Games You Forgot Were Awesome #2: Plants Vs. Zombies (Console Edition)

 Available on: Xbox 360 (Compatible with Xbox One), Playstation 3.

By Oliver Giles

When it comes to game-ports that really never needed to exist, the original Plants Vs. Zombies, developed by Electronic Arts and PopCap Games, is pretty high up on the list. However, the game was a massive success when it originally released for iOS and Android phones, leading to versions of the game being made for everything from the Nintendo DS to the Blackberry 10 and the forgotten BlackBerry Playbook tablet.

Today, however, we will be focusing exclusively on the home console releases of the PopCap classic, these being for the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation.

Making its home console debut on the Xbox 360 in July of 2010, it was soon realized by practically anyone who played it that this was quite possibly the best way to enjoy it.

The sound engine and graphics had been given a boost while still keeping that iconic PVZ feel. New onscreen additions were added to make the game more visually appealing. The menu system was reconfigured to be much more fluid. And on top of all that, we got actual achievements. While the iOS version did have in-game achievements, they really didn't do all that much outside of the app. While Game Center support was added later on, who actually cared about Game center?

No, these were proper Xbox 360 Achievements. While there weren't that many of them, not compared to the amount we see in modern Xbox titles, it was still always fun to see that "Achievement Unlocked" message appear on the screen. Achievements also added some extra skill to the game as, although some were unlocked by simply progressing through adventure mode, others you would actually have to purposely try to get.

The Xbox 360 version of the game also offered Xbox Avatar support, allowing players to purchase items to use with their Xbox Avatar. These include multiple plants and zombie-related items, such as Crazy Dave's shoes and road cone hat from a Conehead Zombie.

  And, as if the pot wasn't already great, they threw in two multiplayer modes for good measure, Co-op and Verses. This allowed for both cooperative and competitive multiplayer, certainly improving the game's playtime and value.

The Xbox version of this game was absolutely brilliant and still holds up well to this day. The PlayStation 3 version, however, is a different story.

While the 360 port was handled directly by EA and PopCap, the PS3 version, released in February of 2011, was ported by Sony Online Entertainment.

PlayStation 3 controllers are known to have pretty loose thumbsticks, a problem that carried over to both the PS4 and PS5. This often leads to controls in-game feeling slippery and unresponsive, and Plants Vs. Zombies were no exception. The onscreen courser, used to indicate where to place a plant, wouldn't always respond appropriately to the inputs it was given with the controller, leading to a lot of frustration on the part of users.

The soundtrack was different from the 360 version as well, having shorter tracks and fewer versions of them in order to decrease the game's download size for the PlayStation Network at that time. While the Plants Vs. Zombies central theme will likely go down in gaming history as iconic; the limited soundtrack of the PS3 port meant it was used far too often to replace missing tracks in the game.

There were other game-effecting bugs as well. Sometimes the zombies on a level wouldn't spawn, crashing the game. Other times, the zombies in a level would randomly be invincible, even against powerful plants like the Doom Shroom or Cherry Bomb, making a level unplayable until the game was restarted. And don't even think about trying to watch the in-game credits unless you want the game to crash.

While some of these glitches were patched out, others persist to this day, forever tainting the experience of playing Plants Vs. Zombies on the PS3.

Overall, the home console version of PVZ is an iconic example of a mobile game port done right and a truly fun experience— as long as you play the Xbox version.

The 360 version is compatible with all versions of the Xbox One, as well as the series X/S, and is available through the Xbox Store, as well as with EA Play/Gamepass Ultimate.