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TOWER-DEFENSE
Minecraft VS Zombies 2 Review: A Fan Game Mashup That's Either Genius or a Cry for Help
Someone combined Plants vs Zombies, Minecraft, AND Touhou Project into one tower defense game. I've been reviewing games for 15 years and I don't know whether to be impressed or concerned. Spoiler: I played it anyway, and now I have opinions.
Paul
January 4, 2026
5.4
Overall Score
"Minecraft VS Zombies 2 is what happens when passion collides with ambition and aesthetic coherence gets caught in the crossfire."
First Impressions (Or: When Three Franchises Collide in Your Browser)
Look, I've seen a lot of fan games in my time. I've witnessed Sonic meet Mario, seen Fire Emblem characters shoved into dating sims, endured countless Undertale crossovers. But Minecraft VS Zombies 2? This is the kind of project that makes you wonder if the developer lost a bet or achieved enlightenment. We've got Steve â yes, THAT Steve â as a 'mechanic' traveling to Gensokyo (the Touhou universe, for the uninitiated) with someone called 'Crazy Villager' to solve a 'Minecraft incident.' This premise reads like three random Wikipedia articles got fed into a blender. The fact that this is explicitly marked as 'version 2' after the developer abandoned the Gamemaker Studio version at chapter 4 to rebuild everything in Unity tells you exactly how committed (or possibly unhinged) Cuerzor is to this vision. I loaded it up expecting a mess. What I got was... complicated.
Gameplay: Plants vs Zombies, But Make It Confusing
The core is pure PvZ tower defense. You place units â sorry, 'contraptions' â in lanes to stop waves of enemies from reaching your base. The problem? Instead of intuitive sunflowers and peashooters, you're working with Minecraft-themed units that don't have the immediate visual clarity of the original. I spent the first three levels squinting at blocky sprites trying to figure out what each contraption actually does. The game promises 112 of these things eventually, which sounds impressive until you realize the original PvZ had 49 plants and that was PLENTY. The 'Crazy Villager' companion system adds... something? I honestly couldn't tell you what he contributes beyond existing. The Touhou elements seem mostly cosmetic so far â anime characters show up as enemies, but they die to your towers the same way everything else does. It's playable, I'll give it that. But 'playable' is what I expect from a finished game, not a selling point.
Visuals: A Crime Against Aesthetic Coherence
Let me be clear: I don't hate Minecraft's art style. I don't hate Touhou's anime aesthetic. I don't even hate PvZ's bright, cartoony charm. But combining all three is like serving pizza topped with sushi and tacos â each ingredient is fine individually, but together they create existential confusion. The blocky Minecraft contraptions sit awkwardly against whatever background we're defending, while anime-style Touhou characters waddle forward in waves. Nothing feels like it belongs in the same universe because IT DOESN'T. This is the visual equivalent of wearing a tuxedo jacket with cargo shorts and Crocs. The UI is functional but generic Unity asset-store fare. The animations are serviceable but forgettable. Look, I've played beautiful fan games that respect their source material. This ain't it. It works, technically, but my eyes kept asking my brain why we were subjecting them to this.
The Development Situation: A Red Flag Convention
Here's where I get genuinely concerned. Cuerzor ALREADY developed this game up to chapter 4 in Gamemaker Studio 2, then scrapped everything to start over in Unity. That's not iterating. That's not pivoting. That's starting a novel, reaching the midpoint, then deciding to rewrite it as a screenplay. The current version promises 64 enemies, 112 contraptions, and 132 levels â ambitious numbers for a solo developer who already abandoned one complete version. I've been doing this long enough to recognize scope creep when I see it. The game is 'currently in development' with updates tracked via changelog, which is professional, sure. But I've watched too many ambitious fan projects collapse under their own weight. The fact that this is free doesn't make it immune to development hell. I'm not saying it WON'T get finished. I'm saying I've heard these promises before, usually right before a project gets quietly abandoned.
What Actually Works (Against My Better Judgment)
Fine. FINE. I'll admit some things work here. The core PvZ tower defense loop is still fundamentally satisfying because PopCap created something nearly impossible to completely ruin. Placing units, managing resources, watching enemies get systematically destroyed â that dopamine hit survives even this bizarre crossover. The ambition, while possibly misguided, is genuinely impressive for a solo developer. 112 contraptions is absurd, but it shows Cuerzor isn't phoning this in. The game is FREE, which immediately forgives a multitude of sins. And honestly? For fans who genuinely love all three of these franchises, this weird mashup might scratch an itch they didn't know they had. I'm not that fan, but I acknowledge they probably exist somewhere. The Unity rebuild at least means the technical foundation is more stable than whatever Gamemaker version came before. Small victories, people.
The Verdict: Who Is This Even For?
Minecraft VS Zombies 2 is the kind of project that exists because one person had a vision and refused to let things like 'coherence' or 'mainstream appeal' stop them. Is it good? Not really. Is it interesting? Absolutely. Does it respect my time? Questionable, given the development situation. I can't recommend this to normal people. I can barely recommend it to PvZ fans, because the original exists and is better. But if you're deeply invested in all three franchises AND you have patience for works-in-progress AND you appreciate the sheer audacity of someone actually attempting this mashup... maybe give it a shot? It's free. You'll lose nothing but time. Just don't expect the polish of actual PvZ, the charm of actual Minecraft, or the bullet-hell precision of actual Touhou. What you'll get is a functional tower defense game wearing three different costumes at once, made by someone who either doesn't understand why that's weird or understands perfectly and did it anyway. I genuinely can't decide which option is more concerning.
Rating Breakdown
Quality
5.5
Functional Unity rebuild after abandoning the Gamemaker version mid-development â because nothing says 'polished' like starting over.
Innovation
6.5
Mashing three wildly different franchises together is technically original, though I'm not sure 'innovation' is the word I'd use for this fever dream.
Value
7
Free game promising 112 contraptions and 132 levels is objectively generous, assuming I live long enough to see them all finished.
Gameplay
5
It's PvZ tower defense with Minecraft skins â familiar enough to be playable, different enough to make me miss the original's lawn.
Audio/Visual
4.5
The visual mashup of blocky Minecraft aesthetics meeting anime Touhou characters is exactly as coherent as you'd expect from that sentence.
Replayability
4
I barely want to play through it once while it's in development, let alone return for seconds.
What Didn't Annoy Me
The core PvZ tower defense mechanics still work because PopCap's formula is basically bulletproof
Completely free, which is the correct price point for an ambitious experimental fan project
Promises an absurd amount of content if it ever reaches completion (big 'if' though)
The sheer audacity of combining three wildly different franchises deserves some kind of recognition
Solo developer clearly putting in serious effort, even if the direction is questionable
What Made Me Sigh
Already abandoned one complete version to start over â massive red flag for project completion
Visual mashup of three distinct art styles creates aesthetic chaos that hurts readability
Touhou and Minecraft elements feel tacked on rather than meaningfully integrated
Scope seems impossibly large for a solo developer (112 contraptions, 132 levels, really?)
'Currently in development' status means you're playing an incomplete experience with no guarantee of updates
Final Verdict
Minecraft VS Zombies 2 is what happens when passion collides with ambition and aesthetic coherence gets caught in the crossfire. It's a functional tower defense game buried under three layers of franchise cosplay, made by a developer who already restarted once and promises enough content to keep them busy until 2030. I want to support the ambition. I really do. But I've seen too many projects like this sputter out after their creator realizes they've bitten off more than any human can chew. If you love weird experimental fan games and have zero expectations beyond 'is this playable right now,' go ahead and try it. It costs nothing. Just don't get attached to the idea of ever seeing those promised 132 levels. I'll be genuinely shocked if this reaches completion, but hey â I've been wrong before. Usually about indie game development timelines, actually. Maybe Cuerzor will prove me wrong. I'm not holding my breath, but I'm also not rooting against them.
Minecraft VS Zombies 2
Tags
tower-defense
fan-game
minecraft
plants-vs-zombies
touhou-project
mashup
indie
work-in-progress
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