At some point, all new purchasers of Plants vs. Zombies won't remember the Dancing Zombie like we do. They'll know it as a disco-themed character, plucked straight out of a period satire. Equipped with gaudy, pink-tinted goggles the size of beer bottle bottoms, bulbous jewelry, fish-tank platform shoes, and a suit that my father would have died for, this replacement zombie does, at least, make for quite the first impression.

PC Gamer recently got hold of the first big shot of the monster (below), and even coaxed a comment from the zombie, who as described by game creator PopCap Games, is starting to think of itself as a "second class citizen."

“Dear Alive Peeples, I am pleazed too join the big brainz at PopCap and can’t wait to meat you all. And yes, I du my own heir," the disco zombie said in a statement. 

At some point, all new purchasers of Plants vs. Zombies won't remember the Dancing Zombie like we do. They'll know it as a disco-themed character, plucked straight out of a period satire. Equipped with gaudy, pink-tinted goggles the size of beer bottle bottoms, bulbous jewelry, fish-tank platform shoes, and a suit that my father would have died for, this replacement zombie does, at least, make for quite the first impression.

PC Gamer recently got hold of the first big shot of the monster (below), and even coaxed a comment from the zombie, who as described by game creator PopCap Games, is starting to think of itself as a "second class citizen."

“Dear Alive Peeples, I am pleazed too join the big brainz at PopCap and can’t wait to meat you all. And yes, I du my own heir," the disco zombie said in a statement. 

I don't think it's very fair that they had to remove it..

I liked the M.J. zombie better :(

It really doesn't affect anything. It's definitely a suitable replacement.

Fair enough. Why is there a fish in his shoe?  Is his shoe made of ice?

=The fish should of been a zombie too.

@fwylo:  Rent I'm Gonna Git You Sucka.

That's not bad.  Not bad at all.  
 
But it's no zombie MJ.  Still keeping my automatic updates for PvZ on Steam turned off.
 
EDIT - Just now noticed the tagline for the article says "Not bad.  Not bad at all."  I'm not sure if it's just a freak coincidence that I wrote the same thing, or Brad saw my statement and concurred enough to make it the tagline, or what.  :P

" @fwylo:  Rent I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. "

I hope they don't touch the PC version.

" Fair enough. Why is there a fish in his shoe?  Is his shoe made of ice? "

Nothing lost, still serves it's purpose the same.

" Fair enough. Why is there a fish in his shoe?  Is his shoe made of ice? "

Really dig the shoes.

Wonder what's going to replace it when Matt Groening sues them.

groovy!

Honestly, you'd think that with all the shit he got up to, appearing as a fun zombie in a beloved game wouldn't exactly be on the top of the list for his estate as far as embarassing MJ debacles went.

Not gonna lie, this zombie looks way better.  Any time I see Michael Jackson's image past Jackson 5 I get creeped out and I really could care less about the man himself.  Since none of the other zombies were specific, this non-descript disco-zombie fits right in.
 
Automatic update BACK ON.

They only really have a likeness case because Michael looked like a zombie.

News article about a sprite...

At least the replacement zombie looks awesome... still, the MJ estate is lame.

I can understand why they would want the Michael Jackson zombie removed from the game now that he's dead. Although it obviously wasn't intentional, the zombie now seems like a bad, tasteless joke. Disco Stu zombie is perfectly fine for me.

You can't top Michael.

Except with six feet of soil.
 
 
Oh... I don't feel good about that at all... :(

For some reason this reminds me of the Simpsons. Is there a character with fish in his shoes in that too? but they were dead fish?  
  
If you remove Jackson from a game in which he is a zombie cause he is dead then you sir are not paying attention to the current media climate. The people love dead Jacko. he is more of a hit now than he was when he was alive. and he was more of a hit when he was alive when he was in the zombie video. so we all lose if you cut him out of the game and replace him with Simpsons guy.  
meh.

In the game he does a kind of reverse moonwalk. It looks like he is trying to walk backwards, but is actually moving forward.

It's a nice replacement, but I still think this all thing is just plain stupid and idiotic... what are they gonna do next? Try to remove every single popular cultural reference ever made to Michael Jackson?!?

Disco Stu likes disco brains.

Meanwhile, South Park's version of Michael Jackson goes untouched.

The poor fishy is dead.

This sucks, but the new one is cool. Also I can totally understand why they wanted him taken from the game. People killing the zombie corpse of your dead friend or relative is kind of shitty. Even if its with plants.

Zombie Disco Stu likes Zombie Disco Music!...and brains!

Looks good to me. I'm just glad they didn't try to fight it and lose a bunch of money over it.

I would prefer a PvZ expansion pack with 5 or 6 new types of concert/dance stereotype zombies and plants.
 
PvZ is a great game, but they're taking FOREVER to release new content. Instead they're focusing on ports and prevention of lawsuits.
 
They'll probably release a PvZ redux on PC that I'll have to pay full Steam price for again to get the regular game in 1080p like the 360 version. Without actual new content. 
 
And so they're finally giving the suckers who bought it off their website for twice the price of Steam something. A GOTY edition that's totally not worth the cost without new units. A zombie avatar editor? No Thanks. Not worth $20 for me.

My favorite part is definitly the goldfish. Sometimes I wish I grew up in the '70's, but then I think about how was blessed to grow up in the era of video games. So fuck that

I agree the it totally suck they had to take him out....on the plus side Disco Dan the zombie looks hilarious!

Plants versus Zombies continues to baffle me. It's a fine enough game in a sort of "waste time on a flash based distraction" sort of way. But there are so many people that play it regularly. What's so compelling about it beyond any other game out there? I played it for a few (two or three) hours. It was fun. It was just about the right amount of time to spend on such a game. And that was that. Yet, I know people who play that for hours every week. Even a year later. 

" I can understand why they would want the Michael Jackson zombie removed from the game now that he's dead. Although it obviously wasn't intentional, the zombie now seems like a bad, tasteless joke. Disco Stu zombie is perfectly fine for me. "

I would of preferred another recognizable singer but I guess kinda looking like Disco Stu is ok. Would it of killed them to make an MC Hammer zombie ? 

"Fair enough. Why is there a fish in his shoe?  Is his shoe made of ice? "