PopCap, purveyors of digital crack, has unleashed what is arguably a very unorthodox union - Plants and Zombies.  Designed by George Fan, creator of Insaniquarium, PvZ is PopCap's latest take on the tower defense genre.  Using the plant life that calls your front lawn home, you must stop the zombie horde from reaching your front door.  You accomplish this task by purchasing and planting new species of vegetation, each with a different mutant power.  With over a dozen different types of zombies and more than 50 levels of play, this is sure to be the next successful PopCap game that promises to please both the hardcore and the casual crowd.

“We love zombie games as much as everyone else, but unlike other undead offerings we wanted to create a zombie game that would appeal to both casual and hardcore gamers alike,” explained George Fan, senior game designer at PopCap. “It’s been great to see both casual and hardcore gamers in our beta test group get totally absorbed in the game, clicking intensely as the zombies chomp on their front yards.”

Plants VS. Zombies is now available directly from PopCap or through Steam and other online distribution services.  Although at $19.99 US, this may seem slightly high for a casual game.  However, PopCap is offering a trial version on their site so try and see if it's worth $19.99 yourself.  Currently, the game is only available for the PC or Mac OS X, but I'm sure the console version won't be far behind depending on the success of the PC/Mac title.