this level is a serious mixed bag for me. i played this for pvz's anniversary last year (i am the #1 pvz fan) and honestly i'm just going to split this review into two halves because it'd be easier for me to dissect.

for one, this level is amazing on a technical level to me. just... everything, really. peashooters shoot and damage zombies, sunflowers produce sun on a timed interval, zombies eat plants and potato mines come up occasionally. if showcases of this level from before 2.2 are to be believed, this level USED to be a really good and genuine recreation that id probably have given a 10/10. the art style it uses is silly and fitting for the level, and the music for the level is pretty good. the controls work well for what it is and i got used to them quickly. the gimmicks that appear every huge flag are very interesting (except for nighttime, which is stressful, but still okay and probably was fine before). it's a shame this level is no longer what it used to be.

so what happened? well... 2.2 happened. and 2.2 really, and i mean REALLY, fucked up this level.

2.2 introduced SO many bugs and glitches to this level that turned it from a 10/10 into a level that i genuinely cant really recommend for you to play in good faith. the level is extremely buggy now in ways that majorly harm it. after a few flags, at first, it seems very put together. however, as the level progresses, the bugs slowly start unveiling themselves and, by the final flag, turn the level into a nearly unplayable mess. a variety of bugs i encountered from just one replay of it for this review include:

• after your first potato mine, potato mines stop coming up after a short time. they now stay underground and let zombies eat them, except for literally your first one. during the nighttime portion i planted some mines and they came up like theyre supposed to, but crucially during the beginning of the level after your first they stop coming up, which can lead to some surprising losses (including once for me).

• as time goes on plants and zombies alike experience major graphical glitches. this goes on to a point where during the final wave peashooters just became a scramble of objects and zombies had weird blocky arms.

• plants will move on their own now. as the level goes on, plants just start randomly shifting to the right. as you can imagine, because this is plants vs. zombies, this is a major issue. after they get far enough they basically just offer themselves up on a silver plate to the zombies, which is inconvenient on its own but just an extremely nasty surprise with the next bug down..

• planting space is randomly filled in or denied! yay! this is a major reason that i just cant recommend this level to anybody. as plants start randomly moving right, the level will also randomly start deciding you can or cant plant in certain spaces. looks like there literally isnt a plant in this spot? too bad, cant plant there. like two different plants in one space, like two peashooters and a wallnut occupying a single tile? sure, go ahead! put down your potato mine. as your plants get eaten because they start assuming sentience and carry out their death wishes you just suddenly become unable to replant them in a safe spot because the game says so. i dont even know how this happens

• but by far the worst of these? adjusted planting locations. you want to plant a peashooter in the first column? sure, but he's actually going to appear six entire tiles away. want a wallnut in front of your torchwood to protect it? sure, in front of it, why not.. we're putting him in column 9 where he's going to get eaten immediately. want to put a cherry bomb on literally the LAST ZOMBIES in the final wave so you can beat the level and end the review on a satisfying note? tough luck! we put it down four tiles away and now the zombies are going to eat your brains and kill you at the end of this 6 minute level for a reason that literally just isnt your fault.

despite everything, i still dont have it in me to give this level a 0, 1, or even a 2 out of 10. this level has such a charm to it and gets so many things right, but i cant go any higher than a 3 personally. the gameplay and bugs bury this level for good. really feel bad for gdvesuvius, hope he can come back and try tinkering with this again. i wish i couldve played this level when it still functioned correctly.