In an interview with Kombo, PopCap Games’ PR director Garth Chouteau has noted that the highly acclaimed Plants vs. Zombies will follow its cousin Peggle onto other platforms: XBLA, PSN- even the DS and iPhone. Chouteau is quoted by Kombo on the matter:

…Peggle for XBLA is a good example of a game that we took that was popular on the PC and we spent probably twice as long as anyone else would have figuring how to make that game really good for Xbox and Xbox Live Arcade, and I think you will see that with Plants Vs. Zombies–I don’t know the exact order in which that game will make its way onto other platforms, but it’s certainly been successful enough, quickly enough, that we’re looking at other platforms and deciding where we’ll take that game next…

Since PvZ was such a success, both commercially and critically, it can only be good news that it can come to a bigger audience. I only hope that they make a DS version as good as Peggle DS.

Plants vs. Zombies, the brand new puzzle/strategy game from Popcap Games, has been released. You can download the game from here or here, at $9.99 and $19.99 respectively. Why you’d pay $10 more for the non-Steam version I have no idea, but if it works for Popcap, good for them.

Popcap, of course, are the creators of both Bejeweled and Peggle, two games that are renowned for their ability to drain away time at an amazing rate. PvZ looks set to do the same thing. You can see for yourself with the demo (which you can get from either of the above links).

Remember the good old days of Popcap Games when they had online multiplayer? Psychobabble, a creative twist on magnetic poetry, was one of these games. Popcap decided a couple years back that the cost of maintaining these online games was simply not feasible anymore. People were pretty upset about Popcap’s actions, even going so far as to start an online petition (no longer active) in protest. To no avail; it was simply too expensive for the company to be monitoring the chats for inappropriate content. The game, along Lucky Penny and Atomic Poker, was taken down in August 2006.

However, it was far from game over for Psychobabble.

If you didn’t get a chance to play it before, here’s the rundown on how the game works:

Round starts in a room of 8-12 people, where you’re given about 30-40 words and a small line to construct a sentence. Use the words available to make the sentence you think is the funniest in about a minute. Second part is where you get to vote on who’s sentence you think is the funniest. Sentences are posted anonymously; most votes gets 3 points, and you will get a point for everyone who votes for you. To encourage people to vote for the funniest, you get a point if the sentence you voted for was the winner. Whoever reaches 30 points first wins. One of my favorite winning sentences that I managed was “Sack the children, we need slaves!” I won by a landslide on that one.

However, as previously mentioned, Popcap was having issues with explicit content getting into the chats and even the game’s sentences (which is bound to happen when ’sausage’ appears as a usable word). Two years ago, Popcap.com’s Chief Executive David Roberts had this to say to SeattlePi.com:

He called it a “tough decision,” but said it would take a significant investment to move the games on to a new Web platform. Also, he said the six-year-old company was not willing to invest the money that it would take to monitor the online community. If a child were to encounter sexually explicit material, he said the company could be liable.

“We have sort of gotten away with it for a long time, and we have some volunteers who have done a great job helping, but it has always been a drag on resources trying to manage that without a real revenue source,” said Roberts, who then provided examples of 19 sexually explicit account names that members have used in the past.

“If we could find a home for it in the short term, we certainly would do it,” he said.

Well, here’s the good news: You can still play Psychobabble online! I was completely overjoyed when I stumbled upon a forum where someone mentioned that Psychobabble was still alive. Reincarnated at Mutantdog.com as Pseudobabble, the spirit of the game lives on with a shiny new user interface and community pages.

If you haven’t played this game as Psychobabble, I highly recommend grabbing a group of friends and joining a room. I spent many a high school evening Psychobabbling with my friends online, and I personally can’t wait to get back to the game.

Peggle Nights is so addictive, it could be considered mainline gaming at its purest. It’s a game you can replay endlessly to squeeze out a good 20-30 hours of content— not bad for a “budget” title. Even though my preferred method of playing the game is to idly focus on the dozens of challenges while watching TV or listening to music, that doesn’t mean Peggle Nights qualifies as just half a game. It simply means I can’t stop playing it long enough to do anything else.

For the uninitiated, Peggle is a hybrid of Pachinko and Pinball. Wild yet completely accurate ball physics are the crux of the gameplay—after shooting out a bouncy metal ball from the top of the screen, you have to ricochet off of as many pegs as possible on the way down. Like in pinball, the pegs you hit act like bumpers to give you a high score and bonuses, and there’s even a powerup that gives you flippers at the bottom of the screen.

You’ll also find a moving bucket at the bottom of the screen for collecting your errant balls. While at first you’ll only make some lucky catches, later on you can actually time your shots to perfectly land in the bucket. This is just one way that Peggle rewards experience the longer you play—more balls means more chances to clear all the pegs, and you’ll earn a sweet bonus to boot.

This absurdly original gameplay mechanic would be a hit even if it were just in black and white, but Peggle Nights explodes with color. Like in the original Peggle, each level has a theme based on the charming animal creatures who lend you their special powers—Tula the Flower bursts multiple orange (level-clearing) pegs, while Renfield the Jack-O-Lantern gives you a spooky ball that passes through the bottom of the stage and reappears at the top.

You’ll have to play through the adventure mode to unlock all the characters and their powers (which are the same as the original Peggle), but there’s one new character and power at the very end. Her ability is very useful, but I’d love to see even more new cast members and powerups next time around.

Although the fact that there’s only one new character is a bit of a letdown, Peggle Nights takes you further into the minds of the existing characters than you might have cared to go. Each stage portrays a character’s dream state—Tula the Flower, for example, wants to be a world traveler instead of being rooted to the ground, so her stages take you to Peggle versions of the Great Wall of China and Mount Rushmore.

This charm is contagious. You can’t help but feel happy to play and replay these colorful, detailed, and imaginative stages. It certainly doesn’t hurt that you will feel a compelling urge to win a trophy for fulfilling every minor objective. Peggle Nights adds new “ace score” ribbons for earning a certain number of points, which nicely complements the 100% completion awards that stretched out the length of the first game.

Which brings me back to my initial point. I play Peggle Nights constantly now. Since half of the game is spent watching the points roll in while your “balls drop”, Peggle feels casual enough to be put on as background while I partake in other passive forms of entertainment. At the same time, I know that Peggle actually complex beyond reasoning. The first Peggle was nearly perfect, and this sequel just tucks in a little bit more of what was brilliant about it.

Yeah, yeah, Rock Band 2 whatever. “Dude I was up til 3 last night playing Drum Trainer Mode.” Leave me alone. Peggle Nights, the sequel to my biggest guilty pleasure, Peggle, is out on PopCap (should hit Steam soon), and it’s as big of a timesink as the first game ever was. You don’t need a review to tell you this type of game is addictive as hell: You’re just bouncing a ball, clearing pegs and using power-ups. It’s like Pachinko meet Sgt. Pepper, with excessive slow-mo and copious over-the-top use of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”. Somehow it’s just compulsively playable. Try the demo, and get ready to feel the Extreme Fever.