Every so often, I am forced to say, "Man, I missed out!" Plants Vs. Zombies is a really fun tower defense game, and I personally enjoyed it quite a bit. And mini figures have been gracing shelves for a while, but I never got around to picking them up because I am a silly person who lacks forethought. Silly, silly, silly.
For some context, the game is exactly how it sounds. There's a zombie apocalypse, and the only way to protect your house is by planting militant vegetables to save you. It's a lot weirder and more fun than it sounds. As for the minis, they encompassed pretty much everything, from sunflowers to potato mines to football zombies to disco zombies and zombie dolphins and explosive mushrooms and... look, this set just has six. Six figures for about $20, if you can find it. Toys R Us should still have them in stock. The figures are between two and three inches, and let's start with the plants!
The Pea Shooter is the most basic little defensive guy out there, diligently shooting his peas and hoping that it's enough. In the game, he's got tons of variants, such s shooting fire or ice peas, or coming with multiple heads, or a gatling mouth, or whatnot. But this is just the basic little guy, ready to shoot down some zombies.
See? Generally, a basic zombie will get roughly this close before going down, too. You'll learn to double them up before too long. Remember, he's firing peas, people. How much damage could they do?
Unlike the pea shooters, Cherry Bombs aren't permanent plants. You set one down, and it explodes, destroying nearby zombies, though not plants. These are friendly explosions. Still, those cherries definitely have anger issues.
The trick with cherry bombs - and squash, ice mushrooms, nuke mushrooms, fiery peppers, etc. is to time them. Look for the biggest, toughest guy, and drop the bomb so it blows up right in their face. Then go on with your life knowing that those cherries sacrificed themselves for the greater good.
SQUASH! Squash have one role. THEY SQUASH THINGS! You tell it where to go, and it lands, making pancakes out of zombies.
Despite being single-hit bombers, there is a difference in how squash work. Their flattening range is smaller than a cherry bomb's blast. Other kinds of lants work differently against various zombies, as well. And the doom shrooms leave craters in their destructive wake. Even in the water. Craters in the water..
Zombies! This is a basic zombie. There are lots of zombies out there - with road cones on their head, protecting themselves with newspapers or screen doors, wearing football gear, disco-dancing, driving zambonis... but this is the basic one behind it all. They shamble forward and eat any and all plants in their path.
For example, here's a scuba zombie. Sometimes you have to defend your swimming pool, which makes the game way more complicated. And sometimes scuba zombies come in riding on zombie dolphins, which should give you an idea of the kind of game this is.
And wrapping it up, here is a zombie yeti. That yeti's seen things, man. He's seen things.
And there you have it... there's a zombie on your lawn, and I reall need more than just six mini figures. Somehow, somewhere, I shall assemble a proper army. These six are a great little addiction starter pack, though, especially when you consider that virtually everything is an army builder.
