Jackson pulled from Plants vs. Zombies

By Tom Bramwell Published 28 July, 2010

"Dancing Zombie" retired after complaint.

PopCap has decided to bin the Michael Jackson-inspired enemy in Plants vs. Zombies after the late singer's estate got in touch about it.

"The Estate of Michael Jackson objected to our use of the 'dancing zombie' in Plants vs. Zombies based on its view that the zombie too closely resembled Michael Jackson," PopCap told MTV.

"After receiving this objection, PopCap made a business decision to retire the original 'dancing zombie' and replace it with a different 'dancing zombie' character for future builds of Plants vs. Zombies on all platforms. The phase-out and replacement process is underway."

Plants vs. Zombies is a lovely little tower defence and real-time strategy hybrid that sees players rebuffing the advances of the undead - including the aforementioned dancing zombie Jacko - using a range of friendly killer plant life.

We loved it to death on the PC, for which it was released just under two months prior to Jackson's demise, and of course on the iPhone. An Xbox Live Arcade version is in production.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • ZuluHero #1 2 years ago

    Will Space Channel 5 be next?

    TBH, we all know that MJ was a gamer, and an ardent one at that. If it were me, i can think of no better way to be immortalised than in game form. Even if the game characters are only loosely based on me or my past deeds...

    Edit: Spelling fail! :)
    Edited by 2 at 28/07/10 @ 08:22

  • menage #2 2 years ago

    Company's should have a little more balls. He got world famous playing that damn zombie in the first place.
    Edited by 1 at 28/07/10 @ 08:18

  • Optimaximal #3 2 years ago

    FAO Steam users - Popcap aren't necessarily going to be patching the game to fix bugs anytime soon, so turn off automatic updates for the game.

    Presto - Jackson homage preserved, just out of reach of the lawyers.

  • swede #4 2 years ago

    Absolutely mad! The game was made before he died.

    It's nothing sinister, just an homage to the Thriller video. I'm sure MJ (would have) loved the fact that he was 'in' the game.

  • TelexStar #5 2 years ago

    I'm sure the Jackson estate would be willing to leave it in for a small donation. Fuppets.
    Edited by 1 at 28/07/10 @ 08:36

  • cw- #6 2 years ago

    He got world famous playing that damn zombie in the first place.

    Nothing to do with being a child star in the Jackson 5? :p

  • menage #7 2 years ago

    @cw-

    Damn, I knew I had to be more specific but was to lazy to to type : made help him become even more famous then he already was. Now I'm tired.

    It's still his best know work though. So still don't see why a company would even go there. just lame.

  • geeza2020 #8 2 years ago

    the worlds gone mad i tells ya, MAAAAAAAD!!!!!!!

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #9 2 years ago

    Awwww what a shame! I hope they don't also patch it out of existing versions of the game.

    However, a "different character" could be just the excuse I need to buy this game again on XBLA ;-)

  • smelly #10 2 years ago

    >Nothing to do with being a child star


    ... You know, even now, a year after his death - it's too tempting to make a joke when i read something like that...

  • Golgo #11 2 years ago

    That's a shame. It's the most entertaining think Jackson was involved in for years.

  • nuanimal #12 2 years ago

    What!?

    The red & black dancing zombie is an obvious homage to Michael Jackson, but it was not and is not a major selling point of the game. Therefore, it's ridiculous to have MJs estate cry foul.

    If it was "The MJ Zombie Game" then I could undestand. But this is stupid.

  • Riggers #13 2 years ago

    Booooooo!

    They'll be taking out the male Night Elf dance in WoW next. Q_Q
    Edited by 1 at 28/07/10 @ 11:43

  • azazel_fallenangel #14 2 years ago

    Like other's have said, it was made before he died, the Zombie reference is to the thriller video, not his passing away(which could of been tastless).
    It's a homage, not ridicule, there's a difference.

  • reelbigkris #15 2 years ago

    Hello, I am vegertarian and would like to patch any video games that have the character eating meat, instead, they will be able to devour carrots and cucumbers. The following games need ammending;

    Streets of rage 1 - 3 (I do not eat street chicken)
    Grand theft auto (burger shot deeply offends me and stands for everything i stand against)
    Kirby (He is a traitor and a member of the rebel alliance... And he devours people whole!)

    I will not be patching my PC version of PVZ

  • photoboy #16 2 years ago

    Popcrap need to grow a spine, it's a parody of Jackson and in the US at least parodies are protected as freedom of speech.

    Still, I think the more newsworthy story here should be that Popcrap have broken the iPhone version of Plants vs Zombies with their latest patch and have so far yet to fix it. It won't even load at present.

  • gorf #17 2 years ago

    Tower defense game. Does this mean when jacko zombie reaches the tower top he chucks the baby overboard for that special paparazzi bonus

  • geeza2020 #18 2 years ago

    photboy: popcrap? really? are you 12 or something?

  • Wedge1985 #19 2 years ago

    does this mean that all copies of the thriller video are being pulled too? If this image is too bad taste for a cartoon game then surely MJ himself playing a zombie must be more bad taste? I demand it's removal from the airwaves... oh wait, that's a ridiculous idea.