Gameplay Video For A Cancelled Plants vs Zombies Title Surface Online

Since its release in 2009, Plants vs Zombies has seen its fair share of highs and lows in the gaming industry. The various developers of the IP have enjoyed success thanks to the incredible growth of the game, but it appears that the franchise could’ve been much more according to recently revealed footage.

Of course, it wouldn’t be so easy to win the game. That had been guaranteed by PopCap. As you advanced through each level, various zombies of varied toughness would insert themselves, with your lightweight Peashooters doing nothing to stop them.

MAJOR TAKEAWAYS

• New footage has emerged for a cancelled Plants vs Zombies game.
• The title was named Project Hot Tub.

The game came out to be a favorite for critics, even taking home the title of “Best Game” at the Game Developers Choice Awards. PopCap was at the height of its capacity, and a sequel felt inescapable. The sequel had to happen, but not before an awful string of tragic incidents occurred.

PopCap sacked staff while continuing to maintain and release its top-grossing game on other platforms. The game is followed by a sequel, Plants vs Zombies 2 which was released worldwide on August 15, 2013. 

What looked like a rocket ignition thing turned out to be an absolute failure as the game wasn’t meeting the standards of genres at that time. Subsequently, PopCp sold all the copyrights and trademarks of Plants vs Zombies to Electronic Arts for a sizable sum. 

Project Hot Tub

Back in 2016, a group of developers started working on redeeming the original franchise; Plants vs Zombies with a new name; Project Hot Tub. The name takes its history from the 2010 film, Hot Tub Time Machine. Developers aimed at making an appealing combination of combat shooting and EA-typical family-friendly gaming.

A zombie-corrupted experiment sent two adolescent siblings back in time in Project Hot Tub, where they teamed up with well-known plants from the Plants vs. Zombies franchise to battle zombie adversaries throughout various historical periods.

Project Hot Tub looks like a promising deal with no loopholes. It shows that its conception, growth, and development continued up until its discontinuation. It hadn’t encountered any significant financial difficulties, missed deadlines, scope issues, or other clear obstacles that might have suggested it was not working out. 

The cancellation of Project Hot Tub illustrates how despite the eventual disintegration of the developers in the game, how many projects are dissolved before they see the light of day.

However the curiosity remains and the players’ urge to go through the graphics of seemingly one of the most anticipated shooter games has come through as we have on the plate the early footage, thanks to our Redditor; OnkelJupp.

It has been confirmed that early screenshots from Project Hot Tub that circulated online last year are, in fact, the same tropical locale that we saw in the vertical slice, although at a far earlier level of development.

Strangely, the Twitter account that posted the photographs first was deleted. However, the source can still be seen on the internet. The following is what we’ve been able to gather with regard to the cancelled Plants vs Zombies game. 

Characters’ Chemistry

Eddie wasn’t the only playable character in Project Hot Tub, despite being the game’s main protagonist. His familial relationship with Tessa was important to the plot of Project Hot Tub, which would grow stronger as the two characters matured and ventured outside of their comfort zones.

Tessa could also be controlled, but for a shorter period than Eddie. She appeared in a few smaller Project Hot Tub segments as Thyme’s partner, though by the time development of the game came to an end, her part wasn’t quite as developed as Eddie’s.

While Tessa would take the lead in a section of the game set in the dark ages as well as a few other sections, Eddie and his crew (which was also planned to include a Bonk Choy plant) would battle the zombies of Neighborville and time travel to the wild west, the aforementioned pirate island, and the distant future.

The creation of Project Hot Tub coincided with a pivotal turning point for the Plants vs. Zombies franchise. The series was changed with the inclusion of third-person shooter action in Garden Warfare in 2014 after its initial success as a tower defense game in 2009 and following the 2013 sequel.

The change in the genre was warmly appreciated, but it didn’t alter the general popular opinion that Plants vs. Zombies was primarily a children’s show. It was entertaining and pretty well-liked, yes, but it wasn’t exactly breaking new ground in terms of emotional depth and fit with the rest of EA’s catalog.