’t notice any kind of performance woes and I’m very sensitive to that stuff. The game never crashed on me. There were no errors or bugs when it came to placing plants or dealing with zombies. Sometimes the menu doesn’t scroll like you’d think, which lends credence to the claims of this being a mobile port, but the only thing that aggravated me a bit is when trying to place a plant over some uncollected sun. The game will collect the sun first, and if it’s piled up, you’ll be clicking a few times before actually planting. The same goes for coins that have dropped, which makes the “Whack-a-Zombie” occasionally frustrating.

 

 

I’m left in an awkward spot because I do think that Replanted is pretty good, overall. I wish EA put more care into things, but it plays nicely, looks mostly good (even if there has been AI upscaling of assets), and contains a ton of stuff. It’s just that none of these additions feel like something that required a brand-new version of the game, especially since they have been available on other platforms for years now. I suppose the main thing is that you cannot boot up the Xbox 360 version of Plants vs. Zombies on your modern console, so you’ll either need to dig that old box out or pay $20 to play the game again.

It’s a shame that we couldn’t get it without the baggage, but then at least the game is now playable on more platforms than ever. Maybe some more care could have been given to menu design or playtesting, but the end result is still sure to leave Plants Vs. Zombies fans with a brain-eating grin on their faces.

 

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