Parents' Guide to

Plants vs. Zombies

By Harold Goldberg, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 10+

Campy, silly zombie romp has plants saving the day.

Game Windows, Xbox 360 2009
Plants vs. Zombies Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

  • Plants vs. Zombies Game: Screenshot #1
  • Plants vs. Zombies Game: Screenshot #2

Community Reviews

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age 6+

Based on 19 parent reviews

Roger B.
Roger B. Parent of 7-year-old
January 20, 2023
age 7+

Kids love it

The game is action packed. Whilst one may consider it violent, it’s done in a very cartoon and fun way. It’s more action than gore. No blood and not scary
Member091
Member091 Parent of 6-year-old
November 17, 2022
age 6+

One of the Best games ever!

This game was my childhood and I love it. Everything about this game is amazing, the plants, the zombies, and overall just the way it plays. EA totally ruined the series at this point but the original wasn't made by them and it was a huge success and it made it's way on many different consoles and became one of the most popular tower defense games. The song whenever you beat the game is really nice and is a generally a good and catchy song. This whole game felt weird but I still love and for those that don't, cry about it losers. Also I don't see why it's see as so violent it's not even that bad, grow up you cowards. For those who do enjoy the game thank you and goodnight.

This title has:

Educational value
Great messages
Great role models
Easy to play/use
See all 19 parent reviews

What’s It About?

PopCap is known for intriguing casual games like Bejeweled and Peggle. With PLANTS VS. ZOMBIES, a humorous riff on tower defense strategy games, you have to save your house from zombies who want to invade your happy home and – cue the B-movie organ music -- chew up your brains. And you do it by planting plants at stategic places in your backyard.

This PC game falls into the category of being simple to learn, but challenging to master. Once the adventure portion of the game begins, you see a suburban house and a yard, the latter of which is your battleground. You click on a plant in the upper left portion of your computer screen which will give you sunlight or which will attack the slow but steady onslaught of zombies. Then, you place a plant by clicking on a portion of your yard. Clicking on sunlight dropping in your yard provides you with points with which to buy new plants. The strategy comes in when you must choose from a variety of plants which do different kinds of damage to different kinds of zombies.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (19):
Kids say (66):

This tower defense game feels quite new because of the humor injected by the developers, like the undead soul who dons Michael Jackson's "Thriller" outfit. With nearly 50 unlockable plants with which to war against nearly two dozen kinds of zombies, you'll be testing out ways to blow up, freeze, or burn zombies like Buckethead, who's very tough to kill or Screen Door, who is best annihilated by a Fume Shroom whose spores pass through the screen shield to gas the lunking monster. When all else fails, a cherry bomb plant will blow up and burn nearby zombies to a crisp. (You don't see them burn, though, due to the bomb's cloud.)

When hordes of zombies head at you at one time, it's a complete rush. You hurry to place your plants and collect your sunlight as if nothing else matters. As you progress in the game, you unlock mini games and a survival mode. It really gets tough when a creeping fog is introduced. While Plants vs. Zombies is a terrific experience, it's not as tough as, say, Sony's PixelJunk Monsters, which, with each level, features a different layout and approach paths for the creeps who deign to destroy your kingdom. Yet it's just as cute and charming and almost as hard to beat.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Parents can talk about strategies for winning the game. If hint videos were on YouTube, would you go there to check them out? Or would that be considered cheating?

  • Which are cooler, the crazy plants with cool powerups or the whacked out zombies?

Game Details

  • Platforms: Windows, Xbox 360
  • Available online?: Not available online
  • Publisher: PopCap Games
  • Release date: May 5, 2009
  • Genre: Action/Adventure
  • ESRB rating: E10+ for ANimated Blood, Cartoon Violence
  • Last updated: August 31, 2016

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