We go hands-on with Plants vs Zombies: Replanted [Preview]

We are so back(yard zombies) baby!

The classic yard-defense game is back, remastered from the ground up to remind us just how good the original plantsta still is. The series has gone through a lot over the last decade and a half, and yet the magic of that original may have been lost. Plants vs Zombies: Replanted remasters every aspect of the original game, but doesn’t drastically change it. It’s still that classic, wonderful tower defense-meets-puzzle game that has us planting pea shooters and clicking suns and seeds as a weird array of zombies crawls across the screen.

Or, scream.

The demo session had me chatting with members of the development staff, often gushing about memories of playing the original on the Xbox 360, as we tested out the tried and true levels that the game is known for. It feels instantly familiar, like muscle memory clicking back in. The game is so true to the original that even my old strategies still worked as I alternated placement of proximity with ranged defenders. The main bulk of the session was played on that very first level, with a co-op and remixed level played later.

So, why do it? Why “replant” this game instead of just re-release it? Well, modern Plants vs Zombies games have gone through big evolutions. This is because platforms and players have changed. Mobile, for instance, is a drastically different environment than it was 15 years ago, and console iterations of the IP have shifted towards 3D and action rather than the 2D table that the game was built on. The purity of what the game was has kind of been lost to time, and new players (like my nephews and daughter, for instance) don’t have access to that pure experience. This is where the genre really took off, and the base of this game was crucial.

So, instead of a glamorous sequel or massive remake, the original needed to come back. It’s cleaner, it’s smoother, and yet it’s the exact same thing that I played and loved years ago. And I can’t wait to dig in again when it makes its way to consoles in October.

This hands-on took place at PAX West 2025. The video originally aired on The SideQuest for September 2, 2025