Bejeweled Blitz is the Facebook version of PopCap’s popular jewel-twisting puzzle game, which gives players a minute to rack up the highest score humanly possible in order to brag to their friends. Now PopCap brings that functionality to the iPhone version of the game, allowing players to try and beat their Facebook friends anywhere in the bathroom world.

“Ultimately, social gaming is about being able to play games with and against your friends, and the new Blitz update for Bejeweled 2 on iPhone lets you play against your friends anywhere,” explained John Vechey, co-founder and director of PopCap’s social gaming initiative. “This is a natural next stage in our multi-platform and social strategies. Blending the Facebook and iPhone Bejeweled communities should prove very compelling for players.”

For those of you who’ve never played Bejeweled, it’s basically Puzzle Quest without the RPG elements. Captain Backwards Description strikes again!

Mark November 18 on your calendar, and then set the rest of the week busy. That’s the date that Square Enix and Popcap bring the blend of puzzle game and RPG pioneered by Puzzle Quest to the next level, adding collectible monsters to the mix. Gyromancer has you summoning monsters to fight other monsters in Bejeweled Twist-flavoured puzzle battles. As if that weren’t bad enough, your monsters also gain levels as you fight with them, much like they do in Pokémon, and they come on pretty little cards that you’ll want to collect until you pass out dead on your couch or in your computer chair.

Maybe it’s just me, shaking with anticipation here. If I disappear after November 18, call the police. Better yet, call Dominos and have them deliver some pizza.

Popcap Games is an official sponsor of this year’s Village Halloween Parade, and they’re not content to be represented by a lousy street sign. No, they’re forming a Plants vs. Zombies troupe to march in the parade, inviting fans of the game, zombie groupies, and “macabre gardening types” to come celebrate with them on October 31st. The company is attempting to make this year’s event the largest zombie gathering in parade history, going as far as to extending special invitations to zombie enthusiast organisations such as NYC Zombie Crawl and ZombieCon.

If I were in New York City, I would totally go as a plant.

“Plants vs. Zombies seems to inspire people to new heights of zaniness, and we have the photos to prove it,” laughed Garth Chouteau, vice president of public relations at PopCap. “We wanted to give those rabid PvZ fans a fun time and place to gather and celebrate their passion for the game. What better way than marching up 6th Avenue in New York’s historic Halloween parade!”

The parade kicks off at 7pm on Halloween night. If you’re in the area, you probably won’t want to miss it. And hey, bring the kids! It’s an excellent alternative to keeping them locked in the closet all night for their own safety.

It’s a tower defence game, in essence. Zombies stagger across the garden towards your house. Plants act as turrets while collecting energy from the sun allows you to build more plant-turrets.

Like most tower defence games, it’s ridiculously simple yet caters for just enough strategy to be worthwhile and highly addictive.

Plants Vs Zombies [Popcap]

Puzzle Quest showed us that the puzzle game and the RPG could be successfully married into an entertaining and highly-addictive product. Now it’s the big guys’ turn. Combining the unique puzzle gameplay from PopCap’s Bejeweled Twist and Square Enix’s mastery of things involving experience points gives us Gyromancer, a game about a guy who really loves Greek Food.

No! It isn’t about Greek food at all. Gyromancer sees players assuming the role of the deadly mage Rivel on a quest to rid Aldemona Wood of “a brooding darkness”. Through 10 stages he will capture and collect powerful monsters to aid him in Bejeweled Twist battles against the forces of evil; search for hidden treasures; and strive for the highest score in the online ranking system.

“We’ve always enjoyed a strong partnership with PopCap Games and Gyromancer represents our goal of developing unique gaming experiences, ” said John Yamamoto, president and chief executive officer of Square Enix, Inc. “We believe that Gyromancer will appeal not only to core gamers, but will further introduce the RPG genre to casual gamers as well.”

While I can’t see the casual audience easily making the leap to the 40-hour RPG, I welcome any game that tries.

Check out the TGS trailer for Gyromancer below.

Popcap will be offering Bookworm (September) and Bejeweled Twist (October), while EA will be bringing four games: Scrabble, MySims Camera, Littlest Pet Shop, Sudoku. MySims and Sudoku came out yesterday, while the others will be released later in the Fall.

It’ll hit the 360 in the form of downloadable content, and includes everything you’d find in the PC/Mac version of Peggle Nights. Which means 60 new MP levels, 60 new campaign levels and 60 new challenges, along with more achievements.

It’ll be out sometime this Fall. It’s Peggle. More Peggle. You know what to do.

Peggle XBLA Getting ‘Nights’ Expansion [Shacknews]

The game will, as you read this, already be sitting on store shelves across America, for the reasonable price of $US20. And if you like things a little more portable? PopCap also confirmed that an iPhone version of the game is on its way and should be on the App Store in “late 2009″.

Finally, as a bonus: Here’s a couple of Plants vs Zombies shirts, newly-available from PopCap’s store. Moustache mode? Yes, please.

Yes, that’s right, we’re now publishing reader reviews here on Kotaku. This is your chance to deliver sensible game purchasing advice to the rest of the Kotaku community.

This review was submitted by Tony Ngo. If you’ve played Plants Vs Zombies, or just want to ask Tony more about it, leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Plants Vs Zombies (PC)

Popcap’s follow up to the ever popular and highly addictive Peggle franchise – Does it stand up to the test?

Loved
Simplicity Vs Complexity – The game itself is straightforward and obvious, protect your home from zombie invaders. Don’t expect a breeze through the main story however, as the constant and well paced introduction of new zombies, plant types and terrains offer new strategies and challenges

Flawless Design – A perfect example of artistic value against raw graphics power, the game oozes style – from the catchy theme song to the quirky and charismatic fellows you encounter, Popcap really know how to design a game that’s easy on the eyes

Just… Another… Level – Like it’s brother Peggle, you could waste hours on this game and not even realise it, perfect pacing and addictive game play couple up to make one of the most engrossing games on the current market

Something Different For Once – Who knew a game pitting plants against zombies would be a wonderful idea? Straying away from the typical design of current Tower Defence games, Plants Vs Zombies manages to separate itself from the crowd and brand itself a unique game in an otherwise clustered genre

Hated
Err… What Happened To My Game? – Yes while a manual work around is available, the fact people have been encountering save data corruption and deletion is just down right annoying, considering some invest hours into it.

Keyboard Support – Okay so this is personal preference, and more like nit-picking but still, it would’ve been appreciated to have some type of hotkey support.

Ummm… Nothing else… No really – go out and BUY THIS GAME.

Reviewed by: Tony Ngo

You can have your Reader Review published on Kotaku. Send your review to us at the usual address. Make sure it’s written in the same format as above and in under 300 words – yes, we’ve upped the word limit. We’ll publish the best ones we get.

PopCap’s Garth Chouteau has confirmed with WorthPlaying that the game is coming to Microsoft’s online platform, but couldn’t provide any further details on things like price, release date, that kind of thing.

Which is OK. So long as it’s coming. It’s really quite good, you know.

‘Plants vs. Zombies’ Coming to Xbox Live Arcade [WorthPlaying]