Plants Vs. Zombies - Explodonator

Steam Achievements: Somehow, not as fun.

The death of Flash may be imminent. It may also be an exaggerated prognostication. I don't care, but I honor its illustrious past. Between the video, the animations, and the games, Flash has made the Web into the greatest time-waster since Man first twiddled his thumbs. Remember Ninjai! Remember Frog in a Blender! Remember Zombocom! You can do anything at Zombocom! Remember Bejeweled! Well, I'm sure you needn't be reminded of Bejeweled. You probably have it on at least one of a hundred different platforms. Sometimes it seems like you can play it on just about anything with an electric current running through it. (Breaking News: Scientists develop eel-based gaming platform, will package retail version with Bejeweled).

Assuming you do recall that little marvel--the Flash game that made it to the big time--then you are familiar with the style of PopCap Games, Bejeweled's creators. These days, PopCap is throwing all their efforts into promoting Plants vs. Zombies, the game I've been playing for the last six hours straight, my mind blown that so much could be packed into a 25 Mb download.

Image via Wikipedia

If you've played Bookworm Adventures or any other of two dozen PopCap games done in the signature PopCap style (for which they have a development kit, btw), then you know what to expect: cartoon-style graphics, a good sense of humor, family friendly fun, and consistently addictive gameplay. Here's how they do it: start the game off with a basic set of tools\weapons for the player to use against the somewhat-docile enemies; steadily add to the player's inventory, evolving the enemies along with the tools, giving you (the player) the impression that eventually your toolbox will be full and the majority of the game will consist of throwing everything you've got against everything the CPU has; continue adding and evolving for the duration of the main game. The effect is that the player never feels like they've reached the middle. The introduction is stretched almost to the end. The story arc is distorted so that there is no boredom plateau, no natural stop-and-save points. Even though the variety is minimal, it is implemented so efficiently that it feels like there is. I've noticed the tactic catching on in other games, too, particularly tower defense games like Defense Grid.

Survival mode: I 'm dug in for the zonslaught.

Plants vs. Zombies, by the way, is essentially just a tower defense game itself. A pretty simple one: zombies in various costumes approach from the left, you plant your defenses on the right. Your horticultural arsenal includes the turret-like pea-shooters, squash (which actually squashes enemies), explosive cherry bombs and jalapeños, cabbage-pults, and fourty-four others. The zombies adjust to your evolving weaponry by shielding themselves with screen doors and football pads, pole-vaulting and pogo-sticking past, tunneling underneath, and bungie-jumping in from above. You collect sunshine falling from the sky or from sunflowers you plant yourself, and use it as currency. Coins from fallen zombies can be used to purchase power-ups from your crazy neighbor. Cute, simple, fun, funny, and just challenging enough to keep you playing. In one word: charming. Charming is kind of PopCap's M.O.

The achievement is Explodonator. In the spirit of the game, this is a fun one: no grind necessary. Just blow up ten zombies with one Cherry Bomb. Not tough at all. There are tougher achievements, some of which I accomplished by accident but I won't be spending any time grinding for a Steam achievement. They are not grind-inspiring. Why not? Because Steam doesn't make it grounds for competition.

Steam achievements are not integrated with the messaging software. They are also not tracked cumulatively.There is no Steam equivalent of the gamerscore. There is no score-keeping whatsoever. There is no page offering side-by-side comparisons of your stats and a friend's. For all the wonderful communication tools that Steam provides (I'm thinking of the in-game communications panel specifically), and the depth to which statistics can be tracked for an individual game, they inexplicably stopped before expanding these capabilities to include achievement stats. This is unfortunate. It means that I play a game through the end of the main story and, unless side quests and mini-games are emphasized in-game, I stop playing. I think most gamers would agree that MacGuffins are not themselves reward enough to merit quests for them. Give us unlockables (useable ones, nobody cares about photo galleries). Give us new modes. Give us cheat codes. Give us achievements, high score lists. Give us something to brag to our friends about. Achievements enhance gameplay. They add depth. Steam\Valve needs to take a second to integrate achievements into the social elements of the client. It can't be difficult to do.

• PopCap's Plants vs. Zombies biggest iPhone game launch - ever (games.com)
• Plants vs. Zombies for iPad Leaked (1up.com)
• Plants Vs. Zombies, Peggle, Bejeweled 50% Cheaper (cinemablend.com)
• What Are You Playing This Weekend? [Lazy Sundays] (kotaku.com)

Grind Update
Microsoft knows how its done. My gamerscore is quickly becoming the pride of my life (don't laugh, please). Sometime before my next post it will climb past 5000, a real milestone. I'll be sure to plan something special for the commemorative entry.