Having first played Plants vs. Zombies on the iPad, I had no doubts going into the XBOX 360 version that this was going to be a good game. However, I did have a few concerns about how the game was going to control. The game lends itself perfectly to touch screen controls, which just isn’t an option on the XBOX 360.
I was also curious about the multiplayer aspects that PopCap Games incorporated into the title. Would multiplayer just be tacked-on or actually add something meaningful to the mix? My brother and I played through a quarter of the game recently to find out.
In a perfect world, touch controls or mouse controls would be available for every version of this game. Playing this game on the XBOX 360 controller did nothing to change that sentiment, but it did handle a lot better than I thought it would. PopCap tweaked the game and the controls to best suit the platform it’s on, which really impressed me.
You control a cursor by using either the left analog stick or the directional pad. Each input behaves differently. If you use the analog stick, it allows you to move more freely between squares while snapping your cursor to the closest one. It’s sort of like playing the game using a slower mouse cursor. Using the directional pad will rigidly move the cursor from one square to the next. I was more comfortable with the directional pad, but the choice is yours.
The shoulder buttons handle item selection, which works exactly how you would expect it to. Digging stuff up is handled very intelligently. That action is mapped to the B button, but you have to hold it in order to confirm that you want to actually remove that plant. I found this to be a really smart design choice that prevents you from accidentally removing a plant.
The one place where the XBOX 360 game differs from the others is the addition of butter as a mechanic. In all the other versions of the game, certain plants can shoot blocks of butter at zombies, which stops a zombie in its tracks. In this version of the game, you can just hit the X button and make a zombie stop at any point. It runs out after a few seconds, but you can keep pressing the button to force that zombie still. It sounds cheap on paper, but the trade-off is that you can’t do anything else while pinning a zombie with butter. It comes in handy when you’re in a jam, but it’s nothing you can spam to great effect.
The biggest compliment I can give this game is that I wasn’t really thinking about the controls at all while I was playing it. My brother and I powered through a quarter of the game in one sitting, never once having to fight the controls. It works awesome. Speaking of co-op, having an extra player can definitely make the game more fun (and not necessarily easier, either). You’re forced to constantly coordinate amongst yourselves to make sure that the right actions are happening at the right times. Unfortunately, co-op and versus modes are local only, meaning you’ll need someone with you on the couch to take advantage of these features.
Before I wrap this up, I just wanted to say that this game looks and runs awesome on the XBOX 360. On the iPad and latest generation of iPod Touch devices, it looks great runs really well, with some performance dips when the action gets crazy. However, seeing the game on a big HD screen, running at a rock-solid frame-rate is a step above that. It’s nice having the game on a portable device, but you definitely get some benefits to playing it on a console.
As with every other version of this game, the XBOX 360 iteration of Plants vs. Zombies is awesome. If you like fun, go play this game already.
In Third Person 