WIN! Plants vs. Zombies GelaSkins

I'm giving away a few Plants Vs. Zombies GelaSkins, generously provided by PopCap. They fit either iPhone 4 or 3GS/3G/original. They do not fit on an iPod Touch.

GelaSkins are protective coverings for you device. They cling to the surface to prevent damage. They sell for about $15 each.

To enter, all you have to do is:

1. Share a link (even this one) or follow State of Play via:

• Facebook 
• Twitter 
• RSS Feed 
• Google Follow (found at the bottom of the sidebar)

Please note: if you already follow us on Google, RSS, Twitter, or Facebook, just let me know that you'd like to enter, and please do a retweet or some other kind of link share.

2. Let me know you want to enter. Do this in any of the following ways:

• Leave a comment.
• Tweet me @StateOfPlayBlog
• Post a message on the State of Play Facebook Page
• Send an email to "games=at=aptopub.com" (replace the =at= with @) to have your name entered.  
• Please don't forget to do one of these things or I won't know you've entered!

The deadline is Friday, October 8, 2010. Deadline extended to Monday, October 11!

I'll choose winners by the scientific process of writing names on little pieces of paper and pulling them out of my Mario hat.

ONLY NORTH AMERICAN ENTRIES PLEASE!

... And Poptober Begins

You know you want this.

And so we begin to pass out the PopCap swag throughout October.  Here's what we have on hand:

• A rare, 10th Anniversary metal Bejeweled Photo frame
• Plants vs. Zombies Gelaskins for your iPhone
• A Peggle t-shirt
• Plants vs. Zombies Game of the Year Edition, with a special zombie figurine.

I also have a variety of stuffed Chuzzles and strongbands, so I'll probably spread those around to various packages as I send out stuff.

First contest begins today.

App O' The Mornin': Aftermath Review

As I'm writing this, Aftermath is still in the app store for free. I'm not sure how long it will stay that way, so scoop it up while you can.

I've been done with zombies for a long time now, but they're in vogue again and just won't seem to go away. Well, I guess that's zombies for you: always just outside the door, scratching to get in while you pretend not to be home. They're so popular someone even removed George A. Romero from deep freeze and gave him actual money to make some truly horrible new zombie movies, thus reminding us all that Dawn of the Dead was a really long time ago.

Zombies crowd the App Store like it's the Monroeville Mall and there's a sale on ironic post-modern commentary about American consumerism. They've already gotten the kiss of death for any movie monster: they've become overly familiar. Yet they can still rise to the occasion and deliver a few shocks given the right trappings.

Aftermath gets zombies right by doing a few simple things. The developers made the zombies fast, dumb, and plentiful; they keep the lights down low, the music moody, and the gore copious; and they ditch any pretense of narrative fuss and get right down to the shoot-'em-in-the-brain part.

This is a spin-shooter with a bit more finesse than most. In fact, it's not so much a spin-shooter as a running game. You actually don't fire your weapons at all: you just point your light in the direction of the shambling dead and back away while Mr. Automatic Weapon does all the heavy lifting. The twin stick control works just fine, and the entire game boils down to keeping your distance from the zombies while controlling the direction of the fire.

The game is full of weapons, but you really only wind up using a few of your favorites. It also looks quite good, making the most of its simple 3D structures through moody lighting. The only problem is its brevity. It can be knocked out in no time at all.

I'm guessing that a sequel is in the offing, so TwoHeads Games is making the original free in order to drive up the brand recognition. It's a smart move for them, and it gives you a chance to play a bloody good spin shooter.

Zombies Ate My Lawn

PopCap always delivers the swag, but this time they did something a little extra special to promote the Plants Vs. Zombies: Game of the Year Edition to the press. (We did, in fact, give it the Casual Game of the Year Award at Games Magazine.) They had Sam Gueydan of Moose Studios Pottery create a ceramic Zombie Defense Team, limited to 300 sets. It includes a sunflower, peashooter, and chomper.

Witness the awesomeness. (Click on the pictures to make them larger.)

The GOTY Edition also comes with this nifty 3" Zombie

App O' the Mornin': Plants vs. Zombies

Okay, so these zombies are attacking, and the only thing between them and your brains (which are so very very tasty) is … your garden.

That’s bad news for the zombies, since your front yard is planted with the most undead-butt-kicking set of flora ever to take root in a suburban lawn.

The premise is simple: zombies are in the street, and they want to get into your house to eat your brains. Between them and you is a nice stretch of green lawn. On some levels it’s split in half by a water feature, and later in the game the zombies will try to get in through the roof.

To stop the zombies, you place defensive lines of plants. Both the types of plants and kinds of zombies multiply with each level. From a single “pea shooter,” you’ll eventually accumulate a dazzling array of ferocious flora: double and triple pea-shooters, frozen-pea-shooters, watermelon catapults, flaming logs, hopping squash, man-eating plants, gas-spewing fungus, and more.

The zombies aren’t remaining idle while you’re gathering this arsenal. They’re calling on reinforcements: zombies with pails on their heads or football uniforms (for armor), pole-vaulting zombies, zombie dolphins (for the water feature), Michael Jackson zombies with backup dancers, zombie zambonis, zombie bobsled teams, and more.

The puzzle is in figuring out the best combination and pattern of plants to stop the invaders before they get to you. A healthy selection of levels and myriad minigames keep the action going for a good long time.

Clever, challenging, and insanely addictive, Plants vs. Zombies has made a terrific leap from PC to App, losing none of its signature gameplay. You still have to place a variety of lethal plants to halt a zombie attack upon your peaceful suburban home, but this time you use simple touch commands instead of the mouse. It’s a remarkably effective port, with sharp visuals and no loss of scope or control from the radical shrinkage to iPhone size. Everything in the original is here, and portable!

Plants vs. Zombies is pure madness, in the best possible way. It’s funny, clever, and entertaining. Without any hint of shame, I can say that the original was the most fun I’d had playing a game in months, and the App version doesn’t lose a bit of the magic.

UPDATE: Welcome PvZ Facebook fans! This is a new blog which will cover all aspects of gaming, from beginner to advanced, electronic to conventional, high-tech to no-tech. Stick around, read some of the introductory posts, check out our ongoing App coverage, and follow us on Facebook or Twitter!