What I Played Today: February 26

Plants vs. Zombies, Various

I played about five games for about five minutes today, but I did play a game constantly throughout the day; Plants vs. Zombies on the iPhone. For what its worth, if you have an iPhone, it is a fantastic value, as it’s maybe half the game at 15% of the price, a fantastic offering. You get the entire adventure mode, and all you miss is the added minigames, which is not that big of deal.

I keep on telling myself, “this is not a tower defense game,” even though it obviously is. I mean, you set up towers, the only difference is there are 5-6 different lines to worry about and your towers are in dangers way instead of safely off the path. Having to worry about the different routes makes the strategy more interesting, as well as the fact that your resources comes from the towers on the field instead of individual monster killed, as well as fairly limited space to build and a small selection of available buildings to attack with.

Needless to say, addictive and silly, and the transportability really helps with the matter. Each level takes about five minutes to play, and while it’s a bit easy, like all Popcap games, it has a certain flair, and the goofy atmosphere adds more than your typical tower defense. I ran into the Zomboni today, which doesn’t make any sense but is hilarious. It’s just so well designed, as most recent Popcap games are, and it’s great to have it on the iPhone so that I can (shh) play it at work and on the train.

As for other games; I’ve run into troubles. In Mass Effect, I managed to die because I stupidly stepped into the vehicle I need in order to leave the planet when it was completely damaged (apparently it was on fire inside and I stupidly stumbled in), and that was so obnoxious that I quit. MegaMan 9 is still hard as hell, Dungeon Solitaire (or whatever it’s called) took about a day to get stupid (too much luck, not enough helpful cards), and Shadow Complex remains the same game as I played the first time around. Hopefully I’ll get better luck over the weekend in getting over this hump.