In 2009, the original Plants vs. Zombies was released on both the PC and Mac, and it came as no surprise that Plants vs. Zombies was a hit for the company. What was surprising is how big of a hit the game turned out to be; it sold to big numbers on just about every gaming platform it touched over the next few years. The game eventually spawned a sequel and several spin-offs, but many people agree that nothing has surpassed the original game. Sixteen years after the game's original release comes Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted, a remastered version that brings a graphical upgrade and adds a ton of new modes.

The game has a story, but it isn't as front and center as you may think. You only know what you can piece together from snippets throughout the campaign. Dr. Zomboss has created an army of various zombies to help him take over the world. The zombies are headed to your house to eat your brain before moving on to world domination. You've barricaded yourself inside your house, so your only means of defense are plants that are powerful enough to stop the zombie invasion at your lawn — with some occasional help from your eccentric neighbor Crazy Dave.

If you've never played the game before, what you're looking at is a tower defense title that's been simplified and touched up with whimsical flair. Each battle takes place on an area that's nine squares wide and five squares long, making for five lanes in which to fight. Zombies come in from one side, usually the right side, with the goal of making it across to the left side and into the house. For your part, you collect sunlight falling from the sky and converted into solar units. You use these units to select plants that can defend the house from the incoming zombies. Most of these plants are used in offense, such as pea shooters that fire peas across the field or mushrooms that fire gas at a short range. Other plants are defensive, such as potatoes that can be used as mines or large wall-nuts that block zombie advances until the wall-nuts are destroyed. Likewise, the zombies may start off normally, but they start to vary greatly, such as ones that appear from the sky to steal one of your plants or disco zombies that resurrect backup dancers to overwhelm you with numbers. Levels end when either the zombie horde is destroyed or one of the zombies makes it inside the house.

By restricting the field to five lanes, the game becomes easier to grasp since you don't have to worry about enemies taking different routes or creating complicated routes to temporarily slow down their advances. You can put all of your focus on the towers, since attacks go in a straight line. The simplicity of the mechanics doesn't make the game any less fun, as each level has enough zombies to keep you on your toes. The levels last just long enough to enjoy the fight before moving on to the next stage.

Adventure mode is initially the only available mode, but those who've played the original PC release will be pleased to know that the secret level is still present and accessible using the same method as before. Players will still be asked to go through 50 different levels that take place in five different environments. Each of the environments are different enough that you will need to constantly change your strategies due to certain conditions, such as being on sloped surfaces when fighting on the roof or using different plants when playing at night due to the lack of solar units being produced. Your strategy also changes with the inclusion of new plants that are unlocked at the end of each level and different zombie types that appear every few levels. The mode is fun enough that you'll try to stop playing, only to be met with the call of one more game once you see the enemy lineup. The mode is also worth going through a second time, since you can find new challenges and use all of your previously earned plants in any level.

Compared to just about every version of the game that has appeared prior to this, there have been a few improvements made to the Adventure mode. You now have a level select page, which was only present in the mobile version onward, and there's now an option to speed up the game to get through a stage quicker in case you have the perfect garden layout. The one improvement that most non-console players would look forward to is the ability to play through the whole Adventure mode cooperatively. The mechanics remain the same as what you'd find when playing solo, but there's an extra cursor to collect solar units and place plants, so it extends the overall fun, especially during the campaign's back half, where the difficulty ramps up significantly.

The rest of the game's modes are a mix of modes that have existed since the beginning console-exclusive modes, but unlocking them all means beating the Adventure mode at least once. There is a slew of minigames that emulate the stuff seen in Adventure mode, like wall-nut bowling and other games that seem like parodies of other PopCap titles. For example, there's a parody of Bejeweled where you need to make matches but are constantly hindered by zombies eating your plants. As far as diversions go, they're pretty awesome.

Survival mode has three different sub-modes where you have to last five zombie waves, 10 zombie waves, or go for an infinite amount of zombie waves until you ultimately die. One differentiator is that you can choose to replace your seed packs at the start of every wave, so you aren't stuck with your initial selection when the incoming zombie hordes may differ enough to merit a different strategy. Puzzle mode is up next, which has three sub-modes of its own. Vasebreaker has you breaking all of the vases in a stage to uncover all of the plants and solar units needed to defeat any of the zombies you reveal. Last Stand gives you a finite amount of solar units to beat a stage, but you can get a refund for any undamaged plants you return in between rounds. I, Zombie mode plays like a reverse of the main game, since you play as the zombies and need to clear out the plants to reach the house. Like the minigames, these are all good alternatives to keep you playing after you've uncovered everything in the campaign.

For multiplayer, co-op exists in the Adventure mode, but there is also a dedicated mode that plays out a little differently. You get a specific selection of levels, and the dual cursor system still exists. However, each player picks their own selection of plants in their arsenal, and they each have their own cache of solar units. It's different enough from the Adventure mode, but Adventure mode still feels more satisfying to play in a co-op fashion. Players also have access to a Versus mode that plays like the campaign except that one side gets to play as the zombies, complete with the ability to choose which kinds of zombies they have on their side. Like the dedicated co-op mode, it's neat as a novelty rather than something that you and a friend will spend serious time in.

There are a few more old modes. Zen Garden lets you set up the plants in a non-combative state, where you can grow them and tend to their needs in exchange for cash that can be used to purchase stuff from Crazy Dave. The cash can also be used in the Tree of Wisdom to help it grow, unlocking both plant facts and cheat codes for use elsewhere in the game. The Almanac also makes an appearance to dole out facts about the game world. The only thing that doesn't make a return is the zombie avatar creator.

On top of everything else that's been ported from the previous iterations of the game, Replanted adds three new modes. Bonus Levels isn't new for those who have played the original PC version, but the minigames are made more accessible, since you don't have to mess with Cheat Engine or similar memory editing programs to unlock them. Some of the minigames make things easier, like Sunny Day giving you more solar units to earn or Big Time increasing the size of some of your plants (and their given abilities). Other minigames are more challenging, such as Air Raid only giving you balloon-wearing zombies to defeat or Unsodded, which prevents you from planting anything in the top and bottom rows of the field. You also have silly minigames, such as making a large sunflower or wall-nut drawing out of smaller versions of those plants. Overall, their presence gives players some extra gameplay, especially those who have only experienced the game on non-PC platforms.

Cloudy Days is the next new game mode, and it places an interesting wrinkle on the base game mechanics. As the levels progress, the sun will periodically disappear which then causes any of your sunflowers and other sun producing plants to go to sleep. You might get a small amount of solar power occasionally, but you'll mostly go without sunlight to replenish your reserves. The game takes it easy on you by halving the sunlight cost of your plants, but that's it. It makes for a fun challenge for players who end up with a ton of solar reserves in the back half of a stage, since you have to be frugal on your solar spend.

The final mode is Rest In Piece, which can be considered the hardest mode. You're playing through the whole adventure again with all of the plants you've earned, but you're doing so with only one life. If you lose a level, you'll have to restart the campaign from the beginning. To further stack things against you, every level has Crazy Dave choose three plants for you (just like in the second run of Adventure mode). This can limit your strategy, depending on your play style. Trying to get through all of the levels in one go will be daunting, but it also feels like the perfect challenge for those who know the game inside and out.

Despite the wealth of content in Replanted, there are a few minor complaints. The game's ending song "Zombies on my Lawn" and accompanying music video are still present, which is excellent news for those who have only played the game on iOS and Android, where that song and video were absent. Unfortunately, the music video is shown as an FMV instead of being rendered in-game, which is a shame for those hoping to see the video with higher-quality assets. The presence of co-op and versus play is awesome, but it's local only, which means that players who don't have anyone close by to play with and rely heavily on the internet for other players will be out of luck, especially with Steam's Remote Play Together feature not being listed as working with this game yet. For PC players specifically, co-op and versus play can only be done if both players are using gamepads; this is a shame if you're used to playing the game with a keyboard and mouse combo.

For the most part, the audio presentation is relatively untouched. From what I can tell, the audio is exactly the same, which is good since the original title had solid audio. The music provides a nice balance of a lively feeling with a bit of dread mixed in, and the tunes never get tiresome. The voices are clear, and the sound effects are also good without being overwhelming. Graphically, you'll see the biggest changes happen if you're coming from the original PC version. A 16:9 presentation with redone graphics that still evokes the look of the original 4:3 game goes a long way to making this game look gorgeous, especially with the style being dependent on vibrant colors. Things are a little less impressive if you're coming in from the Xbox 360 version using backward compatibility on the Xbox Series X, but the brighter colors make this new version look a touch better than the older console version — even though this version of the game doesn't use any HDR tone mapping.

The Steam Deck feels like the perfect device, outside of the Switch and Switch 2, for this game, and the performance of the title on Valve's handheld PC supports that idea. The game is always locked at 60fps with no dips, and the game's resolution takes up the full 1280x800 of the device's screen. The battery life on the LCD version of the deck hits around three hours from a full charge, which is a little lower than expected but still fine considering how many of the game's rounds are fairly short. Linux desktop users will find that the game launches fine with no errors or tweaking. Those with ultrawide displays will find that the main game still runs on a 16:9 screen ratio, but at least the sides are filled in with the game's wallpaper, so the screen real estate is still being used.

Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted is the definitive version of this classic strategy game. The gameplay is simple to understand but challenging, and the formula holds up as much today as it did when the game was first released 16 years ago. The presentation is absolutely clean all around, and the number of modes ensures that it'll take some time before you can truly explore everything on offer. Having an online option would've been nice, but considering how nothing really valuable was removed from this iteration, the lack of online play at launch is fine. Longtime fans of the series will immediately be happy with this game, while newcomers will be in for a very fun-filled ride.

Score: 9.0/10