Can you justify buying the same game game across multiple platforms, knowing full well what you’ll get? With Plants vs. Zombies, that is certainly the case but with an important caveat; if you don’t have the game on iPhone yet then we would recommend that you get the iPad version before you buy it for the smaller screen. It’s a far richer experience. That being said whichever version you get you’re still getting one of this year’s must have games.

The adventure mode is unchanged from its iPhone incarnation. You’ll battle a whole host of the brain loving zombies, in your front yard, back garden and even on your roof. The night time offers new plants (mostly mushrooms) that flourish after sunset and require a coffee bean to keep working during the day, and of course the upgradable plants return which involve planting twice to obtain the best firepower or resource collection. With the diverse array of plants available there’s many different strategies that you can dream up and that alone helps make the game highly replayable.

New in the HD version of the game are all of the mini-games that were available in the desktop edition plus the survival modes. You can go replay each adventure level on its own if you wish, but the new additions are much more exciting. Survival mode pits you against progressively stronger zombie waves, with the opportunity to re-pick your plant roster between flags; you win if you beat five flags, or when the zombies eventually overwhelm you in the “endless” mode. The mini-games are really fun too; including a Bejeweled variant which has you hunting for matches whilst trying to tackle a zombie force; a whack-a-mole style game that has hordes of zombies popping up from graves (multitouch makes this really fun); and the “Last Stand” game that gives you 5000 sun and some time before the zombies arrive to build all your defence at once; you can also use this game to farm Marigolds for coins to help you buy the plants from Crazy Dave’s shop. There’s many more games besides, but they all benefit from the larger iPad screen and multitouch that allows up to eleven fingers for things like coin collection, or buttering zombies before blasting them with corn missiles in the iPad exclusive “Buttered Popcorn”.

There’s a few downsides; you can’t play Plants vs. Zombies HD in portrait mode; the framerate crawl from the ending level glow mars an otherwise amazing presentation; the Zen Garden is sadly omitted, a shame because it allowed you to save up coins easily; and the puzzle mode is completely absent, a shame as the I, Zombie puzzles in which you commandeer the zombie army against cardboard plant cutouts are excellent, and so is the Vasebreaker set of puzzles. However, these are but small blemishes on an otherwise superb game; the increased resolution allows for larger background details that weren’t included in the desktop version, and of course the multiple save state engine is unchanged from the small screen version.

If it weren’t for the omission of the puzzle modes, Plants vs. Zombies HD would be easily the best version of the game available. It’s silky smooth throughout, and multitouch lends itself so well to the game that it is a perfect title to show off your iPad to your friends and family. £5.99 is a small price to pay for a game of this calibre, and like the iPhone version, don’t get this game if you value your time.

Media gallery

• 
• 
• 

More by this developer

Plants vs. Zombies, A

Review by Ben Briggs, February 16, 2010

Peggle, A

Review by Ben Briggs, May 14, 2009

Bejeweled 2, C

Review by Ben Briggs, February 27, 2009

Why not try...

---

• 

  Besiegement

• 

  The Creeps!

• 

  Star Defense

• 

  ElementalMonster TD