Plants Vs. Zombies Lumbers onto the XBox 360

The iPhone bestseller Plants vs. Zombies has finally lurched its way onto Xbox 360's Live Arcade, and all I can say is, why has it taken so long?

To the uninformed among us, Plants vs Zombies is, at its most basic level, a tower defense game. The field of battle is your garden upon which you plant various types of plants which shoot, explode or eat the zombie hordes which are trying to invade.

Unlike other examples of the tower defense genre, there are no mazes here - as we know zombies have difficulty turning corners. Instead there are six rows (from top to bottom) which you must defend from the invading undead.

Instead of money, sunshine is your friend and must be harvested by sun flowers which intermittently spit out golden orbs which you must collect. For this reason one's first quandary of each map is whether to buy sunflowers and reap later financial profit, or plant a few pea shooters to take down any early imposers.

One of the main draws of this game is the sheer variety of towers at one's disposal. From peashooters that fire ice, or flame, to venus fly traps and one-use exploding plants, there really is a huge amount of strategy to what seems like a simple game.

Of course with such variety in weapons there is also huge choice of gameplay styles. You might have to defend your garden at night, meaning no sun with which to earn more money. You may lose the ability to select plants all together and instead have to make do with pre-selected weapons that come down a conveyor belt. You might even be drafted into a quick Whack-a-Zombie minigame completely out of the blue. The point is that there is a huge amount of choice in this relatively simple game that always keeps it fresh and entertaining.

The graphics designers were obviously zombie movie fans, and the cast of the undead doesn't disappoint. From football players to zombies that carry screen door shields, to aquatic zombies that ride dolphins, you will never get bored of seeing the same zombie too many times.

As conversions from touch screen/mouse controls go, this one has been handled very well. COntrol over the cursor is handled by the analog stick and one now holds the triggers to suck sunlight in.

New for 360 owners is the competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes. In Versus one player takes control of the zombies to try and overcome the other players botanic defenses.

All in all this is a game which is an antidote to the high gloss all-action triple A titles that 360 users are used to. In place of massive budgets, regenerating shields and team deathmatch is a sparkling green gem which will do its best to enthrall you in its grip for longer than you might have anticipated. Better than Peggle.