On October 23, 2025, Electronic Arts released a remaster of the iconic strategy game from 2009, Plants Vs. Zombies. The remaster has quickly become controversial online, with many fans criticizing the game for its alleged use of AI Upscaling, butchering the music in the game, and overall being a poor remaster of one of the internet’s most beloved games. So today I wanted to take a deep dive into the game to truly find out if it is a cash grab like fans believe or if it has been misunderstood by the internet mob.
Firstly, Gameplay, easily the most iconic part of Plants Vs Zombies, is its strategy gameplay with players forced to make quick decisions to keep the zombies away from their door. The remaster keeps the gameplay the same as the 2009 classic, however introduces a speed-up button allowing the player to speed up gameplay and complete levels quicker. This is a welcome inclusion, as some levels can be extremely slow; however, for some reason, the button also speeds up the music, making the music sound terrible.
Speaking of music, the game completely butchers the music from the original. See, in the original game, there were two different versions of each song for a level, a peaceful, calm one before zombies begin invading, and a frantic version for when the zombies raid your home, with music switching dynamically depending on how the zombies act. However, the remaster just doesn’t do this; it plays the frantic zombie version for every level and doesn’t bother including the peaceful one. I’m not sure if this was a coding error or if they were simply lazy, but a significant portion of the original game was omitted.
And lastly, the alleged use of AI upscaling. Plants vs. Zombies is an old game, and its original form was heavily compressed, resulting in a pixelated appearance. So many fans were excited to see what the game would look like in HD. But when fans got the game, something was off, and when they went to the files, the game showed alleged signs of AI upscaling the original models and having drawing over them. Now, the developers PopCap and Electronic Arts have said AI was not used in the remake. This makes me incredibly upset, as the artist Rich Werner, who made all the art for the original game, has said on his X/Twitter that he was more than willing to come back and do art for the remake, but the remastered devs never reached out.
This, along with many more issues and the 20 dollar price point, makes the game seem scummy. The game feels overall lazy and as cash-grabby as possible. If you want to play a good version of Plants vs Zombies, the 2009 game of the year edition is $5 on Steam
1/10.
