Price: $4.99  | Release Date: December 2009 | ESRB: E | System: iPhone

4 Stars - Brillant. Best $4.99 you can spend.

I would have never in a million years thought that Apple would invent a portable gaming device that would take up more of my time than my Nintendo DS and PSP. But they did just that with the invention of the iPhone, with access to millions of games in seconds via a quick and easy to navigate store built into the phone. Added to this, the fact that most of the games feature demos or as Apple calls them “trial games”. Not to beat a dead horse but add the price point of never paying more than $4.99 for full games and it's easy to see why my other portable systems have been collecting dust. That said a lot of these games don't have as much depth as say God of War: Chains Of Olympus but every once in a while you find a game that can easily justify the quality and $39.99 price point of a PSP game. That game is Plants Vs. Zombies.

Let me say I'm not a huge puzzle fan. Most puzzle games are made for casual gamers who don't like a ton of depth, just a simple challenge. But the one puzzle company I watch is PopCap Games, the creators of both Peggle and and the original Plants Vs Zombies. Easy to learn but difficult to master best sums up PopCap games, and they cater to both the casual and the hardcore.

Plants Vs. Zombies is basically a tower defense game. You control the left side of the screen while zombies slowly move toward you from the right side of the screen. If the zombies reach your house on the left side you lose. You must plant plants to defend your house and stop the evil zombie hoard. Simple enough right? All the plant use sunlight resources, so as the sun drops sun rays you can simply touch them for power to plant more plants. There is a great variety of plants available: some shoot the zombies, some blow them up when they get touched and some slow them down: but all require sun to plant. The sun flower automatically produces more sun rays so you plant those. In short, you need a healthy balance of plants in order to be victorious. In addition, you have a timer on each plant, so say you plant a pea shooter you must wait 15 seconds for it to recharge until you can plant another one. Basically, it's just like the PC version, except with touch-screen controls.

PopCap knows balance and the game introduces you to each new plant level by level, while at the same time throwing new, tougher zombies at each turn. Then they turn it on its head and throw night levels at you (aka no free sun-rays), followed by the backyard's pool at you, and where you have to build the a water lily before you can plant. To top it all off, towards the end of the game they make you defend on your roof where you must create your whole playing field with flower pots and work on a vertical slant changing the battle field. The game is extremely fun and addicting very simple to learn, very difficult to master. The art is fantastic and the controls are simple, click an icon click on the screen and boom that's it.

For $4.99 you get 50, yes, 50 extremely well made and polished levels. The original game was released on the PC for $19.99, so for 5 bucks on the iPhone you're getting a heck of a deal. Not only is it a great RTS where you fight wave after wave of new foes but you can also earn money depending on how good you are and buy upgrades to help you fight the undead. New weapons, slots, and other bonuses await the skilled player. They also throw some fun twists to change it up, like zombie bowling or a weapon conveyer belt that randomly throws plants at you and you must figure out how to utilize them.

The Verdict: I really can't speak any higher of Plants Vs. Zombies. At $4.99, if you own a iPhone you owe it to yourself to get this game. It's extremely fun, polished, and long. You get all the bang for your buck, and frankly, if this game was $29.99 for the iPhone it would still be worth it. PopCap has done it again.