Crazy Dave: It's About Time!
What is Plants Vs. Zombies?
Plants Vs. Zombies is a series of tower defense games where you defend your house, and brains, against an onslaught of hungry zombies commanded by the nefarious Dr. Zomboss. The first game in the series, Plants Vs. Zombies, was released for PC and Mac on May 5, 2009, after being promoted by the viral
Zombies on your Lawn music video. The game launched with great success, selling over 1.5 million copies in the first year alone, this being before it received ports to iOS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Android, PlayStation Vita, and most importantly, the Nintendo DS which is what qualifies the series for this prompt. The game even received Download Game of the Year, and Strategy Game of the year at the Golden Joysticks, prompting an updated game of the year release on July 11, 2010.
The game itself contains a 50 level adventure mode, spanning 5 different locations of the player's house, such as the front yard, pool, and roof. Upon repeat playthroughs the difficulty is ramped up as Crazy Dave locks 3 random plants into the player's selection of up to 9 plants. Outside of the adventure mode, there are 25 unique mini games, featuring mechanics entirely unseen in the main campaign such as plant zombie hybrids, portals, bejeweled like gameplay and more. Furthermore there is a puzzle mode, featuring a selection of Vasebreaker levels, in which plants and zombies are randomly hidden within breakable vases, and I, Zombie levels, in which the roles are reversed and you deploy zombies to fight your way through a set of predetermined plants. If that wasn't enough, for the most skilled botanists, there is survival mode in which you have to survive 5 days of increasingly challenging zombies in each of the 5 main stages. For the true sadists, Endless modes are available for I, Zombie, Vasebreaker, and Survival.
and for those who want to give the zombies a break there is even a gardening side mode,
The Zen Garden, in which you can collect every plant for your viewing pleasure.
Whether it was the wacky character designs of the plants and zombies, such as the Imitater, Squash, Dolphin Rider Zombie and Yeti Zombie, the incredible
OST by Laura Shigihara, or ability to appeal to both casual and hardcore gamers alike, Plants Vs. Zombies was a success. In fact it was so successful it became Popcap's fastest selling game, attracting the attention of EA who acquired them in 2012. While EA can often make poor game decisions, they started the series off well with a time traveling sequel, Plants Vs. Zombies 2: Its about time, and a surprisingly successful third person shooter spin off series, Plants. Vs Zombies Garden Warfare, which now has more installments than the main series. (and the most recent of which made its way to the switch).
Why Include Plants Vs. Zombies in Smash?
Plants Vs. Zombies isnt a name too heavily thrown around in the smash speculation scene, but I feel the series has a lot of things going for it, especially for this prompt. While I do think the series' merits are worth diving into, almost every potential new third party series brings a lot to the table, so I'll keep it somewhat brief, relative to the rest of this post anyway.
Tower Defense
Simply put, Plants Vs. Zombies brings an unrepped genre of gameplay to smash. The Tower Defense genre isn't particularly action oriented, which at face value may seem like a negative when translating the character to smash, but I view it as a positive, as it brings the potential for a fighter with a unique gameplay style and one that forces us to put our creative minds to the test.
It also represents an entire genre of games which really can't be seen as a negative. Being a Tower Defense also lends itself to some really neat ideas for bosses, items, and assists, as they would all presumably replicate some element of the tower defense gameplay.
EA
Now this may be a tough sell given EA's practices in the past, I do believe EA's acquisition of Popcap, and therefore the Plants Vs. Zombies IP is a positive for the series. When thinking of Western gaming companies, big ones that come to mind for me are Activision, Sony, Ubisoft, EA, and Microsoft. Comparatively EA is in quite a unique position in terms of Smash. Activision and Microsoft already have fighters in the from of Crash, and Banjo/Steve respectively, and Ubisoft and Sony are more or less out of the running due to having their mascot mii'd (Rayman), or not having Nintendo appearances in the case of Sony. So essentially Plants Vs. Zombies is in a position to bring a new major western company to smash, which not many other series can say about themselves.
While Western Indie fighters would bring new companies to smash as well, I think some of the appeal of an indie fighter has worn off after Reimu's inclusion, and its hard to claim that EA hasn't had a bigger impact on the video game industry as a whole than most indie companies. While I definitely agree that EA's business practices are generally abhorrent, we've generally agreed to put ethics aside for most inclusions, such as with Crash bringing Activision with him, the twitter deal
shudders, and the potential returning of the accused predatory fighter pass system.
Modern but not too Modern
All of our third party inclusions in Infinite; Crash, Jill, Leon, Reimu, and Eggman date back to the pre 2000s. This stays true for most of Ultimate's roster as well, with Bayonetta, Steve, Joker, and the Luminary being the only post 2000s third parties. Of course this is understandable, as third parties often require legacy to get in, with the supposed exception of "shill" picks as the speculation scene likes to call them. Crazy Dave fits in this window nicely, coming right before Steve and Bayonetta to where his series carries a decade of legacy with it, but is also recognizable to soon to be adults that grew up on ipod touches playing plants vs zombies. Essentially the Plants Vs. Zombies series is one which can age up the smash roster without seeming like a pick to cash in on the latest craze.
We also can't ignore the fact that Steve was one of, if not the most hype-inducing reveals possibly in all of smash history, and Crazy Dave hails from around that same era, and appeals to around the same age range. The kids who grew up on Minecraft and Plants Vs. Zombies are now consumers and just as much apart of the gaming community as those who grew up on Final Fantasy 7 and Ocarina of Time, and our picks should reflect that.
Piranha Plant vs Zombie
We already are able to reference the series so closely, with the Piranha Plant and the Zombie skin for Steve both being in Ultimate, so why not go all the way and make plants vs zombies in smash a reality?
How Would Crazy Dave Work in Smash?
I've alluded to Crazy Dave's uniqueness as our potential first Tower Defense rep, but how would he work in execution? Like how Steve, Bayonetta, and Kazuya all feel like they're ripped out of their home game, ideally Crazy Dave would follow that pattern. The most essential part of the Plants Vs. Zombies gameplay is the accumulation of sun, which is required to plant plants, so naturally I'd expect Crazy Dave to have a sun meter of his own which he would use to bring out various plants in his moves.
While I won't be coming up with his full moveset here, examples include planting a potted peashooter acting as a turret for 100 sun, an explosive potato mine for 25 sun, or a sunflower for 50 sun which would increase the speed at which you generate sun.
Another aspect of the Plants Vs. Zombies gameplay is your limited selection of seed packets at the beginning of each level. you only have 9 slots to defeat every zombie, so its up to you to decide when to bring a specific plant based on the preview of zombies you see before each level. To simulate this, Crazy Dave could have a cycle move, in which you cycle between seed packets, allowing for different responses to different stages of a smash battle. You can cycle to your squash for an off stage spike, but if your opponent recovers you'll have to cycle back to the more neutral friendly starfruit for example. Playing Crazy Dave would be a constant game of managing your sun and active plant to guarantee you not only have the right move for the occasion, but also enough sun to use it.
However, for variety's sake its probably best we avoid another Barista situation where every move features another character, or in this case plant performing the move for them. Luckily, Crazy Dave has an arsenal of twiddydinkies, trinkets he sells out of the back of his car, at his disposal to both defend your house, and KO his opponents. Potential Attacks include Garden Rakes, Lawn Mowers, Fertilizer, Bug Spray, Watering Cans, a Phonograph, a Wheel Barrow, and Mallets. Stinky the Snail could even cameo, and we can't forget the trusty frying pan he's donned with. He can even borrow some attacks from the zombies if need be such as an explosive jack in the box, pole vault, pogo stick, or balloon. While I think the 48 plants and his twiddydinkies give him more than enough potential to need to dip into the zombie's arsenal, its there if we need it.
This is all without mentioning stuff we could pull from Plants Vs Zombies 2, and Garden Warfare. theres plenty of stuff to pull from those games as well, but I think a cohesive moveset can be crafted from just the first game, possibly with some of the more iconic plants from the sequel being in his moveset such as the bonk choy and snapdragon.
Surrounding Content
Its currently very late while typing this but I do have a few potential ideas for surrounding Plants Vs. Zombies content if Dave gets in
Stage
Player's House - cycles between Day, Night, Pool, Fog, and Roof
Neighborville - the setting of the garden Warfare games
any of the time eras in Plants Vs Zombies 2
Item
Garden Rake - acting similarly to the remote bomb
Seed Packet - Pokeball but with plant species
Wall Nut - Bowl a Wall Nut down your favorite smash stage
Assist
Football Zombie - charges into the opponent
Bungee Zombie - acts similar to boss galaga item
Flag Zombie - summons basic, Cone, and Bucket Zombies until he is defeated
Music
The entire PvZ OST as its only like 20 songs. Throw in a couple PvZ 2 and Garden Warfare tracks and we're set
Boss
Dr Zomboss - I submitted this earlier but if we include Crazy Dave, Dr Zomboss on the roof while Braniac Maniac plays has got to be one of our bosses
Spirits
Practically every Plant and Zombie could have a spirit so there is no issue there
Reveal Trailer
It would be such a missed opportunity to not have Dave rescue Jill and Leon from a horde of zombies. Piranha Plant also could have some funny interactions, as could Ivysaur and Villager with his watering can move.
Final Arguments:
1. Vote Dave I'm tired
2.
Thank you for reading if you made it this far! I'm not sure how popular Plants Vs. Zombies is these days, especially within the context of smash, but its a series thats dear to my heart, and one that I think would be very cool to see in smash. If Crazy Dave does win this prompt you can expect me to submit a spirit for practically every PvZ 1 plant and zombie mark my words.
