With millions of followers added in a single month, why is the “hybrid version of Plants vs. Zombies” so popular on the entire Internet?

How did the "Plants vs. Zombies hybrid" attract millions of fans in a single month and rekindle the charm of the classic game? This article analyzes its innovative gameplay and the reasons for its popularity, providing insights for game developers and enthusiasts.

Recently, a hybrid version of Plants vs. Zombies has become popular in the gaming circle. In a live broadcast of the game watched by 80,000 people, top game anchors such as Chen Ze and Zhang Daxian successively sent gifts, and the author of the game @水中伟伟迷 also gained more than one million fans on Bilibili, and netizens gave him the nickname "Cyber ​​Mendel".

As an old stand-alone game, Plants vs. Zombies carries the childhood memories of many players. Over the years, the official has continuously launched various versions and derivative works, such as the annual version, the Great Wall version, the Journey to the West version, etc., but they have never been very popular.

The new hybrid version of Plants vs. Zombies created by @水中伟伟迷 directly "beats" the official version, making the game popular again after more than a decade of silence, and even the official version expressed its desire to learn from it. Why is the hybrid version of Plants vs. Zombies so popular on the Internet? What is the creative process of @水中伟伟迷?

1. Why is the hybrid version of Plants vs. Zombies so popular?

"This revised version is really phenomenally popular. I haven't even played the original Plants vs. Zombies much, but I play this revised version for a while almost every day." "How many anchors are supported by this game?" "It's not interesting. I can't play it for 17 or 18 hours a day." "Submarine Weiwei fans can be summed up in two words: invincible." "Do you know how obsessed college students are? I just gave up on Honor of Kings"... These are the comments of many netizens on the hybrid version of Plants vs. Zombies.

Image source: Tik Tok, screenshots from Bilibili

Unlike the original version, this game adds hybrid plant gameplay, which allows you to use new plants with special abilities. For example, sunflowers and pea shooters combine to form a plant with both offensive and productive abilities, and nuts combine with torches to form new torch nuts. Each new hybrid plant has various enhanced and special abilities.

In this version, various new species emerge, such as Frost Tall Nuts, Melancholy Pumpkin Heads, Charming Mushroom Shooters, Giant Zombies Driving Ice Cars, etc. These plants not only have powerful attack power, but also have various unique skills, such as freezing, venom, explosion, etc.

Some netizens are not satisfied with the existing plant species and have submitted their own works to @水中伟伟迷. These include the three-shot giant mushrooms that fire in three directions, the big-mouthed nut wall that can swallow zombies, the amphibious Siren Nut King, and the destructive mine disguised as a potato mine...

Image source: Douyin comment area

In the hybrid version, plants also learn to unite against zombies, rationally using their respective abilities to combine together to form a devastating attack force, which is the combo we are familiar with. At the same time, zombies also ushered in evolution, bringing more challenges and fun to the game.

In the hybrid version, zombies have also learned to arm themselves. For example, the zombie in the picture below is more like an infected pea machine gunner. It retains the original wisdom and skills of plants and can launch peas to attack plants. It also uses iron sheets, helmets and other items from the zombie camp to arm itself. Players need to reasonably match plants according to different levels and the characteristics of zombies and develop effective defense strategies.

In addition, the hybrid version also has new maps and plant zombie costumes, which are no longer bound by the original scenes, bringing a sense of freshness to players.

Image source: game screenshot

Some netizens analyzed the reason why @水中伟伟迷's hybrid version became so popular: "The first-generation versions of pvz on the market, such as the 95 version and the β version, all changed the game difficulty and a small part of the game mechanism, and those skin-changing versions did not completely change the gameplay. This is why although they are classics, they were popular for a very short time and were just a flash in the pan. If there is really a version that can completely change the game mechanism and gameplay, it will definitely be deified and become the king of kings. It happens that the hybrid version and the Cowardly Mushroom Dream have done it."

2. Behind the explosive change, a game UP host with a wild imagination

The author of the hybrid version of Plants vs. Zombies is @水中伟伟迷, a UP master on B station. He is a "post-00s" from Xianning, Hubei. Six years ago, due to his disappointment with the sequel of Plants vs. Zombies, he decided to make his own plants to add to the game to make up for his childhood regrets.

In the beginning, he worked alone. Due to manpower limitations and relatively conservative production ideas, his initial attempts at modified hybrid plants received mediocre responses. However, he still did not give up. Instead, he worked harder to conceive different hybrid ideas and updated videos intensively to increase attention.

From the initial thunderstorm mushrooms and double cabbage to the later popular pea sunflowers and destruction mushroom pitchers, at the craziest time, he made about 120 plants in half a year. Despite this, his videos are still tepid, and the meager traffic income is difficult to maintain the operation of the team.

And because of the high-intensity work, his already weak body was hospitalized many times. He posted a dynamic in August 2022 saying, "I originally wanted to make a good version for everyone to play, but now it seems that it won't work, so I won't do it now. I'll update it as I like in the future, or maybe not."

Perhaps it was the encouragement of his fans or the dream in his heart that made him persevere. In April this year, he released a hybrid promotional video, selectively adding his works from the past six years, which became a turning point in his creative process.

In this video, you can see all kinds of fantastic plants. Netizens named the more popular plants Burger King, Pure Girl, Naruto Roommate, God of Wealth Flower, National Server Top Order... Compared with the original game, the hybrid version has cooler graphics and more exciting operation, which also makes the game more playable.

After the hybrid version of Plants vs. Zombies was released, it caused a sensation among college students and gamers, and then became popular on the entire Internet. Some netizens commented that "the reason why the hybrid version is so good is probably because it maintains the style of the original version. For plants like Burger King, I can only say that it is a genius design."

Some netizens summarized the reasons for its popularity: "①Innovation and creativity ②The painting style continues the classics of the previous generation ③Good balance, the difficulty can be freely selected, the normal mode is neither difficult nor easy (objective evaluation) ④Diverse gameplay, multiple modes ⑤Rich content, various hybrid plants and hybrid zombies, currently still being updated and improved ⑥A product made with care will not be bad"...

The popularity of the hybrid version of Plants vs. Zombies continues, and the number of fans of @水中伟伟迷 is also increasing. At present, the number of fans of @水中伟伟迷 on Bilibili is 2.418 million, and the number of fans has exceeded one million in the past month. On Douyin, the related topics have attracted 2.1 billion views and 1.98 million fans.

3. Conclusion

@水中伟伟迷's popularity stems from the adaptation of Plants vs. Zombies. Since he does not own the copyright of this classic game, the hybrid version of Plants vs. Zombies is open to the public for free, and he himself cannot make any profit from it. The download address is on his B station homepage.

However, the popularity of the hybrid version of Plants vs. Zombies has brought a wave of traffic dividends to many game anchors. Some game anchors live broadcast the game to attract many users to watch, and earn income through gifts from netizens. Some anchors even let fans give gifts in the form of playing on behalf of others, which has caused many netizens to complain. In addition, although the hybrid version is free, many merchants have started selling modifiers and tutorials on e-commerce platforms, with prices ranging from 1.99 to 5.9 yuan.

The popularity of the hybrid version of Plants vs. Zombies has also attracted the attention of the official. It is understood that the official Plants vs. Zombies has been in contact with the author, hoping to cooperate and add these novel contents to the official version of the game.

Author: Aries; Source public account: KOL User Manual (ID: 1093227)