They've Come to Eat Your Grains

When I first started my Plants Vs. Zombies binge I wasn't sure if it could hook me or not. On one hand, my games of choice do not involve defending my homestead with magic plants, or feature simple left to right gameplay. On the other hand, it is an award winning game, and all of the critics can't be wrong. Right? It quickly became obvious that I had underestimated the game's difficulty and complexity. You become a General in the war against zombies, leading your army of plants on fifty battles, not including the minigames, and each new battle brings challenges. Challenges that require you to strategize in order to succeed. It is because of this strategy that I found the game to be engaging.

The Zombie I made in a minigame, I call her Mod Zombie.

I did have one major problem with the game though, the ending. If you love surprises, beware, here be spoilers.

The entire game is centered around ridding your backyard of zombies and defending your brain. If you fail a level an ominous sound plays and a message pops up saying "The Zombies Ate Your Brains!" in B-movie slime font. You grow to hate the zombies pretty quickly for eating your (sometimes very expensive) plants and craving your delectable brain. This heated war reaches its peak when Dr. Zomboss lands on your roof in a giant death robot. Apparently Dr. Zomboss is the leader of the zombie hordes and wants to shut this whole pro-plant/anti-zombie operation down once and for all. This marks the start of the big final battle, a battle that I actually won. I was very proud of myself. Then I felt cheated. Because the game doesn't end with the final death of Dr. Zomboss, his head falling off with a satisfying "pop!" No, the game ends with a truce, and a music video starring a singing sunflower and dancing zombies. It is horrifying.

A still from the terrible, sing-a-long style ending.

After fighting these annoying zombies for so many hours I was not okay with them just waving the white flag and everything being okay. In fact I wanted a much darker and satisfying end, maybe something that involved heads decorating my white picket fence. I'm just spit-balling here, but I wanted something better because I actually really did like the game. I just hate how it ended.

 *Also, props to Stavi for mishearing me earlier and inadvertently giving me my title.*