History VideoGame / PlantsVsZombies

** Various zombies, including the Zomboni, the Catapult Zombie's vehicle, the Gargantuar, and even the ''Zombot itself'' can stand on your roof without collapsing it. Hell, Dr. Zomboss can throw ''Winnebagos'' at your roof and it doesn't collapse.

* ExcusePlot: See the main page quote.

''Plants vs. Zombies'' is an incredibly addictive TowerDefense game from Creator/PopCapGames. It's about [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin plants fighting against a zombie invasion]]. The game had a free browser version that was accessible [[https://www.freegames66.com/plants-vs-zombies here]].

** Endless levels (Vasebreaker Endless, I, Zombie Endless, Survival: Endless, and Last Stand: Endless) can continue how many streaks or flags as the player can until they get the condition or criteria for getting a game over on those levels (reaching the player's house in Vasebreaker Endless, Last Stand: Endless and Survival: Endless, with the first two not showing "THE ZOMBIES ATE YOUR BRAINS!" losing cutscene but instead the losing dialog box appears immediately and due to that, only the game over music plays and the biting and "NOOOOO!" sounds will not be heard, and I, Zombie Endless if the player has less than 50 sun).

** Endless levels (Vasebreaker Endless, I, Zombie Endless, Survival: Endless, and Last Stand: Endless) can continue how many streaks or flags as the player can until they get the condition or criteria for getting a game over on those levels (reaching the player's house in Vasebreaker Endless, Last Stand: Endless and Survival: Endless, with the first not showing "THE ZOMBIES ATE YOUR BRAINS!" losing cutscene but instead the losing dialog box immediately shows and due to that, only the game over plays, and I, Zombie Endless if the player has less than 50 sun).

* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Finishing a streak in I, Zombie Endless with less than 50 sun remaining will display the message "Good job! Current Streak: (number of streaks that the player completed)" indicating that a streak is won or completed but upon entering the next streak, they will end up losing where the losing dialog box "GAME OVER (iOS/Android)/I, Zombie Endless (PC, DS, and console versions): You made it to a streak of (number of streaks completed)" will appear. The reason for this is because if the player has less than 50 sun in the next streak, they are unable to buy zombies necessary to complete a streak.

** The help screen suggests that you let the zombies in the house. Actually, this triggers a game over as if a zombie reaches the house or drops down into a chimney, the game over music and biting sound play, then the message "THE ZOMBIES ATE YOUR BRAINS!" will display and "NOOOOO!!!" is heard, Following this, the "GAME OVER" dialog box is shown, leaving the player with an option to try the level again or exit the level (which is shown as "MAIN MENU", "MENU" just like when before losing, or "QUIT" depending on the version). Even the readme for the game states that if this situation happens, the player loses.

** The help screen suggests that you let the zombies in the house. Actually, this triggers a game over as if a zombie reaches the house or drops down into a chimney, the game over music and biting sound play, then the message "THE ZOMBIES ATE YOUR BRAINS!" will display and "NOOOOO!!!" is heard, Following this, the "GAME OVER" dialog box is shown, leaving the player with an option to return to main menu or try the level again. Even the readme for the game states that if this situation happens, the player loses.

* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Finishing a streak in I, Zombie Endless with less than 50 sun remaining will display the message "Good job! Current Streak: (number of streaks that the player completed)" indicating that a streak is won or completed but upon entering the next streak, one of the game's non-standard game over will be shown where the dialog box "GAME OVER (iOS/Android)/I, Zombie Endless (PC, DS, and console versions): You made it to a streak of (number of streaks completed)" will appear. The reason for this is because if the player has less than 50 sun in the next streak, they are unable to buy zombies necessary to complete a streak.

* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Finishing a streak in I, Zombie Endless with less than 50 sun remaining will display the message "Good job! Current Streak: (number of streaks that the player completed)" indicating that a streak is won or completed but upon entering the next streak, one of the game's non-standard game over will be shown where the dialog box "GAME OVER (iOS/Android)/I, Zombie Endless (PC, DS, and console versions): You made it to a streak of (number of streaks completed)" will appear. The reason for this is because if the player has less thane 50 sun in the next streak, they are unable to buy zombies necessary to complete a streak.

* UnwinnableByDesign: Finishing a streak in I, Zombie Endless with 25 or 0 sun remaining will display the message "Good job! Current Streak: (number of streaks that the player completed)" indicating that a streak is won or completed but upon entering the next streak, one of the game's non-standard game over will be shown where the dialog box "GAME OVER (iOS/Android)/I, ZOMBIE ENDLESS (PC, DS, and console versions): You made it to a streak of (number of streaks completed)" will appear. The reason for this is because if the player has less thane 50 sun in the next streak, they are unable to buy zombies necessary to complete a streak.

** Last Stand (Puzzle Mode and Mini-game): Same as Vasebreaker Endless, but if a zombie reaches the house, the losing dialog box "GAME OVER (iOS/Android)/Last Stans (PC, DS, and console versions): You survived for (number of flags completed) flags!!" will display.

** Survival Mode: Same as adventure mode, some mini-games, and normal Vasebreaker levels, but after "THE ZOMBIES ATE YOUR BRAINS!" message appears, the losing dialog box will say "GAME OVER (iOS/Android)/SURVIVAL: {any of levels on PC, DS, and console versions of the game}: You survived for {number of flags completed} flag(s) before dying a GRUESOME ZOMBIE DEATH!!!" instead of simply "GAME OVER".

** I, Zombie: When the player runs out of sun or have 25 sun (since the Imp and Regular Zombie are the cheapest zombie types for the player to buy which both cost 50 sun) and there are no zombies present on the board, the game will display "You lost all your zombies!"
** I, Zombie Endless and Vasebreaker Endless: The message "You made it into a streak of {number of streaks completed}." if the player starts a new streak and the zombie is killed but there is no more or 25 sun. This is also the same case for Vasebreaker Endless but it only happens when they let the zombies reach the house and no more seed packets present on the board or not enough number of them to complete a streak. If a zombie reaches the house in Vasebreaker Endless, the said message will appear without showing the cutscene of a zombie entering the house and "THE ZOMBIES ATE YOUR BRAINS!" message.
** Survival Mode: Same as adventure mode, but after "THE ZOMBIES ATE YOUR BRAINS!" message appears, the game dialog box will say "GAME OVER/SURVIVAL (any of levels on PC version of the game): You survived for {number of flags completed} flag(s) before dying a GRUESOME ZOMBIE DEATH!!!" instead of simply "GAME OVER".
** Zombiquarium: If all of Snorkel Zombies were died, the dialog box "GAME OVER: All your pet zombies have perished!" will display.
** Last Stand (Puzzle Mode and Mini-game): Same as Vasebreaker Endless, but if a zombie reaches the house, the dialog box "GAME OVER/LAST STAND: You survived for (number of flags completed) flags!!" will display.

* UnwinnableByDesign: Finishing a streak in I, Zombie Endless with 25 or 0 sun remaining will display the message "Good job! Current Streak: (number of streaks that the player completed)" indicating that a streak is won or completed but upon entering the next streak, one of the game's non-standard game over will be shown where the dialog box "GAME OVER (some versions)/I, ZOMBIE ENDLESS (PC version): You made it to a streak of (number of streaks completed)" will appear. The reason for this is because if the player has 25 or 0 sun in the next streak, they are unable to buy zombies necessary to complete a streak.

!!''Plants vs. Zombies'' and related media include:

[[AC:Video games (main series)]]
[[index]]
* ''Plants vs. Zombies'' (2009) -- The original game, with all its tropes covered by this page.
* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies2ItsAboutTime'' (2013) -- The first full sequel, giving players a whole new reason [[UnusualEuphemism to soil their plants]]. The player gets dragged by Crazy Dave on a voyage through time.[[/index]]
* ''Plants vs. Zombies 3'' (2019) -- Another free-to-play mobile title in the series. It was launched in a pre-alpha state for Android in July 2019 and soft launched in March 2020 in selected territories. Now with 3D graphics and some new features, such as the ability to connect with friends to share items and the new "Tacobillity" feature. The player has to climb the zombie-filled [[EvilTowerOfOminousness Devour Tower]] while also driving back the other zombies at various locations. In November 2020, the game was withdrawn from the market indefinitely for the purpose of "making bigger changes". It doesn't have an official return date.

[[AC:Video games (spin-offs)]]
[[index]]
* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombiesPinball'' (2012) -- A PinballSpinoff for the ''VideoGame/ZenPinball'' and ''VideoGame/PinballFX'' platforms.[[/index]]
* ''Plants vs. Zombies Adventures'' (2013) -- Facebook tower defence game. Crazy Dave has tasked you with slowly restoring the town from the zombies. You must grow your plants, construct and repair homes and buildings, place plants along the paths leading to the buildings, and defend the town against zombies. [[AllegedlyFreeGame After a certain amount of progress into the game, you WILL be required to find friends to assist you or pay with real money to advance further]]. Sadly, this game has [[DefunctOnlineVideoGames closed]] on October 12, 2014.[[index]]
* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombiesGardenWarfare'' (2014) -- A multiplayer-focused ThirdPersonShooter released on the UsefulNotes/XboxOne and UsefulNotes/XBox360 consoles on February 25, 2014, with the PC port released on June 30, 2014 and UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 and UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 arriving on August 19, 2014. Received generally positive reception, blending ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''-style cooperative multiplayer with team-based competitive multiplayer modes, though it was criticized for being over-reliant on micro-transactions.
** ''Plants Vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2'' (2016) -- Thankfully, this was rectified in the sequel, which launched with fewer microtransactions, as well as polished gameplay.
** ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombiesBattleForNeighborville'' (2019) -- A ThirdPersonShooter for UsefulNotes/XboxOne, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, and PC. The game goes for a more "team"-based gameplay style, with many of the features that made ''Garden Warfare'' memorable changed up, including no character variants, six new classes, with two on each side being transformative, and a new environment in the city of Neighborville.[[/index]]
* ''Plants Vs Zombies: The Last Stand'' (2015) -- An UsefulNotes/{{Arcade|Game}} LightGunGame released by Creator/{{Sega}}. It puts the player at the control of a cabinet-mounted Peashooter to stop advancing waves of zombies. Not to be confused with the Last Stand minigame.
* ''Use Your Brainz EDU'' (2015) -- An educational version of ''Plants vs. Zombies 2'' developed by [=GlassLab=] Games, it's basically the lite version with physical lesson plans.
* ''Plants vs. Zombies Pinyin Adventure'' (2015) -- A Chinese EdutainmentGame version meant to teach the pinyin of the Chinese language.[[index]]
* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombiesHeroes'' (2016) -- A mobile game featuring plant and zombie-themed superheroes battling each other through a card game system similar to ''VideoGame/{{Hearthstone|HeroesOfWarcraft}}''.
[[/index]]

[[AC:Tabletop games]]
* ''Risk: Plants vs. Zombies'' (2013) -- A two-player only version of ''TabletopGame/{{Risk}}'' with three play modes: mission objectives, tower defense, and total domination.

[[AC:Comic books]]
A ComicBookAdaptation by Creator/DarkHorseComics which has Crazy Dave and two new human {{Kid Hero}}es, his niece Patrice Blazing and her friend Nate Timely, pitting in regular plants-vs-zombies action.
* ''Plants vs. Zombies: Lawnmageddon'' (2013)
* ''Plants vs. Zombies: Timepocalypse'' (2014)
* ''Plants Vs. Zombies'' (2015-)
* ''Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare'' (2015)
** ''Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare'' (2018-2019)

[[AC:Manhuas]]
Licensed by [=PopCap Shanghai=], a series of manhuas were published in Southeast Asia, available in English through a Malaysian distributor. {{Edutainment}}-oriented with the occasional VerySpecialEpisode, they focus more on the plants' and zombies' own society referenced in the Almanac, as well as new adventures for the characters introduced in ''Heroes''. Though publicly available, information about the series in circulation is scarce outside the regions they were published in.

Currently, 21 serializations exist, containing anywhere between three and over 30 volumes each.

[[AC:Literature]]
* ''Plants vs. Zombies: Brains and the Beanstalk'' (2013) -- A comedic retelling of ''Literature/JackAndTheBeanstalk''.
* ''Plants vs. Zombies: The Three Little Pigs Fight Back'' (2013) -- A comedic retelling of ''Literature/TheThreeLittlePigs''.
* ''Plants vs. Zombies: Plant Your Path'' (2013)
* ''Plants vs. Zombies: Brain Food'' (2013) -- An activity book.

[[AC:Crossovers]]
* The Peacebloom VS. Ghouls mini-game in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' is based on ''[=PvZ=]'', and completing all of its stages earns you a Sunflower as a non-combat pet that follows you around.
* The series has also made its way into ''VideoGame/TheSims3'', in which pre-ordering ''The Sims 3: Supernatural'' (which has zombies) unlocks Peashooters to fight back as well as zombie-based clothing, such as the cone hat. ''The Sims 3'' store also released a greenhouse with a sunflower that produces sunlight which can be used to make plants grow better.
* Finally, they costarred with ''Franchise/AngryBirds'' and Scrat from ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' in a EdutainmentGame to teach programming [[http://studio.code.org/hoc/12 here]].

----

Licensed by [=PopCap Shanghai=], a series of manhuas were published in Southeast Asia, available in English through a Malaysian distributor. They focus more on the plants' own society referenced in the Almanac, as well as new adventures for the characters introduced in ''Heroes''. Though publicly available, information about the series in circulation is scarce outside the regions they were published in.

** If you try to use a Squash to squish a pole-vaulting zombie, he will wait for the zombie to vault over him before activating his attack.

* NotGoodWithPeople: Crazy Dave demonstrates this in "I, Zombie", in which he agrees to let zombies practice attacking your house, as long as no plants are harmed. [[SarcasmMode Thanks, neighbor]].
* NoZombieCannibals: Averted if they're hypnotized.

* UnwinnableByDesign: Finishing a streak in I, Zombie Endless with 25 or 0 sun remaining will display the message "Good job! Current Streak: (number of streaks that the player completed)" indicating that a streak is won or completed but upon entering the next streak, the dialog box "GAME OVER (some versions)/I, ZOMBIE ENDLESS (PC version): You made it to a streak of (number of streaks completed)" will appear. The reason for this is because if the player has 25 or 0 sun in the next streak, they are unable to buy zombies necessary to complete a streak.

* UpdatedRerelease: The "Game of the Year" edition to the original PC version, though for fans of Music/MichaelJackson, [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks it came with one problem...]]

** The help screen suggests that you let the zombies in the house.

* TranslatedCoverVersion: Laura Shigihara has written the original English theme tune and a Japanese version (with her father taking over as the zombie voices). There is also a Spanish version.

** The Kernel-pults have a random chance to fling, not a bit of corn, but a butter patty that temporarily halts its victim. It can fling them several times in a row, effectively stun-locking said victim. It costs the same as the basic lobber, the Cabbage-pult, and all but obsoletes that plant. Its ''only'' weakness is that its corn pellets are the weakest attack in the game (it's as strong as a regular pea, but it's fired half as fast), with the butter patty up to "Normal" dps levels.
** Spikeweeds and Spikerocks — impossible to destroy for almost any zombie (only the Zombonis, Catapult Zombies, Gargantuar, Jack-in-the-Box Zombie, and (in the sequel) Barrel Zombie and Piano Zombie can, and it takes the Zomboni and Catapult Zombie with it)[[note]]Spikerocks can also insta-kill nine Zombonis/Catapults or take nine Gargantuar hits. This makes them the only plant that Zombonis and Gargantuars can't one-hit kill[[/note]], ignores shield protection a zombie might have (screen doors, ladders, and newspapers), combine with freeze attacks and blockers incredibly well, and are rather affordable. Sadly, they're useless and have no equivalents in the pool or on the roof, and since zombies that can't hurt them literally walk over them, they can't be used to stall zombies
** Puff Shrooms and Fume Shrooms. Being extremely cheap (the former costing literally nothing) with some decent damage. For free, the Puff Shroom is able to take down a zombie ''by itself'' while the Fume Shroom has piercing shots that hit ''all'' zombies in range. During night levels, they are almost a must. The Fume Shroom in particular is considered so good it is used in the most advanced Survival: Endless combination.
** Garlic. It does no damage whatsoever, but what it ''does'' do is force Zombies to switch lanes. This allows you to corral the zombies into a more narrow killbox with a great deal of ease, simply by placing a Garlic at the top and bottom of the map. They're essential in Marigold-farming strategies.
** Magnet-shrooms. They steal metal objects from zombies, and that's it. However, this is more useful than it sounds. Weaken strong zombies like Football Zombies? Check! Stop the Jack-in-the-box Zombies from exploding? Check! Stop the Ladder Zombies from bypassing your Tall-nuts? Check!

* AnimateInanimateObject: All of the plants. Well, technically, plants are animate in RealLife too, but ''these'' plants are animate to the level of speaking human.

* EverythingsBetterWithPlushies:
** A set of plushies with voice chips in them have been released. They include the normal mook zombie, Squash, Peashooter, and Sunflower.
** There's also several sets of vinyl figures. Some come with the Game of the Year boxed sets of the game, some can be bought in sets of several figurines. There is also a collection of larger Funko POP! figures.

* ArbitraryMinimumRange: The Scaredy-Shroom can fire at pretty far range compared to the normal mushrooms, but if a zombie gets too close, it'll hide into the ground and become useless as a weapon.