Recommendations / 16 August 2023

Time To Sink Your Teeth Into Vampire Survivors (Nintendo Switch)

Guess who is back to talk about Vampire Survivors again! Yes, it is me!

Vampire Survivors originally released back in October 2022 on PC, and it very quickly became a huge success. We are now in August 2023, and it is time for Nintendo Switch players to feel Vampire Survivors addictive powers.

Vampire Survivors is a relatively simple rogue-lite, where the only thing that the player can really do is move around a field that is filled to the brim with hundreds of enemies. Your character will periodically attack the enemy creatures to begin with, and you have no control over which enemy is attacked or when it is attacked. However, as you progress and level up, you can choose new weapons and level up your current attacks to become more powerful, as your enemies also increase in numbers and difficulty.

Mow down thousands of night creatures and survive until dawn! Vampire Survivors is a gothic horror casual game with rogue-lite elements, where your choices can allow you to quickly snowball against the hundreds of monsters that get thrown at you.

When you start of your run you will be fairly weak and only have access to one main weapon. For example, the starter character Antonio has a whip as their main weapon and will use a whip attack that will hit enemies that are directly in front of him ever other second. Upon levelling up, you can choose to upgrade the whip to perform a second attack so the whip will also attack enemies behind you, or you could choose to take a second weapon or a passive item. Each character you can unlock and play as has a different starter weapon.

You can carry up to six weapons and six passive items which can all be upgraded. Some items can also be combined to become an even more powerful weapon. I really enjoyed trying to figure out which weapons paired with which passive items to evolve them into a much stronger weapon.

Vampire Survivors also features a long-term upgrade system using in-game achievements. Completing goals in a run will unlock new items and characters for you to use, and any cash that you collect through a run allows you to buy permanent upgrades that help help you in future runs.

So how does the game run on Nintendo Switch? Well honestly, just the same as it does on every other platform I have played the game on. I didn’t notice any frame drops personally, even when on the final minutes of a run during co-op sessions. Playing on the go on a bigger screen and easier to use controls is great compared to playing on a mobile phone, which I do struggle a little with.

With the release on Nintendo Switch also comes the couch co-op update (also available on all platforms). I briefly touched on the couch co-op when talking about attending the Vampire Survivors Player Party, but essentially the couch co-op is the same Vampire Survivors we all love, but with a friend or three. Myself and Si have been absolutely loving the couch co-op option as we are both huge fans of the game, and it is really nice to share the experience together on one screen instead of on separate devices.

Overall, Vampire Survivors is great at giving you a dopamine rush, learning the weapon upgrades is satisfying, and while the gameplay may seem hectic, Vampire Survivors is currently one of my favourite games to relax to in the evenings. Highly recommend.

I played Vampire Survivors on Nintendo Switch with a review copy. Thank you to Future Friends for the code. The game will be released on Nintendo Switch on Thursday 17th August, and is currently available now on Xbox, PC, Steam Deck and Mobile Phones.