By John Walker on April 1st, 2009 at 7:34 pm.
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.
Argh, I’m going to be singing that all day now!
report
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 :(
report
rofl. Zombie dolphins ftw.
report
Loved the video. Especially the use of the word ‘lawn’. Very good.
report
Wait, wasn’t this a completely different post half an hour ago?
report
“Get ready to soil your plants” = WIN!!1
report
Heh, a zombie with butter inexplicably on his head, who feels the need to sing about it. Brilliant.
report
Sheer Brilliance! At least the videoclip is destined to become a classic.
Can we expect even more fun than Peggle this time?
report
There’s butter on my HEAD!
report
sploding card? What sploding card was it please
report
That video’s just guaranteed a sale.
report
Ohhh my gawd … Popcap are so incredibly awesome. Casual games are the future!
report
this makes me sad its april 1st
report
MrMud – it’s definitely for real. We’ve got confirmation that this isn’t part of the Day Of Tedious Lies.
report
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.
report
I strongly approve of the tagline.
KG
report
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.
report
@Garreett. Hello? Hello? Is this thing on?
report
@John, yeah, I had the tab open, forgot about it for about 30 minutes, then wrote the comment, without refreshing.
report
That tag line is pure genius.
report
Huh. Now I just want to smile all day and hug people. That’s weird.
report
“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)
report
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.
report
@Larington They’re part of this movement: http://www.freehugscampaign.org/
report
Insanely catchy… argh.
report
Is it wrong to have very…strange feelings towards a mostly inanimate creature? A sunflower in this case.
report
Heh, that explains that.
Also, awwwwwwwww…
report
I wonder if this is the game with the million dollar budget that Popcap was going to make.
report
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.
report
That brief snippet seems to indicate that there’s a day/night cycle that has significant effects. Interesting.
report
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.
report
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.
report
I mean my …. humm.. other… forget it. I have alzeimer?
report
FYI, the Free Hugs movement started with some dude here in Sydney, Australia. This crappy city is good for something, at least…
report
This song is 32% more entertaining when dunk. Not that it isn’t when sober, but MAN!
report
report
D’oh.
I was TRYING to quote John, damnit.
report
Who is Hugs and why is he being held captive?
report
Lol @ Meesta, the zombies have Hugs… Free Hugs!
report
This is making me a happy puppy :)
report
AWESOME!
report
I this… love?
report
Damn zombies better not be putting their undead mitts on MY tricycle!
report
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.
report
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.
report
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.
report
Curse forgetting to login.
I meant [Random object] vs. [Ludicrous mythical object] game titles = instant marketing success.
report
I’m waiting for Pants vs Zombies.
report
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.
report
Larington: I think it’s safer if we leaf out the plant puns, of corpse.
report
Re: I meant [Random object] vs. [Ludicrous mythical object] game titles = instant marketing success.
[VHS tape rewiner] vs [race: Amazon, class(dual): Thief/Paladin ] = ???
report
Not even your foul puns can depress me after that.
report
Looks cute, but i would be more interested if it wasnt a tower defense game…
report
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!
report
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.
report
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.
report
Can we go one thread?
report
So I totally couldn’t help myself:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/StarshotGray/zomright.gif
report
watching this vid over and over heheh
report
Sounds like awesome. I’m not that into tower defence games, but I’m certainly going to take a look at it.
report
And this is still stuck in my head!
report
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!
report
Damn. I now need this game. Bastards. Better run in Wine.
report
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.
report
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!
report
Ever since I shown her the video, my wife’s been singing it constantly. Including the Japanese version.
report
Reply to Barris
It is perfectly natural to want to mount that sunflower.
Get it here!
http://shigi.wordpress.com/
report
I
WANT
THAT
SUNFLOWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
report
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????
report
i’ll give u this song i learn from dragon ball gt when goku becomes super saiyan 4 argggh wow wow wow booooomm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
report