Occasionally though, a game makes us look up from our annual serving of sequels – our maws still dripping chunks of Guitar Hero and Pro Evolution Soccer – and reminds us that there is still some imagination left in the industry. Plants vs Zombies is such a title, containing more originality than there are clichés in your average Dan Brown novel.

So having said all that, I should probably inform you that Plants vs Zombies is a tower-defence game, which is the gaming equivalent of being an X Factor contestant; there are thousands of them and the majority are terrible. Furthermore, the basic premise of Plants vs Zombies remains unchanged from the myriad of online dross. However, developers Popcap have gone to great lengths to ensure that Plants vs Zombies will stick in your mind like chewing gum to a flagstone.

At the core of Plants vs Zombies is the Adventure mode, consisting of fifty levels divided into five increasingly difficult stages wherein you defend your garden against a multitude of shambling undead. At your disposal is an amusing array of aggressive flora, ranging from the basic Pea-shooter to the highly explosive Cherry-Bomb, and my own personal favourite, the Squash, which leaps on unsuspecting zombies, crushing them beneath its pulpy bulk (whilst looking uncannily like John Prescott). The zombies are equally diverse, including a Michael Jackson-esque dancing zombie (unfortunately timed, but nonetheless hilarious) and even an undead bobsled team.

The variation in both plants and zombies is more than visual, each having its own tactical strengths and weaknesses. Sunflowers are required to produce sunlight, needed to grow more plants and bolster your defences. Yet sunflowers have no offensive capabilities, and therefore must be protected by other plants such as the heavily armoured Wall-nut. As the game progresses, the zombies attack your back garden, in the centre of which is a swimming pool, requiring you to lay down lily pads before other plants can be emplaced. The gradual drip-feed of new plants and zombies into your almanac results in excellent pacing. The game constantly provides new challenges while never becoming frustrating, though if you don’t play tactically on the final stage you are almost guaranteed to be overwhelmed. Sadly, some of the later plants, such as the lowly Coffee Bean, I found to be utterly useless. Additionally, the Adventure is interspersed with mini-games such as Wall-nut bowling, which can also be played separately once the Adventure is completed, alongside a Puzzle mode and the superfluous but pleasant Zen garden, where plants can be grown from seedlings and provide money to purchase further content.

Plants vs Zombies simply never stops delivering, though it's perhaps not quite as horrendously addictive as Popcap's previous outing Peggle. Nevertheless, what begins as a simple tower-defence game quickly develops into a multi-layered slice of casual gaming nirvana, offering for its meagre price tag as much content as many of today’s bigger releases.

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