Air Raid (DS mini-game)


 * Not to be confused with Air Raid, a canceled mini-game in Plants vs. Zombies.

Air Raid is the 22nd and final mini-game in Plants vs. Zombies in the Nintendo DS version. The player must fight Dr. Zomboss with a Gatling Pea in a Flower Pot plane (including Pumpkin armor if freeing a Pumpkin). The mini-game is completed by destroying the Zombot.

Strategies
In this level, Dr. Zomboss throws various items at the Gatling Pea, including wrenches, ice balls, lasers, and zombie heads. You should move the Gatling Pea out of the way and destroy the projectiles to win. Note that the Gatling Pea will also take damage when it is in direct contact with the Zombot. Iceballs will bounce around, and will sometimes include plants inside of them, such as Threepeaters that allow you to fire in three directions (at the rate of a Gatling Pea), Pumpkins which are shields absorbs two hits, and Jalapenos which destroy Dr. Zomboss's projectiles and deal damage. These plants disappear quickly (estimated to be less than ten seconds), so it is advised to get them quickly after the iceball is destroyed. Iceballs take five hits to be destroyed. The player must destroy them quickly, as their size gives them much more limited space to dodge incoming obstacles in tight corners. When the Zombot's eyes glow blue, it is about to use iceballs. The player will also note that sometimes iceballs apparently come out of the right hand side of the screen without any warning. When the Zombot's eyes glow red, it will begin following you on-screen, and then fire a laser (or, later, an exploding pile of zombie headwear). Sliding the Gatling Pea to the bottom of the screen makes the attack miss. When the blue "beam ball" is about to form, quickly sliding to the top of the screen dodges the attack.

Later on in the level, Dr. Zomboss also throws "Electrifying" wrenches which are red in color. They are homing, and will follow the player, but once past them, they fly off-screen and never come back. Dr. Zomboss only throws one at a time. The player will need to back off from the Zombot when Dr. Zomboss throws these wrenches. At some point in time, Dr. Zomboss sends out some zombie heads that will take an orbital path at the left hand side of the screen, making movement difficult. An easy way for the player to counter the orbiting zombie heads is to pit themself against the very left hand corner of the screen and shoot them down.

Sometimes, the Zombot will go offscreen and attack. Thus, the player will need to watch the Zombot on the top screen to know what attack Dr. Zomboss will use. Note that when he fires the beam, the player will need to note the position of the beam fired for the first time. This would mean that subsequent beams would fire the very same portion of the screen.

The Flower Pot plane takes approximately twelve hits before exploding. Its appearance changes at six and nine hits.

Scoring
The following items are worth points:
 * Wrench / Zombie head destroyed: 50 points
 * Zombot takes one pea of damage: 20 points
 * "Electrified" wrench destroyed: 100 points
 * Ice Ball destroyed: 300 points
 * Power-up freed: 10000 points
 * Jalapeno flame hitting the Zombot: 10000 points
 * Dr. Zomboss defeated: 30000 points

Trivia

 * When the plane explodes, the "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!" voice clip from losing a level is played.
 * The explosion of the Flower Pot/Pumpkin plane is similar to a Cherry Bomb explosion.
 * This mini-game is the only mini-game in the DS version that does not feature a progress bar on the top screen. Instead, the mini progress bar representing the Zombot's health is located at bottom right hand corner of the touch screen. The bottom left hand corner's bar represents the Flower Pot plane's health.
 * This game keeps track of the highest score obtained when the Zombot is defeated. When players tap on the Air Raid icon once on the mini-game page, Crazy Dave will tell them the high score on the top screen.
 * Air Raid, Homerun Derby, BOMB All Together!, and Zombie Trap are the only mini-games which track records.
 * Incidentally, the first four are exclusive to the DS version while Zombie Trap is exclusive to the DSi version; there are no mini-games with records in other versions.
 * This mini-game can be played even if Gatling Pea is not purchased.
 * Air Raid is also the name of a canceled mini-game with a high concentration of Balloon Zombies.
 * A damaged Pumpkin can be repaired even if Wall-nut First Aid has not been purchased.
 * Air Raid and Dr. Zomboss's Revenge are the only two mini-games with Dr. Zomboss.
 * The Ice Ball looks different than the one in Level 5-10 and Dr. Zomboss's Revenge.
 * When one of the objects Dr. Zomboss throws at the plane is shot, a POW! appears. This also happens in Whack a Zombie.