Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Road Cones Protect My Head: Plants Vs Zombies

By John Walker on April 1st, 2009 at 7:34 pm.

Cuddles.

I can’t tell you how crappy a day I’ve had. From stomach bug to exploding graphics cards, it’s been a stinker. So I would like to loudly declare the complete magical happiness that PopCap’s announcement has brought me. Plants Vs. Zombies looks like it will be PopCap’s interpretation of a tower defence game, but details at this point are scarce. What’s not scarce is a gorgeous song to accompany the news, with an adorable singing sunflower backed by a chorus of zombies. Who we don’t want on our lawn. Now with video below.

Dammit, the song is so funny, but currently there’s no way to embed it here. Hooray for PopCap! They’ve given us an embed. It’s the zombie declarations, or its simply that there’s a zombie dolphin, or perhaps it’s the bobbing head of Peggle’s sunflower. I don’t know. But watching this video brings me happiness. You must go to the site and watch it again and again. You can download an mp3 of the song, apparently by Laura Shigihara, from here.

We’re hounding PopCap for more details, but at the moment you’ll have to discern clues from the video, and make do with knowing it’s out on 5th May.

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70 Comments »

  1. 01/04/2009 at 19:45 JonFitt says:

    Argh, I’m going to be singing that all day now!

  2. 01/04/2009 at 19:49 Lambo says:

    Its stuff like that, which is the reason that I bother to get up in the mornings.

    Thank you Mr. Walker, and thank you Popcap.

    Am currently trying to upload this to youtube, I’ll edit in a link if it works out.

    Edit: upload = fail :(

  3. 01/04/2009 at 19:55 DigitalSignalX says:

    rofl. Zombie dolphins ftw.

  4. 01/04/2009 at 19:58 Will Tomas says:

    Loved the video. Especially the use of the word ‘lawn’. Very good.

  5. 01/04/2009 at 20:04 Senethro says:

    Wait, wasn’t this a completely different post half an hour ago?

  6. 01/04/2009 at 20:08 Ben says:

    “Get ready to soil your plants” = WIN!!1

  7. 01/04/2009 at 20:11 Tarn says:

    Heh, a zombie with butter inexplicably on his head, who feels the need to sing about it. Brilliant.

  8. 01/04/2009 at 20:24 pilouuuu says:

    Sheer Brilliance! At least the videoclip is destined to become a classic.

    Can we expect even more fun than Peggle this time?

  9. 01/04/2009 at 20:27 Patrick says:

    There’s butter on my HEAD!

  10. 01/04/2009 at 20:34 ...hmm... says:

    sploding card? What sploding card was it please

  11. 01/04/2009 at 20:38 zak canard says:

    That video’s just guaranteed a sale.

  12. 01/04/2009 at 20:40 Evil Vitamin C says:

    Ohhh my gawd … Popcap are so incredibly awesome. Casual games are the future!

  13. 01/04/2009 at 20:41 MrMud says:

    this makes me sad its april 1st

  14. 01/04/2009 at 21:03 John Walker says:

    MrMud – it’s definitely for real. We’ve got confirmation that this isn’t part of the Day Of Tedious Lies.

  15. 01/04/2009 at 21:04 Weylund says:

    Nah, MrMud. Now you can put aside a quarter a day until the release date and have the money to buy it!

    I don’t think casual games are the future. Now, casual games with plasma weapons, inside bodies of living metal, slaughtering humanity: that’s the future.

  16. 01/04/2009 at 21:06 Kieron Gillen says:

    I strongly approve of the tagline.

    KG

  17. 01/04/2009 at 21:19 Garreett says:

    MrMud…please…don’t tell me it’s an April Fool’s Joke. That would just RUIN EVERYTHING. It would RUIN EVERYTHING more than an exploding laptop.

  18. 01/04/2009 at 21:24 John Walker says:

    @Garreett. Hello? Hello? Is this thing on?

  19. 01/04/2009 at 21:29 Garreett says:

    @John, yeah, I had the tab open, forgot about it for about 30 minutes, then wrote the comment, without refreshing.

  20. 01/04/2009 at 21:29 Larington says:

    That tag line is pure genius.

  21. 01/04/2009 at 22:20 Mister Yuck says:

    Huh. Now I just want to smile all day and hug people. That’s weird.

  22. 01/04/2009 at 22:43 Larington says:

    “Huh. Now I just want to smile all day and hug people. That’s weird.”

    Well, that explains the two girls in Cardiff on Sunday who were holding signs up high saying “Free Hugs”… Must’ve gotten an advanced preview or something. (I suspect in reality it was some kind of experiment, possibly even something academic in nature)

  23. 01/04/2009 at 22:52 Chambraigne says:

    A Google search reveals that the Internet has known about this since around the end of February, with screenshot and everything, so it’s definitely for real. It’s odd that we see this big announcement NOW though. Almost seems like a sick joke to me.

  24. 01/04/2009 at 23:01 John Walker says:

    @Larington They’re part of this movement: http://www.freehugscampaign.org/

  25. 01/04/2009 at 23:27 Dave Gates says:

    Insanely catchy… argh.

  26. 01/04/2009 at 23:41 Baris says:

    Is it wrong to have very…strange feelings towards a mostly inanimate creature? A sunflower in this case.

  27. 01/04/2009 at 23:45 Larington says:

    Heh, that explains that.

    Also, awwwwwwwww…

  28. 01/04/2009 at 23:53 drygear says:

    I wonder if this is the game with the million dollar budget that Popcap was going to make.

  29. 02/04/2009 at 00:30 Dozer says:

    just make sure you put the road-cone back where you found it when you’ve finished with it, on top of the bus shelter.

  30. 02/04/2009 at 00:59 Z says:

    That brief snippet seems to indicate that there’s a day/night cycle that has significant effects. Interesting.

  31. 02/04/2009 at 01:11 Tei says:

    And with cough I mean, here is a link to see the video in fullscreen glory.. but is optimized for lowres, so don’t look better. Thats sad, because is a totally adorable and cute music videoclip.

  32. 02/04/2009 at 01:12 Cooper says:

    Wow. Just. Wow.

    This has already entered my list of ‘games which reaffirm why I’m a gamer’ even though I haven’t played it yet,.

    Also, that freehugscampaign. Beautiful.

  33. 02/04/2009 at 01:14 Tei says:

    I mean my …. humm.. other… forget it. I have alzeimer?

  34. 02/04/2009 at 01:49 Saul says:

    FYI, the Free Hugs movement started with some dude here in Sydney, Australia. This crappy city is good for something, at least…

  35. 02/04/2009 at 04:36 The_B says:

    This song is 32% more entertaining when dunk. Not that it isn’t when sober, but MAN!

  36. 02/04/2009 at 04:47 Psychopomp says:

    So THAT’S where I left my faith in humanity

  37. 02/04/2009 at 04:48 Psychopomp says:

    D’oh.
    I was TRYING to quote John, damnit.

  38. 02/04/2009 at 06:18 MeestaNob! says:

    Who is Hugs and why is he being held captive?

  39. 02/04/2009 at 08:08 Catastrophe says:

    Lol @ Meesta, the zombies have Hugs… Free Hugs!

  40. 02/04/2009 at 08:31 Okami says:

    This is making me a happy puppy :)

  41. 02/04/2009 at 09:01 Duncan says:

    AWESOME!

  42. 02/04/2009 at 09:02 Tei says:

    I this… love?

  43. 02/04/2009 at 09:16 Ian says:

    Damn zombies better not be putting their undead mitts on MY tricycle!

  44. 02/04/2009 at 09:52 Schmung says:

    Wheeee! This is marvellous and has cheered me no end.

    Also, I thought the free hugs thing was just something that happened at festivals and/or pished students larking around/trying to cop a feel? Doing it in Cardiff though, that’s rather brave. People looking at you needily with arms outstretched doesn’t generally garner a good reaction here.

  45. 02/04/2009 at 10:20 Po0py says:

    Um, I wonder if the games industry are gonna just outlaw all other types of games, prohibit any kind of innovation and just release tower defence clones from now on.

  46. 02/04/2009 at 10:24 Rei Onryou says:

    Wow. That’s just…..wow.

    This needs a second song before release.

    I think this confirms that <Random object vs. game titles = instant marketing success.

  47. 02/04/2009 at 10:28 Rei Onryou says:

    Curse forgetting to login.

    I meant [Random object] vs. [Ludicrous mythical object] game titles = instant marketing success.

  48. 02/04/2009 at 10:54 DMJ says:

    I’m waiting for Pants vs Zombies.

  49. 02/04/2009 at 11:37 Larington says:

    This is going to be plantastic (Sorry). There’ll be plantiful zombie fighting action (Really, I’m sorry). Plants for the memories?

    Ok, I’m going to stop before I get mobbed by zombies.

  50. 02/04/2009 at 11:41 The_B says:

    Larington: I think it’s safer if we leaf out the plant puns, of corpse.

  51. 02/04/2009 at 12:23 Tei says:

    Re: I meant [Random object] vs. [Ludicrous mythical object] game titles = instant marketing success.

    [VHS tape rewiner] vs [race: Amazon, class(dual): Thief/Paladin ] = ???

  52. 02/04/2009 at 13:34 Muzman says:

    Not even your foul puns can depress me after that.

  53. 02/04/2009 at 14:43 Henrik J says:

    Looks cute, but i would be more interested if it wasnt a tower defense game…

  54. 02/04/2009 at 14:49 Stense says:

    How cute, or at least as cute as the undead can be.

    That song is great too. Should be interesting to see where this goes. Go Popcap go!

  55. 03/04/2009 at 02:15 A-Scale says:

    Cute, but not catch to the level of a “Still Alive”. Then again, what is. I’m interested, and this was a totally awesome ad campaign. More power to popcap.

  56. 03/04/2009 at 05:18 Brokenbroll says:

    This is a more inventive and complex piece than Still Alive, though I’m sure thats not what you were grading it on. Still Alive is a decent little acoustic pop song, but its real value comes from its connection to and being part of the Portal game, and being propped up by having a professionally trained vocalist singing the song. The Coulton version is really quite forgettable.

    This Zombie song is just catchy and slick by itself, with no propping up from being associated with one of the most acclaimed games of recent years.

  57. 03/04/2009 at 05:44 Oak says:

    Can we go one thread?

  59. 03/04/2009 at 11:03 mejobloggs says:

    watching this vid over and over heheh

  60. 03/04/2009 at 12:04 Hmm-hmm. says:

    Sounds like awesome. I’m not that into tower defence games, but I’m certainly going to take a look at it.

  61. 03/04/2009 at 12:17 Ian says:

    And this is still stuck in my head!

  62. 03/04/2009 at 14:41 Dave Gates says:

    Jesus, i’ve put this song on my Ipod. Bad idea, its a new obsession. DAMN YOU JOHN WALKER, DAMN YOUR OILEY HIDE TO HELL!

  63. 03/04/2009 at 17:36 Supertonic says:

    Damn. I now need this game. Bastards. Better run in Wine.

  64. 04/04/2009 at 13:43 A-Scale says:

    I couldn’t disagree more, Brokenbroll. I think Portal was seen to be so remarkable both for its quality, and for the catchiness and unprecedented nature of the song. This song is cute, but lacking. The flower’s lyrics are very funny, the innuendo is very creative, but the “We are the Un-dead!” portion seems like they ran out of words and had to jam something in that fit the cadence.

  65. 20/04/2009 at 22:11 Bill says:

    I liked both this song and the Poral theme, but I think I agree with Brokenbroll. For such a catchy sugary pop song, there are things about the lyrics and cadence in the Zombies song that are so clever… like, “tall, dark, and dead” and “brains are quite rich in cholesterol” (apparently brains actually do have a lot of cholesterol, who knew?).

    Concerning the “We are the Un-dead” part: Personally, I think the lyricist made the zombie’s lyrics like that on purpose; there seems to be an intended sharp contrast between the sunflowers subtley clever lyrics and the dumbness of the zombie’s lyrics. Everything they say is blunt and awkward, like the way you’d imagine a zombie to sing. But the sunflower’s parts are quirky and clever with lots of creative innuendo. I love it! And I love the contrast, it makes it all the more funny to me.

    So I like both themes, but for different reasons. I don’t think this song is lacking anything, I think it’s great!

  66. 22/04/2009 at 15:17 Aldo says:

    Ever since I shown her the video, my wife’s been singing it constantly. Including the Japanese version.

  67. 24/04/2009 at 15:51 Bhazor says:

    Reply to Barris
    It is perfectly natural to want to mount that sunflower.

    Get it here!
    http://shigi.wordpress.com/

  68. 29/05/2009 at 13:56 person says:

    I
    WANT
    THAT
    SUNFLOWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  69. 23/07/2009 at 07:41 sunflower says:

    there a zombie on your lawn!

    Hi guys if u want to email me go to my email rabbi@hotmail.com it’s so good plus i am the one create plant vs zombie if u want another game from popcap email me i was thinking of making a game named insects vs robots what do u think????

  70. 23/07/2009 at 07:44 sunflower says:

    i’ll give u this song i learn from dragon ball gt when goku becomes super saiyan 4 argggh wow wow wow booooomm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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