Teen Zombie vs Plants: Edward & The Strange Invasion

Damnit, Nickleodeon. I know you're a commercial entity which wants all the money and everything, but you still have a duty to not mess up children. And yet there you are, making a website with 'addicting' in the title. 'Nickleodeon Addicting Games', for God's sakes. What's wrong with you? Is 'addictive' really that hard to spell?

Poor old toony, survival sorta-RPG Edward & The Strange Invasion thus finds itself tarred with the idiot brush of 'addicting'. Which is a shame, as it's pretty addicting. Oh God no, now they've got me too. JOIN US JOIN US JOIN US JOIN US ADDICTING JOIN US ADDICTING JOIN US

Aaargh. Free browser game Edward & The Strange Invasion, then. It's probably more on the cute side than entirely suits it, but it's pleasant, laid-back hour or so of top down-ish wandering around beast-roamed suburbs, fending off attacks from plant-monsters with the help of weedkiller and, at night, shadow-monsters with the help of a blowtorch. There's a certain free-roaming element as the titular teen no-hoper hunts for ammo and food, but it's very gentle and much more interested in prompting you to go to specific places.

The b-movie-meets-Pokemon feel and look works reasonably well, though I'm not sure it's as distinctive as it could be on the art front. It's also one of those games which has the air of being funny but doesn't actually include many jokes. I suppose edginess is to be avoided on Nickleodeon. There are Lovecraft and Red Scare references aplenty, unreliable quest-givers and breaking into sheds to steal stuff though, and by and large it's agreeably unpredictable.

ADDICTING. Oh, hang it all.