Plants vs Zombies Replanted (Switch) Review

It’s been a really long time since I thought about Plants vs Zombies. It’s not like it’s really gone anywhere, and there have been titles since the original game back in 2009, even on the Switch – I just never really felt like I wanted to play any of them. The original release was huge at the time. It was everywhere, everyone in my friend group played it, we all made zombie jokes. It just was a thing for a while.

There’s a period between the mid-00s and early 10s where tower defence was king. It was everywhere, and Plants vs Zombies rode that train right in the middle of it – but at the same time did something very different with it. Sure there’s zombies, and that’s a very popular way to express a horde, but it didn’t do the usual sci-fi or medieval setting. There’s no real complex maze like many other games. Just a house, your back and front yards, and zombies coming to eat your brains with only plants to get in the way.

If you’ve never played Plants vs Zombies, then here’s the gist of it. The zombies, who really just want to hang out with you, are shambling across your lawn to get into your house. You’ve got to place a small at first, massively large selection later of plants to get in the way. Some plants shoot at range, some slow down, some block the way, and then there’s all sorts of zany things in between. The game’s economy, so to speak, is the sun. It’ll drop from the sky at times to fuel your planting ability, or you can plant sunflowers to get going faster (you’ll need to do this). Sounds simple, right?

In some levels the sun isn’t out. In one level you’ve got a pool in the middle to contend with, and you can also end up on the roof, which mixes things up even more with a slant so some of your favourite plants can’t shoot properly. The core game is very good and balanced, only getting a bit too easy once you unlock everything and get really proficient at the game.

The game’s story, which is as funny as ever, is really just a small part of the game – not to say it won’t take a few hours to get through, just that there’s a lot more here than just the story. Although there’s a healthy-sized Adventure+ mode once you finish with it, which is almost the same except now you just have everything unlocked (and Crazy Dave puts in some random plants). For experts and those who want even more of a challenge, the game’s new RIP mode is a permadeath mode that also removes the game’s mowers (except for one lane randomly). Cloudy Day is another new mode here in Replanted, which is a series of levels where the clouds can roll in randomly and put your sunflowers to sleep.

All the other modes from the original game or other versions are back, like the mini-games, puzzles, and survivor mode. There’s also some new “Bonus Levels,” which are a selection of “limbo page” mini-games from the original game that were cancelled from the original release. They’re interesting to say the least, and you can see why they were cut. It’s not the first time the game has had these modes, but there’s also the inclusion of multiplayer co-op and vs modes. In versus mode, one person controls the game much as normal, and on the other side the other person can spawn zombies. There’s some exclusive zombies in this mode as well.

Co-op sees people share the duty in fending off the zombies. It helps if you have someone who has played Plants vs Zombies before too – because otherwise this one is going to get testy between the players if not. The game’s Zen Garden and Achievements are here as well to complete the package. You can also now speed up the gameplay with the click of the left stick, its great for getting that initial setup out of the way quickly, but you’ll be back to normal speed in no time as it soon gets out of control.

So the other big change with the game is the new graphics, which have been updated to HD. The game looks great and really pops both on the TV and on the Switch handheld screens, and at first glance everything looks perfect. It’s not until you really look closer that you can see that there’s been some upscaling going on in places. The developers say they haven’t used generative AI to do this, and there is a difference between this and just AI upscaling, but you can tell there’s something going on there.

The game mid-review received a patch which did fix a lot of little issues we noticed with the game, like Crazy Dave’s store not working correctly, and when watering plants in the Zen Garden, they were on fire. I’m sure there are more bugs I’m not even noticing, but on the whole the game plays great here on Nintendo Switch.

In researching and catching back up with Plants vs Zombies after not really playing it in a decade and a half, I learned that the game has a really dedicated fanbase who are fastidious about making sure the game is treated right.

The Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game (which we weren’t able to test) also adds mouse controls to the game, as well as the ability to GameShare the game. Should we get that version of the game, we’ll let you know how it goes too. However speaking to others who have played the Switch 2 version, they’ve had no problems with the mouse controls.

In researching and catching back up with Plants vs Zombies after not really playing it in a decade and a half, I learned that the game has a really dedicated fanbase who are fastidious about making sure the game is treated right.

Replanted seems like a great version of the game, and having not played the game for so long and never on a home console, I felt right at home (without a zombie in it) back in the neighbourhood with this one. There’s a few small things to fix up, but overall Plants vs Zombies Replanted is a fun time, and it’ll be “one more time” each time you play it.

Rating: 4.5/5