References to Plants vs. Zombies

"He just doesn't understand how the zombies get up on the roof in the first place." ^[1]

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This page lists the references to the Plants vs. Zombies series in other media, arranged alphabetically.

Books

Diary of a Minecraft Zombie

• In the second book "Bullies and Buddies", when Steve lends Zack his favorite video game, Zack asks what the game is about, and Steve answers "It's about plants and Zombies." Later in the book, Zack writes about the "horrible things" that happened in the game. The Zombies:
  • Were eaten by plants (referencing Chomper or various zombie-eating plants)
  • Were blown to pieces (referencing the explosive plants)
  • Were ran over by lawnmowers (referencing the Lawn Mower's usage)
    • Even later in the book, when Zack returns the game to Steve, Steve asks if he got to the part "where the Zombies are on the roof", referencing the Roof area. Steve also says that "that's a tough level" and "I always get my brains eaten", which references the difficulty of the area.

The Fallen

• Ladder Zombie is mentioned (albeit called a "zombie with a ladder") in Charlie Higson's novel The Fallen, when one of the characters writing in her diary says how she used to be scared of this zombie when she played Plants vs. Zombies on her father's phone before the disaster happened.

The Simpsons

• In the 20th issue of The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror, one of the segments is called "Power Plants vs. Zombies". The entire segment is an obvious homage to Plants vs. Zombies, from the title to the design, to Homer Simpson wearing a saucepan on his head in a similar manner to Crazy Dave on the cover.

Show series

Battle for Dream Island

• 
  In the episode "The Reveal" in the large crowd at Cake at Stake, a recommended character by MegaCoolTommyDee based on Gatling Pea can be seen.
• Also in "Chapter Complete" in the Batch 1, a recommended characters by ThatBlueSquare called "Fire Citrus" is based on Fire Gourd.

Big City Greens

• In the episode "Steak Night", Tilly names one of the rats in the train station "Crazy Dave", referencing the character with the same name in Plants vs. Zombies series.

Good Game Spawn Point

• In Series 9 Episode 12, during the news segment (called "The Scoop"), one of the fake news headlines that scrolled along the screen was "Plants and Zombies neck and neck in latest Zomburbia opinion poll."
• In the Halloween episode Series 9 Episode 35, presenter Gemma "Gem" Driscoll dressed up as a Conehead Zombie for the episode.

iPartment Season 3

• In episode 12 The Twist of Fate : Watching the Meteor Shower, a character Tang Youyou thought a pitcher plant was a Peashooter.

You're Skitting Me

• The intro of the skit called "If Life Was Like a Computer Game (Numbers 18 and 84)" feature pixelized zombies slowly walking towards pixelized plants. One of the plants even spits a fireball to destroy one of the zombies, similar to Flaming Pea. (Unsourced)

Lorenzo's Time

One of the gamers in the computer shop in episode 8 of Lorenzo's Time can be seen playing Plants vs. Zombies.

• On a scene in episode 8 of the Philippine television series Lorenzo's Time, one of the gamers in the computer shop can be seen playing Plants vs. Zombies on a computer.

Sr Pelo's Spooky Month

• In the episode "Tender Treats", a Peashooter and two Sunflowers can be seen near a house in the background, along with the lawn of the said house reminiscing to the series. Additionally, a Digger Zombie can be seen behind the green kid.

Supernatural

• In the episode "Mannequin 3: The Reckoning", Dean walks into Ben's room while he's playing on his phone. Dean leans over his shoulder and says "Well that's ridiculous, plants could never kill a zombie," while gameplay of Plants vs. Zombies can be heard.

Video games

Age of Zombies

• In older versions of the game, one of the messages that appears on the bottom of the results screen after a Story Mode chapter or Survival Mode game reads: "Despite another game's misinformation, plants cannot protect you from zombies."

Arknights

• In level DH-EX-4, the map has a similar appearance to that of Pool from Plants vs. Zombies.
  • The design of enemy waves (with big waves every once in a while, referencing 'flags') and the availability of Custom Floating Platforms (referencing Lily Pads) are also likely to be references to Plants vs. Zombies.

Battlefield 4

• On the map Dawnbreaker, a small Peashooter can be found behind a stack of wooden pallets near the E-flag.

Battlefield Mobile

Credit to u/iceleel. Link

• A poster for Plants vs. Zombies 2 can be found on one of the maps.
  • Haemophilus_EA confirmed on Reddit that Industrial Toys, the developer of Battlefield Mobile approached PopCap Games with regards to putting a PvZ reference into the game.

Bloons Tower Defense 4

• The mobile version has a track titled "Monkeys vs. Bloons", which resembles the Pool.
  • Ironically, unlike Pool, which consists of mostly medium levels, this track is extremely hard.

Carrot Fantasy 3

• The description of a detective variant of the main character Abo says “According to the peas spread all across the crime scene, the criminal had probably gone to the wrong game”, referencing the Peashooter.

Cookie Collector 2

• One of the structures in the game is a parrot, which has a very reminiscent look to the Zombie Parrot from Plants vs. Zombies 2. (Unsourced)

Cookie Run

• When starting a game as Zombie Cookie, It will claim that it's worried about encountering plants along the way, or that plants are bad.
  • A similar line of text also appears in Cookie Run: Ovenbreak.
  • Moreso, it is stated that Zombie Cookie has negative relationships with Herb Cookie and Beet Cookie, both of whom are plant-related in some way (Herb Cookie is a florist and Beet Cookie was made from a literal beetroot).

Cuphead

• In Baroness Von Bon Bon’s battle, she will sometimes summon a cupcake subject named Muffsky Chernikov. Upon beating him, his cherry will fuse and detonate, similar to the Cherry Bomb.

Dead Rising 2

• One of the events in the Terror is Reality multiplayer mode was called "Zomboni", which involved driving a vehicle similar to the ice resurfacer Zomboni drives. In a 2011 update, the event's name was changed to "Zombie Tank".
• The lawn mower looks similar to the one in the original Plants vs. Zombies and likewise can be pushed around to mow over zombies.

DLC Quest

• After buying the "Harmless Plants" DLC and feeding it to the zombie sheep, the Shepherd will say "Who would have thought that plants could defeat zombies!" before being killed. (Unsourced)

Dying Light

Dying Light Plants vs Zombies Easter Egg

• On the mission "Broadchast", after reaching the top of the tower, the player must slide down the zipline. When the player lands, they should take the next zipline. Then, they must proceed to the right to find a small flower. Once they use it, they will be transported to a secret area clearly based on the lawn from Plants vs. Zombies.

Dragon Age: Inquisition

• South of Crestwood, on Linden Farm, a row of giant flowers can be found against a wall, each in their own column. In several of the columns, corpses can be found on the ground, referring to Plants vs. Zombies.
• A codex entry titled "Plants vs. Corpses", which is an obvious reference to the game as well as contain many references to the series:
  • The battle is called Battle of Pauper's Cap, which is a nod to PopCap Games, the developer of Plants vs. Zombies.
  • The person recounting the story, Daveth the Mad, who is an obvious nod to Crazy Dave, even sharing the similarities of wanting bacon for lunch, and refused to take a pot off of his head.
  • "The resulting garden warfare saw corpses armored with buckets and doors as makeshift helmets and shields battling possessed fruits and vegetables who spat seeds, constructed makeshift fortifications, and even chomped entire corpses whole," referring to Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare and "While the demon saw the perfect host in this bejeweled bookworm, Helianthus was not without defenses of her own." also referring to PopCap's other games, being Bejeweled and Bookworm.
    • In addition, the estate mentioned in the codex entry is called Walnut Hills, which is a nod to Wall-nut Hills.

Enter The Gungeon

• In Enter the Gungeon there is a weapon called the Pea Shooter, to further support this reference, it is unlocked during the tutorial and has synergy with certain items called the Pea Cannon. There is also a weapon called the Cactus which performs very similarly to Bandit Cactus.

Hearthstone

• In Hearthstone's expansion Journey to Un'Goro, Razorpetal Lasher's flavor text says, "The reason why there are no zombies in Un'goro."

Kingdom of Loathing

• In the "Zombie Slayer" path where the player is a zombie master, the second of the "Zombie Hunters" that will attack the player is Peacannon, which resembles a Repeater.

Kingdom Rush

• In the level Ha'Kraj Plateau, there are 5 hidden Ice-shrooms scattered all over the level in which you can collect. Collecting all 5 Ice-shrooms will give you the achievement Plants vs Trolls, a nod to Plants vs. Zombies.

League of Legends

• There is a hidden passive where if Zyra and Sion/Karthus kill one another, they earn two extra gold. Sion and Karthus both have zombie-like passives, such as Sion resurrecting himself or Karthus using his abilities before actually dying, and Zyra being a plant. This is a nod to how plants and zombies are enemies to each other in Plants vs. Zombies.

Left 4 Dead 2

• In the DLC Campaign "The Passing", there is an easter egg that can be found in the Underground level. It contains graffiti that says "Looking for an M60? Come see me. - Crazy Dave".

Mass Effect: Andromeda

Plants vs. Zombies Toy Plush Easter Egg in Mass Effect Andromeda!

• There are plush toys of Peashooter and Scientist in the Crew Quarters of the Tempest.
• There is also a miniature of Z7 Imp in the Pathfinder’s Quarters.

Nitrome

• The description for the Graveyard Shift avatar on the Nitrome.com website is "the zombies are coming", it's a reference to the fact that "the zombies are coming" is stated at the beggining of every levels in the original Plants vs. Zombies game.
• Two Browncoat Zombies, Peashooter, Sunflower and Wall-nut appears in Skywire VIP Extended, they have to be identified as "PLANTS VS ZOMBIES" by the player.

Octogeddon

• George Fan, the creator of Plants vs. Zombies franchise, has also created Octogeddon. Many Plants vs. Zombies series easter eggs and references appear in said game.
• The Shell Shop is based on Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies.
• A Roadcone can be seen in the background of the Shell Shop. 
• Catfish Carl is based on Crazy Dave. Both have the same personality and language, and own a shop.
• The message A HUGE WAVE OF ENEMIES IS APPROACHING! is based on the message A HUGE WAVE OF ZOMBIES IS APPORACHING!
• Giganto-Mime, one of the game's bosses, contains various elements of both Imitater and Gargantuar Mime.
• The snake DNA, it's upgrade and the way it's shoot green venom is based on Peashooter and his projectile.
• A dolphin makes a cameo appearance in a cutscene of Octogeddon. In the cutscene, the dolphin somehow won the award for best octopus, this being the reason Octogeddon retaliated against Paris where the awards were held.

PewDiePie's Tuber Simulator

• One of the many default names for a video the player can get is named "Plants vs. Vampires", a nod to Plants vs. Zombies.

Plague Inc.

• One of the news articles on the World News reads: "'Crazy Dave' convicted of garden center robbery."

ROBLOX

Snapdragon in the event.

• In an official Halloween event made by ROBLOX titled as "Bloktoberfest", a Snapdragon could be found on the dropper ride.
  • This is because the creator involved in the event was a fan of the Plants vs. Zombies series himself.
    • As of supposedly March 11, 2016, the Easter egg has been either unknowingly moved or removed after a map update. This may be because of copyright.

Scribblenauts

• Mounting a Lawn Mower and riding over a Zombie instantly kills it, a reference to how Lawn Mowers instantly kill zombies.

The Battle Cats

• Gardener Cat's ability to freeze zombie-traited enemies may be a reference to how plants defeat the zombies in the games, though this design choice may just be a coincidence.

Team Fortress 2

• The two cosmetic items "Brain Bucket" and "Dead Cone" are references to the Buckethead Zombie and Conehead Zombie respectively. The items were provided to players in the Genuine Quality when they pre-ordered Plants vs. Zombies on Steam before May 5, 2011.

The Sims 3

• Preordering the special edition of The Sims 3: Supernatural would give extra content in the form of Plants vs. Zombies objects, such as Peashooter (special object that can attack zombies and be played with), Wall-nut (aesthetic outdoor object), and Plantern (outdoor light). Buying either version would allow players to redeem in-game Plants vs. Zombies themed t-shirts and a Simlish PvZ wallpaper art from The Sims 3 Store.
• The Sims 3 Store also has Sunflower as a premium object. It uniquely produces Sun, which the best quality fertilizer in the game, and is only produced by it. It also can serve as a radio, and makes music from the Plants vs. Zombies soundtrack.

The Sims 4

• A book called "Gardening Vol 1: Water, Light and Dirt" is written by Wacky Daniel, a reference to Crazy Dave. Also, the description of the book says "Learn to plant stuff! Why? BECAUSE IM WAAAAAAACKYY!" which is another reference to Crazy Dave.

World of Warcraft

• In the Hillsbrad Foothills zone, there is a small house similar to the one in the original game. In this area, the player will meet a goblin named Brazie the Botanist. He will provide a quest line that has the player play a mini-game with very similar gameplay to Plants vs. Zombies. Completing the questline will provide them with a battle pet named "Singing Sunflower". The pet is identical to the Sunflower from Plants vs. Zombies, and one of its lines is Sunflower's famous "There's a zombie on your lawn" line.

Webcomics

xkcd

• In the comic 2230: Versus Bracket, a tournament bracket is shown which references various works. On the bottom-right side of the comic, a bracket that reads "Plants" and "Zombies" can be seen, referencing the game.

22 and 33's Daily Life

• In episode 14 Sunflower, a sunflower is said to be able to "produce sun" to "fight zombies", with a picture of a plant shooting danmakus outside the panels.