Plants vs. Zombies *PC *free to try or £13 to buy.

After clicking though the disappointing Bejeweled Twist late last year, many players were concerned PopCap Games, one of the world’s top “casual game” companies, had lost its mojo.

This is not the case, fortunately, as you’ll see in PopCap’s latest game — an innovative, quirky and dangerously addictive puzzler called Plants vs. Zombies.

This Windows and Mac download might not have the mainstream appeal of past PopCap hits, such as Peggle, Insaniquarium, Chuzzle or Bookworm, but it’s hands-down one of their finest.

The silly premise of the game involves a relentless hoard of zombies trying to cross your lawn and make its way into your house.

Why? To eat your brains, of course. To stop them, you must plant flowers, mushrooms, bushes and other foliage that can take down these zombies in humorous ways. For instance, Venus’ flytrap can eat them, Mean Squash can stomp them and Exploding Fruit can blow them up.

This might sound like a simple and straightforward concept but you must select from a number of plants to use and wait until you can buy more plants using collected falling sunrays. Then you need to decide where to plant them along the various paths and which paths should you cover first so you’re not surprised by a flesh-eating visitor at your door. This is all easier said than done, as there are many encroaching zombies who will eat your plants given the chance, rendering them useless.

Consider this game a new twist on the classic Tower Defense strategy games that has you protect a medieval castle from waves of enemies — but now they’re the undead, and carrying flags with a picture of brains on it to announce their intentions.

Adding additional layers of difficulty are the two dozen different kinds of zombies, including ones that can jump over your bomb plants and others that wear pylons as helmets to resist damage or hold screen doors like a shield.

As the game progresses, you will buy special weapons from a crazy neighbour, deal with obstacles such as a creeping fog that obscures your view and unlock many goodies.

Along with the 50 main levels in the adventure mode, Plants vs. Zombies also includes secondary modes and 20 different mini-games that fold in slot machines, lawn bowling and more. Suffice to say, there is plenty of replayability here.

The colorful zombies and plants are smoothly animated, while the cartoon effects — such as when they bite the bullet — are quite amusing. You’ll even witness a hilarious Thriller moment with a Michael Jackson-like zombie, accompanied by backup dancers who ascend from the grave. The catchy music is also top-notch, with more than a dozen original pieces that change based on what’s happening onscreen. Visit YouTube.com and type in Plants vs. Zombies for a look at the popular game-related music video.

Plants vs. Zombies gets two green thumbs up for its irresistibly charming, challenging, and most of all, fun game play.5/5

Battlestations Pacific *Xbox 360 *£49.99

Pulling together all the positives from the strategy and full-on action genres is no mean feat, but Battlestations: Midway did a fine job of splicing the two to provide an intense recreation of the greatest Second World War naval battles. Pacific follows up with more of the same, as you take to the skies and seas through two massive, action-packed campaigns across 28 missions.

It’s an incredibly involving game, sucking you into the heat of every battle with some cracking graphics and atmospheric sound, while the deeper strategy elements effectively underpin what is already a fab outlet for those with a penchant for barrel-loads of bullets and big booms.

Then take it online for some much-improved multiplayer action and you’ve got yourself a bona fide explosive gaming experience. 4/5

Left 4 Dead: Game of the Year Edition *PC *£34.99.

Just knowing that Left 4 Dead comes from the same developers as the incredible Half Life titles will set the bar of anticipation to a pretty lofty level. As a zombie-infested co-operative shooter, this game manages to meet all expectations, remaining superbly polished in terms of presentation and control, as well as the concept itself — which drops you into a play area not only crawling with zombies but also four hulking-great boss bad guys: Tank, Witch, Smokers and Boomer.

If you’re playing solo, the computer can take care of your three companions well enough, but when you go online for human multiplayer help this game really comes into its own, providing a pretty unique multiplayer experience that needs you to take teamwork to the next level. If you want to survive, that is. 4/5

Ultimate Ninja 4: Naruto Shippuden *PS2 *£29.99.

Naruto fans will revel in the chance to unfold the story of our eponymous hero leaving the Hidden Leaf Village to undergo a strict training regiment with his mentor Jiraiya, as Ultimate Ninja 4 brings yet more Anime action to the PS2, swelling the size of this popular action fighting series once again.

The Master story mode combines platforming, puzzle and good old fighter action as it follows Naruto on his way back to the village after his travels with his sensei, offering gamers the chance to collect items to unlock characters in Free Battle Mode.

And that’s where you can get down to the trademark one-on-one ninja battles, with a staggering 52 total playable characters available to take into battle. As per usual, the series is well presented yet again, and tells another interesting chapter of Naruto’s life, but if you’ve played the next gen version, this won’t be quite as entertaining. 3/5