This is not surprising given that the game is made by the creators of Bejeweled. It's pretty clear that they have lots of experience in what makes a highly addictive casual game.
Plants vs. Zombies has been the most popular flash game on popcap.com, which is the #804 website in the US(1), for a while. iPhone gamers must have a large overlap with flash gamers.
Plants vs. Zombies was very popular before it ever hit the AppStore. And, PopCaps already had a massive fan base from Peggle and Bejeweled before P vs Z ever came out; they've been cranking out great stuff for a while now.
I have published a couple of games with PopCap. I think we were very fortunate to work with them. They have immense attention to detail and don't stop working on a game until it's perfect (at least for their in-house games - my own games were not as great).
So, PvZ is an awesome game to begin with, and the game-buying public knows they won't be disappointed by a PopCap game. Add to that a huge fan-base for the existing PC version...
PopCap is not afraid to throw away a game that's simply not excellent. They've developed a real reputation for quality, and they guard it really carefully. I've heard stories of games being developed in-house for months, only to end up entirely scrapping them in the end.
I believe I have all of popcap's games that are available on the iPhone, and I haven't played one I didn't like! They certainly deserve to be successful.
I hate to poop into this thread (i dont want to make a new one), but can someone please tell me the link to a blog post the title of which is something to this effect:
It's not a tower defense clone. They added some constraints (no lateral movement) and removed others (no upgrades, set list of "towers" per game) which makes it more addictive.
They've obviously spent a lot of work tuning the game fundamentals and then added a great cute theme/graphics.
I think you are missing how important details are. This is why game designers for both board and video games spend months tuning their game mechanics to get it just so.
This is why Sid Meier games have his name on them and tend to be very popular.
It has a cute little story and the design is simple and intuitive.
I played through the whole game in a matter of days and I still wanted more. They must have got something right that Tower Defense and it's clones missed.
Agreed, I've never been able to get into Tower Defense games but I (and my 3 year old, to the chagrin of my wife) have really enjoyed playing this one.
As someone from Europe, I never really quite understood America's fascination with zombies: endless zombie movie films, semi-serious discussion about what to do when the "Zombie Apocalypse" hits, .... Care to enlighten me?
I could speculate wildly. Zombie films play on fear of death/disease, and the fear of someone you know trying to kill you -- or you having to kill them. I don't see anything peculiarly American about those themes though; I'd imagine they're pretty universal.
Zombies also represent the fear of something that looks almost human, but is not, and which outnumber you. That resonates with xenophobia (we're outnumbered, they're not human, and they work for $3 a day!) or pure selfish narcissism (I am the only "real" person, everyone else is an automaton / homunculus.)
There are also market forces at play - you can shoot dozens of them in the head and still get a "teen" rating for your movie or video game.
I'd love to hear other theories.
EDIT: Thought of another one. The "zombie apocalypse" shows the breakdown of civilization, and makes us realize that it's only goodwill that keeps society running. Our picture windows, screen doors, and windshields are only "polite" barriers that anyone could break through in an instant if they discarded civilized values. Maybe we (America) fear the end of empire, and are obsessed with what it might look like?
